I'm not blaming them, as I mention the majority is likely acting within their rights. I agree that part of the solution is to create more housing -- but it's also too late for that solution to work before there is a downturn in the startup economy. If there's a next time, it might help then.
Even at San Francisco's current relatively frenzied building pace, there will only be another 4000 units or so this year. That will not make even a slight dent in rent for a city of 700,000+ people.
The other problem with building more units is that a lot of the available space sucks. There are whole huge swaths of the city that may as well be on the moon for how accessible they are to locations with offices (SOMA, Financial District, etc.). You can build condos in Candlestick Point, but how are people going to get to work?
The infrastructure of public and private transit in the city (and the larger region) is woefully inadequate for even half the number of people that currently live here, let alone if the population significantly increases. And these kinds of projects work on 10-20 year timetables. So again, it's way too late for this to be fixed in this economic cycle. Maybe next time.
You can build condos in Candlestick Point, but how are people going to get to work?
So where I live (Pune, India), we are also having an huge surge in population due to people moving in for new jobs. We don't really have a housing crunch.
Unlike SF, you are allowed to simply build new housing societies as needed (more or less). Here is NIBM, one of our outskirts, about the same distance from Koregaon Park as Candlestick Point is from SoMa: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B8cMeVTIMAEMyzk.jpg:large
Strangely, all these terrifying issues like people being unable to get to work simply don't happen. They take two wheelers, auto rickshaws, or 6 seaters. Housing societies sometimes provide shuttle buses.
"You can build condos in Candlestick Point, but how are people going to get to work?"
Bus service? Public not the Google Buses. Will always help to encourage movement out of a crowded city centre and (relatively) low capital requirement. Do some deals on season tickets/passes/carnets
Sure. The newest subway line runs down Third Street right to Candlestick Point (about 5 miles away from downtown). It would take over an hour and requires walking a mile.
Or you could take the single bus line, which cuts your walk down to half a mile or so. You'll have to transfer to another bus that goes on the highway to downtown (so it will be absolutely awful during rush hour). Expected transit time is again 1 hour.
Muni's on-time rate is 60%, so these are pretty optimistic numbers. Bus's don't keep to their schedule at all -- if they get to a stop early, they take off. The supposed 15 minute interval is laughable given the city's traffic patterns, it's just as likely for three buses to arrive simultaneously because they were all stuck in traffic for an hour.
The city's infrastructure is simply not built for outlying neighborhoods to be viable living destinations for people who commute into the city for work. The highways are clogged and poorly designed (and don't connect through the city). The surface road stoplight system is one of the worst synchronized I have seen in the US. The bus and subway system is poorly run and starved for money on basic necessities. The subway system itself is terribly designed: all the lines run through the same underground portion, on the same rails, so the slightest hiccup blocks up every line.
It's all solvable if you throw a lot of money and political will at it, but neither seems to be there. At least all of the buses are supposed to be replaced within a few years: they SORELY need it.
Even at San Francisco's current relatively frenzied building pace, there will only be another 4000 units or so this year. That will not make even a slight dent in rent for a city of 700,000+ people.
The other problem with building more units is that a lot of the available space sucks. There are whole huge swaths of the city that may as well be on the moon for how accessible they are to locations with offices (SOMA, Financial District, etc.). You can build condos in Candlestick Point, but how are people going to get to work?
The infrastructure of public and private transit in the city (and the larger region) is woefully inadequate for even half the number of people that currently live here, let alone if the population significantly increases. And these kinds of projects work on 10-20 year timetables. So again, it's way too late for this to be fixed in this economic cycle. Maybe next time.