[quote=briansd1]I believe it’s urban planning that favors car culture. Traffic avoidance, while justifiable at first, creates sprawl. When a city grows in population, if you don’t allow people to build more densely then you end up with sprawl.
In order to have small stores and family businesses you need density.
Americans are so used to the suburbs that we would call neighborhoods like Hillcrest “the city”.
In San Diego there are plans to build condos above UTC and Mission Valley malls. But the plans are on hold because of the economy. There’s opposition to such development. But if not there, then you end up with more sprawl.[/quote]
brian I’ve never bought into the notion that “If you don’t build it, people won’t live there.” SD County doesn’t need any more housing inventory. We already have a high vacancy rate and several months worth of inventory currently on the market. After thousands more lose their homes to foreclosure in the coming 24 months, we will have even MORE vacancy. Many of these people still living in their homes but not paying on one or more trust deeds are currently unemployed and will just double-up with family members or leave the area to reside with distant family or in search or a cheaper region to live in when they are foreclosed upon. If still employed, these people have had the chance to save a LOT of money during the months/years they were stiffing one or more of their lenders.
I believe people will live in whatever is available to live in. If those quarters are 85+ years old and there is nothing newer to rent/buy and they want/need to live in a particular city or county, they WILL live in what is available (ex: SF). SD County doesn’t have to “coddle” newcomers with an endless supply of new construction to choose from because SD County doesn’t NEED any more people. SD didn’t NEED any more people even 25 years ago!
A newcomer to the SD region (or ANY region of the country) is not necessarily “entitled” to new construction or *newer* construction. If they don’t like the housing on offer in a preliminary visit, they can decline employment here. There are at least 21 colleges and universities in SD County churning out mostly local graduates. There are enough qualified people who are already established here to take whatever jobs are available. The companies here DON’T NEED to recruit employees from other counties and states. We have plenty of qualified candidates right here.
More building is NOT better, brian. It just messes up the quality of life in a region for existing residents. Let’s just concentrate on filling up the housing vacancies we have, shall we? That alone could take several years.
