Another fire destroys more low-cost housing in the Mission (SF)

[KamaAina]

http://48hills.org/2016/06/18/another-fire-destroys-low-cost-housing-mission/

The huge, roaring fire at 29th and Mission this afternoon was yet another conflagration in a neighborhood where big fires – and tenant displacement as a result – have become a plague....

For those 40 or more people, the fire was a disaster – not only did many lose all of their possessions, they lost something almost irreplaceable: Affordable housing in San Francisco....

If the building were merely damaged, the landlord could repair it – and the existing tenants would have the right to move back. But if the place has to be demolished – and it clearly will – then there’s no right of return, and a new residential building won’t be under rent control....

He said that he’s concerned about the rash of fires in the Mission, but argued that there’s no indication of anything nefarious going on.

Next on TLC: Real Arsonists of the Mission District.

[kimbutgar]

1. I was right across the street from there on Friday.

Went to Cole Hardware many times.

There have been a lot of unexplained fires displacing people who lived in rent control buildings latel.. I am a Native San Franciscan and the city is losing its funky soul to cold techies.

[MADem]

2. Activists need to put surveillance cameras everywhere, with the

images beamed to an offsite storage facility.

You would have to be completely dense to think that when an old building burns to the ground in an area where real estate is highly valuable that it was anything BUT arson. I feel for those people who are now homeless.

I think they need to make the developer of the valuable property find a way to make the displaced tenants whole--either give them apartments in the new high rise they build, or find them housing nearby.

But really, what needs to happen is that these super-successful companies need to get AWAY from the concept of clumping together in expensive enclaves to do their work. They need to make this willingness to burn people out of their homes less attractive; de-incentivize it.

Hell, we HAVE internet connectivity--they could put a couple of their divisions in Detroit, Michigan, Manchester NH, Springfield, MA or Bangor, Maine (where access to airports is readily available) for a fraction of the costs and at lower payroll expenditure--and even provide a generous housing stipend for their employees. The employees at these places might be paid less, but they'd take HOME more and live in spacious accommodations. And they also wouldn't have to pay janitors and cafeteria help like they were bank CEOs to get them to come to work.

It irritates me how these supposedly "smart guys" think so damn dumb. They could really take this shit to the next level, offer employment to many in areas where it's needed, and expand their own footprint/brand while improving the character of some of our oldest (and not earthquake-prone) cities if they'd just think out of that famous BOX they babble on about. Instead, they pile up on each other in a small area that has been waiting for years for "The Big One." Idiots!

Feh. Bunch of lemmings.

[KamaAina]

5. Chattanooga, TN, Lafayette, LA and Longmont, CO have public broadband.

Much faster than anything available commercially. All are near major urban centers, Atlanta, New Orleans and Denver respectively.

[MADem]

6. It benefits everyone--the public, schools, and businesses.

There are communities in our nation that are wonderful and under-utilized. They've got a willing workforce and a reasonable amount of existing infrastructure--with room to grow. First class net access does help generate business--and jobs.

And nowadays, kids coming up outta school don't think twice about relocating. If you need someone with specialty training, it's possible to recruit and hire without a lot of agita.

I wish we'd get smarter as a nation on this score--having expertise in more than one time zone is a good thing.

[KamaAina]

8. Santa Clara, CA has a public electric utility like the other three.

Which is what drove the broadband. Except that Santa Clara is in the heart of $iliValley.

[MADem]

9. My cousin and her husband live in $illyCon Valley.

They have a nice little place, condo, they've been there for decades (got in before the prices went totally crazy).

For amusement, on the weekends, they go house hunting. They come home and laugh, laugh, laugh--because it's all just so damned absurd. They're not poor by any stretch (DINKs by choice) but they couldn't even begin to think about shouldering the kind of debt they'd need to buy a slightly larger modest home in that area. Too crazy, and they'd rather travel and live life than be that House Poor.

[hollysmom]

3. that is how they cleared out the poor in Hoboken and made it a yuppie paradise in the 70's

amazing how house after house next to each other caught flames and the city officials never prosecuted anyone. hey they were poor, why bother, a few fire deaths don't' really count when yo need donors. democrat or republican, money talks.

[mwrguy]

4. SF should eminent domain these properties

And put even more low cost housing up.

Fuck the slumlords.

[MADem]

7. But they won't. Because poor people don't generate tax revenues like rich people do.

100 people in 100 low cost housing units don't contribute to the tax base--they're a drain on it; and they aren't going to be paying overpriced real estate taxes on 100 "high cost" units, nor are they going to be paying sales taxes at high end shops, or meals taxes at fancy restaurants.

The rich get richer. The poor get poorer.


When the overcrowding and prices get to be TOO much, the tipping point will be reached and businesses will make other plans, but that won't happen overnight or even for a while.

It'll take some smart and savvy business 'enterpreneur' to develop a new business paradigm that a) saves them money, and b) makes them MORE money than what they're doing now. I think going to economically underserved areas is the way to go; places without ridiculous crime rates, but also without a good deal of opportunity.

Once one person does it, successfully, in a high viz way, others will follow.