Sponsored link
Wednesday, October 15, 2025

Sponsored link

Why building more market-rate housing can’t possibly solve the city’s crisis

JULY 15, 2014 — Yesterday, we presented Part One of our Housing Video Series, explaining how San Francisco got into this mess. And in Part Two, we show how the “market-based solution” that the mayor and so many others appear to favor — just building and building for-profit market-rate housing — will eventually bring down costs.

Fact: We have abundant empirical data to show that’s just not true. Check out this video and understand why trickle-down housing economics won’t work in San Francisco — and to get a sense of what will.

By the way: If you want an idea of what happens to a city that is enamored of building highrise housing without much limit, check out Vancouver. Once a jewel of the West Coast, it now looks like … Hong Kong.  Or Miami Beach on steroids. And housing prices are still out of reach for many.

You want SF to look like this?
You want SF to look like this?

 

Tim Redmond
Tim Redmond
Tim Redmond has been a political and investigative reporter in San Francisco for more than 30 years. He spent much of that time as executive editor of the Bay Guardian. He is the founder of 48hills.

48 Hills welcomes comments in the form of letters to the editor, which you can submit here. We also invite you to join the conversation on our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram

Sponsored link

Sponsored link

Latest

Under the Stars: Feel the sweet lo-fi buzz of Late Aster

Plus: Stereolab blows into Cloud City, Dave Aju's still dancin', Orchestra Gold goes for it, OSEES let it rip, more music

Task Force moving to eliminate community oversight of many departments

Why make a very strong mayor even stronger? It's all part of the oligarch agenda

Starry ‘Kiss of the Spider Woman’ sinks fangs into deep subjects

Director Bill Condon and star Toniatiuh on the onscreen musical's entanglement with gender and incarceration.

Rachmaninoff rocks… pop? You bet your sweet ‘A’ Train

Firebrand pianist Conrad Tao traces the Russian composer's influence on classics from Strayhorn and Sinatra to Dylan and Celine Dion.

You might also likeRELATED