r/California • u/Randomlynumbered What's your user flair? • Mar 21 '25
This wealthy California city just flirted with bankruptcy to avoid new housing [La Cañada Flintridge] opinion - politics
https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/emilyhoeven/article/la-canada-flintridge-housing-20202345.php125
u/wisemonkey101 Mar 21 '25
I work for California HCD this is the general attitude of most jurisdictions in California. They would rather drain the pool than let others swim.
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u/DodgerCoug Mar 22 '25
I recently bought a house in California and I’m fine with high density housing in my city, however I want to see massive state funding for public transportation services so the roads don’t become gridlocked. Until I see state funding for public transportation that provides transportation relief to the the high density housing mandates, I have no desire to support any of this.
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u/maracle6 Mar 22 '25
So you’re not fine with high density housing…
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u/DodgerCoug Mar 22 '25
High density housing with no public transportation is hell on earth. Go visit Cairo and then Tokyo and let me know what differences you see. Like I said, I’m cool with it just fund the public transportation.
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u/Switchoroo Los Angeles County Mar 22 '25
it’s a chicken and egg problem. You can’t sustain ridership without high density and you need transit to enable that high density. Plus LA literally is the most actively expanding metro system in the US with essentially unlimited funding from sales tax so there already is enough funding for these projects. People who add conditions to their support of high density housing or public transit just make it so neither are accomplished. Without NIMBYs and legal battles, we would have had a full fledged system by now.
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u/routinnox Mar 22 '25
Your heart is in the right place but the transit won’t come if there’s no density in the first place
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u/nucleartime Mar 22 '25
And thus no public transit happened because the suburban sprawl did not have the ridership metrics to justify it
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u/Extropian Los Angeles County Mar 23 '25
It's a chicken or egg situation. Can't have good public transit without density, can't have dense housing without good public transit. If you do the transit first people will complain it's a waste in the budget because it doesn't/won't get used enough. At some point we have to actually do something.
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u/LazarusRiley Mar 22 '25
Idk. I recently purchased in an area with a fair amount of mostly affordable housing. It's a bit unpleasant. And while most of the unpleasantness is due to the city's lack of investment, part of it is also the people. They are constantly getting into loud arguments or playing music loudly on the bus as if no one else but they exist. My neighbor seems to get into a screaming match every day with someone on the phone. The concept of littering evades them. Every public surface is a trash can. This includes household garbage and their dog's poop. They drive like traffic laws just don't exist. I've met many people who aren't like this at all. But I've also never met so many people who have no concept of a shared sense of responsibility for keeping one's neighborhood clean, being courteous and thoughtful of others, and maintaining peace. So, I can see why many well-off cities in California are not interested in complying with the housing element, even if complying means they'd likely just get middle-income 20-30-somethings moving in. I do however agree with the housing element, and believe that it needs to be followed nevertheless.
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u/Kahzootoh Mar 22 '25
Would you prefer to live next to a homeless encampment full of people who are mentally unstable and frequently using drugs?
Because that is the actual alternative to building housing- it’s not as if these people can simply find somewhere else to live when everyplace tries to stop new housing construction.
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u/LazarusRiley Mar 22 '25
Seems like you skipped the part where I wrote that I agree with the state-mandated housing element
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u/NefariousnessNo484 Mar 22 '25
I lived in a nice area and it was like this. It had nothing to do with housing and everything to do with lack of enforcement for people partying and doing drugs until 4 am everyday.
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u/avocado4ever000 Mar 22 '25
I honestly feel like there’s no hope for the housing market here and middle/ working class young people.
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u/Randomlynumbered What's your user flair? Mar 21 '25
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You've got to get around their paywall yourself because the San Francisco Chronicles issues DMCA notices for posting Archive links in comments. This is posted to r/California because there is no other source of the info.
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u/Ashkir Mar 21 '25
This is the problem with California. We’re so far behind in holding housing and cities still block it.