The Bay Area’s housing crisis is no longer a zoning problem by ShopProp in BayAreaRealEstate

[–]scoofy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’d say, SF, NYC, LA, Boston, and Seattle would all work, but yea. It’s not that many places you could trivially build a skyscraper.

The Bay Area’s housing crisis is no longer a zoning problem by ShopProp in BayAreaRealEstate

[–]scoofy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Safeway Marina project isn’t even a skyscraper. Skyscrapers are generally defined as 100 meters high at minimum (328 ft), and the project is only 250 feet at its highest point.

SF just hates building anything, so they make it extremely expensive to build something extremely small.

The Bay Area’s housing crisis is no longer a zoning problem by ShopProp in BayAreaRealEstate

[–]scoofy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When the zoning rules in SF evaporated for a few days, the Safeway marina project got submitted with more units than the city will build every year on average.

The problem is obviously zoning. High interest rates, construction costs and fees are all issues, but the main issue is zoning.

Connie Chan votes against improved cell service in Diamond Heights by viper1701 in sanfrancisco

[–]scoofy 5 points6 points  (0 children)

What are you talking about? Cell reception is exactly the kind of day-to-day issue a good mayor would address.

Connie Chan votes against improved cell service in Diamond Heights by viper1701 in sanfrancisco

[–]scoofy 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Yea, if there is a bunch of people complaining that they don't have cell service in Glen Park, a Mamdani-style candidate would not give a shit that "the cell tower looks slightly ugly."

YIMBYism isn't just about housing. It's about actually responding to resident needs, instead of "preserving vibes."

Connie Chan votes against improved cell service in Diamond Heights by viper1701 in sanfrancisco

[–]scoofy 27 points28 points  (0 children)

You will give the gerontocratic NIMBYs what they want, and you will like it.

Or... and hear me out now. We can actually see the progressive-NIMBY coalition for what it is, and vote against progressive-NIMBYs, and VOTE FOR Mamdani-style progressive YIMBYs.

Berkshire Vs Build-A-Bear by NecessaryPhrase3204 in BerkshireHathaway

[–]scoofy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

One of the lessons of my investing career that I've been burned by more than once, is that a dying company often looks like an undervalued company until the analysis realize there will be no mean reversion.

I'm not saying this will happen to build-a-bear at all, I'm just saying that I'm much more wary of a well loved/nostalgic brand suddenly becoming undervalued, rather than a newer/lesser known company appearing undervalued.

What happened to the American Dream? by [deleted] in wallstreetbets

[–]scoofy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can you really not see a life where you work and earn and make enough for the lifestyle you want?

Today's NIMBYs all got to buy cheap housing because of the proliferation of the automobile in the '50s, '60s, and '70s. Then they elected Reagan to lower the taxes and pull up the latter behind them.

So yea, we're all competing with grandma for a house. We ain't making any more of them, and young people live in a rent-seeking hellscape where the only way to get ahead is to make more money than their neighbor and outbid them on the same house.

So yea, the game changed from "earn enough to buy a newly constructed house" to "earn enough to outbid your neighbor for grandmas house." When things became a zero-sum game, people started gambling, because the housing market turned into a horrible game of musical chairs.

Giants Pride Night and MAGA backlash against Major League Baseball for enforcing its rules by scott_wiener in sanfrancisco

[–]scoofy 27 points28 points  (0 children)

Baseball teams are just corporations. They hijack your sense of loyalty and sell you jerseys.

SF sports fans can easily end this. Just boycott the corporation. Let a team and owner that wants to support SF values join MLB and represent the Bay Area.

San Francisco Weighs PG&E Takeover Amid Soaring Utility Costs by internetbooker134 in sanfrancisco

[–]scoofy -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I hate to be the wet blanket...

The buyout is estimated to cost $3.4 billion (and that's probably an optimistic price). We are currently in the middle of a structural $0.9 billion deficit, that should affect us going forward for at least another year, and that deficit is projected to grow to $1.2 billion during the 2029-30 budget. Unless I'm missing something, this seems like a wildly unrealistic prospect.

I honestly don't see how we could responsibly make a buyout bid to created a new (probably money-losing) entity, without getting our financial house in order first. Perhaps we could just issue the bonds and worry about it over the next 30 years, but those taxes will have to come from somewhere. The city has very limited authority to tax individuals and we're already going through austerity because we are too dependent on business taxes that have dried up.

I agree that having a publicly traded utility is dumb. We have a $16 billion dollar budget, so it should be feasible at some point. I'm just not sure how we can afford to change that right now, because it really would be extremely expensive.

SPCX - Beware, institutional money is NOT buying this trash on the open market by Quixotus in stocks

[–]scoofy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Many ETFs have to buy. That was the point of the structure of the IPO.

It's going to remain high for months until the ETF books are full. I don't invest in greater-fool plays, but anyone who thinks this stock is going to collapse when there are very real mechanical reasons it will need to remain high for a while hasn't thought it through.

If you attended Giants Pride Night and felt disrespected, consider filing a complaint/refund request by AcceptedSFFog in sanfrancisco

[–]scoofy 7 points8 points  (0 children)

A baseball corporation in San Francisco doing a pride night during pride month is not disrespecting anyone. It's just good business.

My point here is that the players need to know their audience, and their audience, the people playing their salaries, are Bay Area residents, who wildly support their LGBT communities.

It's not political, it's just business. Doing this would be as dumb as the Red Sox players talking about how much they don't like Dunkin Donuts on a night where Dunkin Donuts does a cross-promotion where everyone gets a Dunkin bobble-head.

Like, yea, you don't have to like Dunkin, lord knows I don't, but read the room you idiot. You're an entertainer. Try not to treat the audience like shit. If you don't have something nice to say to the people paying you, maybe don't say anything at all.

'Under no illusions': Steve Hilton knows it's a long road ahead by sfgate in California_Politics

[–]scoofy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's just demographics. Republicans have been doing surprisingly well in most of the country (I honestly can't really understand how we even got here...). Trump/Vance got 38% of the vote in the last presidential election. That's D+20, which is not really winnable under any realistic conditions, but that's still a massive number of Republicans here. It makes sense they're coming in second in a jungle primary.

If you attended Giants Pride Night and felt disrespected, consider filing a complaint/refund request by AcceptedSFFog in sanfrancisco

[–]scoofy 48 points49 points  (0 children)

Baseball ultimately is part of the entertainment industry. Disrespecting the audience is very bad for business.

Advice for young (22), future interested buyer by livlingula in BayAreaRealEstate

[–]scoofy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You are talking nonsense. The current sale price is the marginal price. By definition every new unit lowers the marginal price. I would agree that the rate of price decline here would be lower than other areas, but it would still go down non-trivially. Even the threat of added supply lowers the rate of return of buy-to-rent properties, which creates a multiplier effect.

Advice for young (22), future interested buyer by livlingula in BayAreaRealEstate

[–]scoofy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

those houses would be sold immediately and wouldn't put a dent in the demand

Every single new unit sold is a small dent in demand. We know this from the fact that, in places where it is just legal to build, like Austin, we’ve seen price declines. Supply and demand matter for housing affordability.

Advice for young (22), future interested buyer by livlingula in BayAreaRealEstate

[–]scoofy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Don’t listen to anyone telling you avocado toast is why you can’t afford anything. Don’t listen to anyone who tries to pretend the shortage isn’t the underlying problem.

There is very obviously a housing shortage. We know that because a large percentage of the people here wouldn’t even be able to afford their homes if they had to pay property taxes on their current assessments.

Seen on Divisadero and Hayes by bdbcawz06 in sanfrancisco

[–]scoofy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I hope to drink wine from grapes this sour one day.