“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.]
@sama @SFHAC “so frustrating how hard it is to get lots of new housing built in the bay area”: how about YC funding/using housing startups?
— Tim McCormick (@tmccormick) November 13, 2014
the following week, top-dog VC Marc Andreessen ignited another tweet cascade with an “OH” (“overheard”) of a Sam Altman remark:
https://twitter.com/pmarca/status/532232816034328576
@sama @pmarca what if you drove monthly rent burn for YC etc startups towards zero, by helping create+site low-cost modular @Houslets?
— Tim McCormick (@tmccormick) November 11, 2014
2. Urban Planner, Transit Advocate
Omar Masry, a planner with the city & county of San Francisco, invited me to a talk this week on street design/planning with James Rojas. This led to an interesting discussion about radical urban design possibilities, which was joined by Adina Levin, a software entrepreneur and transit/planning activist based in Menlo Park.
@tmccormick Check out "Reimagining the Street" with @JamesRojas from PlaceIt! at @SPUR_Urbanist this Thursday http://t.co/lyNnWBbGhX
— Omar Masry (@Omarmasry) November 17, 2014
@Omarmasry @alevin I'd like to see SF, SJ etc host open design imaginings of how blocks might be redesigned, incrementally or radically
— Tim McCormick (@tmccormick) November 17, 2014
@alevin @Omarmasry how might we, in SF, SJ, OAK etc, do "block redesign parties" for open creative re-envisioning? virtual+ popup/temp bldgs
— Tim McCormick (@tmccormick) November 17, 2014
@alevin @Omarmasry for surface lots, eg corp campus, thinking abt an exhibit/intervention/prototype: @Houslets to fit /over/ pking space(s).
— Tim McCormick (@tmccormick) November 17, 2014
@alevin @Omarmasry part of #GoogleHous (corp pking lot variant) idea is to suggest job creation should have accompanying housing provision
— Tim McCormick (@tmccormick) November 17, 2014
@Omarmasry @alevin I'm most intrstd in complete alternatives to mortgage finance – be radically cheaper, aim for now-unserved markets.
— Tim McCormick (@tmccormick) November 17, 2014
3. Journalist, Filmmaker
Today was the release of “You Can’t Go Home Again,” a short film about SF’s housing crisis done by Stateless Media for Techcrunch, following up on TC’s Kim-Mai Cutler‘s articles on the issue.
#SanFrancisco is no town for poor people. Our movie on the #housing crisis, @TechCrunch. #cantgohome #TheEvicted http://t.co/7DlaTpATXx
— Stateless Media (@StatelessMedia) November 17, 2014
@StatelessMedia @techcrunch do followup (films?) on #housingcrisis answers? many possible, many people working hard on them. #cantgohome
— Tim McCormick (@tmccormick) November 17, 2014
@StatelessMedia @kimmaicutler how about also open forum/wiki/#CivicList to propose+develop responses to #housingcrisis? a v0.1 is @affordSF
— Tim McCormick (@tmccormick) November 17, 2014
@tmccormick @StatelessMedia @AffordSF do you have a recommendation for a platform on that?
— Kim-Mai Cutler (@kimmaicutler) November 18, 2014
@kimmaicutler: @AffordSF is @Wikia; imagining evolving to a "civic @AngelList" cf @OpinionSpace @reframeit @IdeaScale http://t.co/7WmbWRKMEV
— Tim McCormick (@tmccormick) November 18, 2014
4. Entrepreneur & Technologists
1/By my math, would only cost $2000/month/employee to give every employee free 3bd apartment in company owned housing in Sunnyvale-San Jose
— Sunil S. Rawat (@_sunilrawat) November 18, 2014
2/Would u prefer free company paid housing+workstation+internet to free bus/booze/food/egg freezing/gym/cell phone?
— Sunil S. Rawat (@_sunilrawat) November 18, 2014
3/ Since @Jason storm about SoBa bereft of fun, been thinking of laborhoods 15-50 buildings, high cashflow companies, 10-40 storeys
— Sunil S. Rawat (@_sunilrawat) November 18, 2014
4/entertainment/food/extra high density on 300-400 acres. Invite goog/lnkd/apple to participate in building laborhood, FFS SV makes enough$$
— Sunil S. Rawat (@_sunilrawat) November 18, 2014
4/entertainment/food/extra high density on 300-400 acres. Invite goog/lnkd/apple to participate in building laborhood, FFS SV makes enough$$
— Sunil S. Rawat (@_sunilrawat) November 18, 2014
https://twitter.com/charlesjo/status/534515577327333376
@charlesjo @tmccormick the issue is incrementalism & while we all cooperate a lot and think big on tech/social we don’t on urban dev/arts
— Sunil S. Rawat (@_sunilrawat) November 18, 2014
@_sunilrawat @Startup_Dreams @charlesjo I think big oppt'y in housing innovation, w/SV as a laboratory & alpha market http://t.co/kyO51Tmw0J
— Tim McCormick (@tmccormick) November 18, 2014
@Startup_Dreams @charlesjo @tmccormick Apple/Goog/Msft/other fat cats gotta poll employees, twist urban planners arms & just do it IMO
— Sunil S. Rawat (@_sunilrawat) November 18, 2014
@_sunilrawat @Startup_Dreams @charlesjo I think key need is for investors & cities to find confidence to propose, fund, test bold ideas
— Tim McCormick (@tmccormick) November 18, 2014
@tmccormick @_sunilrawat @charlesjo Starting this process and carrying out would be interesting.
— Startup Diazepam (@Startup_Dreams) November 18, 2014
@_sunilrawat @Startup_Dreams @charlesjo yes, I see many ways to step fwd, eg big employers pilot on-campus & #technomad housing experiments
— Tim McCormick (@tmccormick) November 18, 2014
@Startup_Dreams @charlesjo @tmccormick Dubai Burj Khalifa tower cost <$1b Even w/first world labor cost/insurance/quake proofing $2b?
— Sunil S. Rawat (@_sunilrawat) November 18, 2014
@SheridanTatsuno @charlesjo @tmccormick for starters we need higher urban density in some areas, 10-40 storey not 3-10 and a conference/1
— Sunil S. Rawat (@_sunilrawat) November 18, 2014
@SheridanTatsuno @charlesjo @tmccormick conference on urban modeling new south bay, is there one? whom should we invite? lets do it!
— Sunil S. Rawat (@_sunilrawat) November 18, 2014
https://twitter.com/charlesjo/status/534577051496222720
@charlesjo @_sunilrawat @SheridanTatsuno Homebrew City Club? Silicon Valley Urban Envisioning #SVUE, Space Hack SV, #GreaterSV, SV Redesign
— Tim McCormick (@tmccormick) November 18, 2014
https://twitter.com/charlesjo/status/534586566509723649
@charlesjo @tmccormick @SheridanTatsuno thinking John Arrillaga, Don Bren+1more RE, 3 corp titans+3 architects+3VCs+3 journos plenary
— Sunil S. Rawat (@_sunilrawat) November 18, 2014
@_sunilrawat @charlesjo @SheridanTatsuno yes John Arrillaga'd be great for SV urban dev conf. Original SV #Maker! @LAAF @pmarca #ReshapeSV
— Tim McCormick (@tmccormick) November 18, 2014
@tmccormick @charlesjo @SheridanTatsuno but irvine co has been steadily buying up here too and even tho OC is urban sprawl Mr Bren is superb
— Sunil S. Rawat (@_sunilrawat) November 18, 2014
@_sunilrawat @charlesjo @SheridanTatsuno another proj I've been working on which might weave in: SV #affordablehousing design challenge/expo
— Tim McCormick (@tmccormick) November 18, 2014
@_sunilrawat @charlesjo what's good nxt step on this thread? How abt name+hashtag (#ReshapeSV?), storify, start gallery+collector for ideas?
— Tim McCormick (@tmccormick) November 18, 2014
@tmccormick @charlesjo i’d suggest we kick off in person if possible, establish charter/time commits/decide on online collaboration tools
— Sunil S. Rawat (@_sunilrawat) November 18, 2014
tmccormick SheridanTatsuno Thanks for including us!