Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Need Zoning Law Expertise

[Brian Bartholomew (bartholomew.brian]

> Our City Council and body politic kvetches a lot about the "housing
> problem", but does not always see itself as having many levers to pull.

I see, the zoning laws capping density, height, and requiring minimum
size and features were enacted by space aliens in silver spaceships,
not the city council elected by the voters.  Japan has capsule hotels,
but your municipality wouldn't let you build them, would they?

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsule_hotel

> Meanwhile, I remain pretty pessimistic about solving the "housing
> problem" by seeking out work-arounds for building housing "cheap".

Katrina cottages and capsule hotels are cheap, but they've been banned
because everybody knows they would lower housing prices.  The
voters who have houses want protectionism to keep their prices up.

> What's often described as the "housing problem: is really the
> "income inequality problem"

Repeal the "minimum wage" for houses which bans the low-cost end, and
then we'll see what problems remain.  Cost of living is going up by an
average of 10%/year, as measured by totaling typical purchases each
month: http://www.chapwoodindex.com  What percentage of retired boomers
on shrinking social security incomes will be pushed to live in their
cars, before they vote to repeal bans on lower-cost housing?

Brian