r/news • u/belleodis • Dec 01 '19

Title Not From Article NYC is quietly shipping homeless people out of state under the SOTA program

https://www.wbtv.com/2019/11/29/gov-cooper-many-nc-leaders-didnt-know-about-nyc-relocating-homeless-families/
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u/Jswimmin Dec 02 '19

Couldn’t tell ya. But developing empty land until there isn’t any empty land left isn’t a solution. It’s just a quick patch over an ever growing problem.

I for one, know I will not spend the rest of my life in California.

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u/could_I_Be_The_AHole Dec 02 '19

So is your objection the concern that eventually there'll be no empty land? I'd assume to increase housing would involve things like tearing down a few single family lots and building a 20 story apartment building there, that way you're converting the space of 12 people to space for 120 people.

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u/Jswimmin Dec 02 '19

But who wants to live there? Now cities without the proper infrastructure for such a population boom will fracture and become overwhelmingly congested.

I grew up in Sacramento and have lived here my entire life. I’ve seen the population explode, with it all the problems that population booms bring: high price of housing, absurd traffic, explosive homelessness etc. we were a big town where things were affordable and you could move about the city conveniently. That has all changed. Look up Sacramento rent prices. For 2 years straight we had the highest increase in rent in the NATION. look up our traffic. We are in the top 5 worst cities for traffic in the nation. It’s disgusting dude. And now people who have lived here their entire lives, the working poor and working class, have no chance to purchase property. Sacramento is moving to a pay to play city like the Bay Area and LA area, but we weren’t ever supposed to be that. Don’t have the room, nor the infrastructure. So do we just become a city of skyscrapers where ppl live in tenements? No one can own a car bc of deadlock traffic 12 hours a day? What do we do? No room for expansion

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u/could_I_Be_The_AHole Dec 02 '19

No offense meant here but this sounds like "it's not the town I grew up in" sort of sentiment. If more people move to Sacramento than new housing is built for then yeah the home prices & rents are going to go up, that's basic supply & demand. If you don't have the population density that taller building bring then your mass transit will fail.

The solution here is exactly what you're railing against - build multi story housing in the downtown area to soak up the additional population, then with the density you can support BRT/light rail/subway/whatever works for the area so that traffic doesn't become awful.

Also I'm not sure how you can say "we weren't every supposed to be that" as if any city has one singular vision or is supposed to be this or that, come on man, things change - globally the population is increasing, nationally the population is increasing, and these increases are focused in urban areas.