Wiener/Breed: Simple-minded on housing

#SB50 is about tackling our housing crisis, plain & simple. It has nothing to do with urban renewal, & suggesting it does is deeply offensive to communities like mine that are still living with the consequences. @Scott_Wiener is an ally to the African-American community in SF. https://t.co/LMSmMNUyTS

— London Breed (@LondonBreed) April 18, 2019

 The urban renewal analogy may be inaccurate, but the gentrification now underway is even worse in that it affects everyone who can't afford to live in San Francisco.

The London Breed/Scott Wiener idea of what's needed: have the state compel local governments to build housing along transit corridors, which is simple-minded and wrong-headed. 

A comment to the Chronicle story that has Breed's tweet:

Price theory works for manufactured goods and commodities but less so for housing. Real estate involves a fixed amount of land within city boundaries. Increasing demand for this land will not increase the supply, so the price must rise with demand. As demand increases for a limited supply of land, the price will increase as long as there is anyone anywhere that can pay the price. Building higher increases the value of the land and building higher raises the cost of construction. Increasing density raises the price of housing.

The problem with housing in San Francisco: the demand side of the equation dwarfs any possible supply solution. Scott Wiener's bill will essentially get more market-rate housing built, since housing is provided by profit-oriented developers, regardless of how much "affordable" housing the law requires.

And "affordable" when talking about housing in San Francisco should always be in quotes, since it's a term that's defined by an area's median income (AMI), which in the Bay Area is approaching $200,000. And high-density housing is more expensive to build.

Not surprising that Mayor Breed gets this wrong. See also Supervisor Breed swings and misses again.