The dumb thing about this thread is that in the time it took to write any
of the multiple paragraph emails, the author could have looked to see
whether there are any organizations in SF (or berkeley) lobbying to make
building new housing housing easier.
Whether or not you can have a relationship in a single bed is irrelevant.
Everyone agrees here, rent is too damn high. Part of the cause of this is
artificially limited supply.
On Tuesday, May 21, 2013, Georgio510 wrote:
Re. Romy-
Yes, apts in HK and Tokyo are small, but not so small that you can't have
a double bed and a dinner table (Tokyo apts even have space for small
washing machines & small wall-mounted dryers). And in any case, Japan has
a decent social safety net, something we shredded starting with Reagan.
If you're interested, I can show you some floorplans I've created for
micro living spaces. The stuff I designed is geared toward the
hacker/maker lifestyle with a strong emphasis on sustainability. I'd
happily live in a tiny space of my own making, but not a developer's design
that can't be hacked or modded and is geared toward the media-consumption
lifestyle.
Agreed, the large houses Americans have had for the past century or so are
ridiculous, not to mention _lawns_. But there's a difference between a
wasteful 4,000 square foot suburban sprawl, and an apartment that's smaller
than a camping trailer.
Something else about those tiny apartments: if your best friend loses
his/her job, s/he can't sleep on your couch when there's no room for a
couch. Sleeping on the floor in the tiny aisle next to your bed gets old
after about the second time s/he gets stepped on when you get out of bed at
night to go to the bathroom.
The Oligarchy likes to have it both ways: Big houses for people who can
afford to buy more stuff. Prison-sized apartments for people who can't.
Increase the class divide: more at the top, less at the bottom.
The profit motive for those prison-sized apartments is that developers get
more per square foot. $750 for 200 square feet translates to $3.75 per
square foot. Contrast to $2,000 for 800 square feet, which translates to
$2.50 per square foot.
See how that works? Fifty percent increase in price per square foot.
Clever racket, eh?
Decrease in cars is a factor of available public transport for the hours
and places needed. Someone who works the late shift across the Bay and
comes home after BART stops running, is probably going to end up with a
car, even if they have to play parking space roulette every day. BART
running 24/7 would do more to decrease car commuting in the Bay Area, than
squeezing people into shoe-boxes.
Larger apartments mean you have more choices as to how you live and who
you live with. Smaller apartments mean fewer choices. Again, we're not
talking about multi-thousand-square-foot sprawl, but about having enough
space for someone to choose whether to live alone or with a friend, or
offer their couch to an unemployed friend, or the options available for
single parents with kids who are toddlers or older.
200 square feet also means you can't telecommute or telework, because
there's not enough space for even a small desk for a computer. Using a
tablet while sitting on the edge of the bed gets old real fast too. And
forget about modifying the space in any way: those places are like hotel
rooms, no user modifications or space hacks allowed. What's important is
_choice_. The choice to work and play at home sometimes, and in communal
space sometimes.
How these neo boarding houses are worse than work lofts: for one thing,
you can't work there. And no space for a kitchen table, so forget about
inviting friends over for dinner. No space for anything that involves
having more than one other person over for a brief visit.
I don't know what'up in SOMA, but at this point nothing would surprise
me. Back in the day, a bunch of friends of mine were able to rent a funky
space with rabbit holes for bedrooms, affordably, and with a common room
big enough to play live music. And they could build what they liked in
that space.
Less materialism: more than made up for by increased media consumption,
which is materialism "de-materialized." All that matters to the Oligarchy
is that they harvest money from the proles: they don't care whether they do
it by selling you physical stuff or digital stuff. Digital stuff is easier
& more profitable because it doesn't require pesky factory workers to
produce, and because it's a crime to share digital media.
Healthier eating: Those prison-sized apartments have enough space for a
dorm-sized fridge and a small microwave. Forget about keeping a decent
supply of fresh food on hand unless you want to go shopping every two
days. Eating at common workspaces such as SR should also be a _choice_,
not something forced by absence of a kitchen.
If you prefer working in a communal space, that's your choice. But it
really ought to be _your_ choice, not forced by way of not even having room
for a desk where you live. Personally I can't concentrate in high-stimulus
environments, but I'm set up for working from home and that works for me.
A close friend & coworker of mine likes to do both, occasionally working at
home and occasionally in a communal space (TechLiminal). The point is the
right to choose, just like with reproductive rights.
-G.
=====
On 13-05-21-Tue 5:39 AM, Romy Ilano wrote:
Aren't apartments in Hong Kong and Tokyo even smaller, the size of closets?
I don't understand the need for large houses americans have. Most don't
even have time to maintain them.
I feel like any "profit driven oligarchy" would be against smaller
apartments:
- larger homes mean you have to buy more. Even large apartments.
- small apartments in the city mean probably no car. You always buy more
when you have a car
Larger apartments mean you have room for a traditional nuclear family.
Single people or people who hang out in communal spaces need not apply
How does this relate to sudo room?
--/well I and many others could be spending all their time in their garage
or their backyard instead of sharing & hanging around the sudor (although I
feel like sometimes its harder for people to share skilled information ;)
than beer and burritos)
/- these tiny apartments remind me more of the boarding houses of the
turn of the century.
They can definitely be improved but I don't understand how they are worse
than live work lofts .. Those soma live work lofts enable fabulously
wealthy people to move into poor school districts and worm their way out of
supporting school taxes
-- you have to be minimal to be in a Tiny space. Again less materialism
SudoRoom helps me avoid eating out needlessly at cheesy trendy cafes and I
can eat healthier too... Instead of fast food I can fill the fridge with
fruit
-- no work from home... I don't work at home personally. I prefer
communal spaces as long as I don't get exploited or harassed. Sudoroom has
been pretty fine so far .
---
On May 20, 2013, at 15:28, Sonja Trauss <sonja.trauss(a)gmail.com> wrote:
The obvious evil - doer is the laws that make it hard to build new
housing in sf.
There are strong home owners associations suppressing supply over there
and keeping rent high.
Does anyone know of an org that tries to counter that, or are developers
the only entities that lobby on the other side?
Gtwog you amaze me with every post - you're just finding out now that
we're none of us free, huh.
On Monday, May 20, 2013, GtwoG PublicOhOne wrote:
No-Sex Apartments.
(Creative commons, with attribution to "G.")
In cities across the USA, a new "solution" to affordable housing is
being promoted: micro-apartments of less than 200 square feet. New
York's conrol-freak in chief, Mayor Bloomberg, is promoting them (New
Yorkers call them "Bloom Boxes"). A developer in San Francisco is
promoting them. And developers in Seattle WA are building them by the
hundreds.
The Seattle apartments were recently covered in a CBS News article, here:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57582327/tiny-apartments-are-creating-a…
If you look at the picture, something immediately stands out: a TWIN BED.
As the article says, "...(the) apartment comes with a small private
bathroom, a microwave and a mini-refrigerator. There's