“iTown” proposal/visualization by Alfred Twu, 2014.
Recently there seems to be a bit of a crescendo in the flood of discussion about the Bay Area’s housing crisis. Here are four intersecting threads I saw or joined on Twitter, leading to (#4) a proposal for a “Reshape Silicon Valley” public event & envisioning workshop. Featuring, by section:
- Startup incubator heads & venture capitalists
- Urban planners & transit advocate
- Journalists & filmmaker
- Entrepreneurs & technologists
1. Startup incubators, venture capitalist:
On Nov 3, Sam Altman, President of leading startup incubator Y Combinator, based in Mountain View:
it's so unbelievably frustrating how hard it is to get lots of new housing built in the bay area. this one thing would solve so many probs.
— Sam Altman (@sama) November 4, 2014
there were many responses to this tweet, including creative ideas such as
https://twitter.com/jfornear/status/529443882212155394
.@willsewell_ cynical opinion–homeowners don't want too see their home values decrease, and non-homeowners don't vote enough
— Sam Altman (@sama) November 4, 2014
[note: Altman’s observation is essentially what in urban/planning/housing studies is commonly described as the “homevoter hypothesis” or “homeowner hypothesis,” as described in The Homevoter Hypothesis by William A. Fischel, 2002.]