Putting Two and Two Together on our "Crisis"

It is one thing to believe someone cannot put two and two together and get four.  It's another to see them demonstrate it in front of 300 people in a hotel ballroom.  Last week the Burlingame/SFO Chamber of Commerce held its annual meeting at the Hyatt and added something new--a panel discussion with three local politicians.  The panel, moderated by City Manager Lisa Goldman, included B'game mayor Peter Stevenson, Diane Papan's District director David Burruto and San Mateo County Supervisor David Canepa.  Each had an opportunity for an opening remark.

Canepa started enthusiastically by highlighting how he travels all over the country and the world and people constantly tell him how much they love San Mateo County.  How lucky we are to live here and how many of them would like to do the same.  And it's more than just our fabulous weather.  It was a glowing opener and something many of us also experience, especially if we get more specific and mention B'game.  Canepa then proceeded to talk about our "housing crisis" and how we need to build a lot more affordable housing, so people and businesses stop leaving the county.  The notion that we cannot outbuild the global demand to live here that he just described never actually occurred to him.  It was remarkable.  It would have been great to ask, "exactly how much new, affordable housing we should build?"  5,000 units?  Should we accommodate a doubling of the county population (about another 750,000 people?) Should we triple it?  Should we perhaps address some of the other areas that go into the total cost of home ownership--some of which he might actually be able to do something about?  Should it all be "stack and pack" cellblock designs so it will be "affordable"?  That would have been fun.

Given it was only a 20-minute talk, Lisa Goldman only got to ask one additional question out of a big pile submitted by the audience.  She did a quick tally and determined that about half were asking about the Broadway grade separation.  All three panelists responded.  I listened closely.  There was mention of "close coordination", "better communication" between agencies, "making it a priority" and the challenge of working around "electrified Caltrain".  In other words, five minutes of bobbing and weaving because there is no viable plan to deal with the new, bigger cost estimate.

Here's the panel at work.  Lunch was good.

Comments

[Joe]

From the Merc today:

The Bay Area has hundreds of below-market rate apartments sitting vacant

Some new moderate-income units offer little discount to market-rate rents. Some question whether we should prioritize building them at all

But according to a review of rental data by this news organization, hundreds of below-market-rate units across the Bay Area remain vacant, months and sometimes even years after they opened for leasing.

That number is likely an undercount. Just 11 of the 30 cities this news organization contacted provided occupancy data.

Moderate-income units reporting data had a vacancy rate of 7%, more than double that of units aimed at low-income renters.

“There’s never a shortage of very low-income renters, but 120s are always tough to lease,” said Stuart Gruendl, whose firm BayRock has built mixed-income apartment complexes across San Francisco and the East Bay. “In places where rents have gone down, a 120% AMI renter can go out and get a great deal on a new apartment and get pretty awful close to the below-market rate rent.”
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More failed social engineering?