Comments

1
What is it exactly about "San Francisco values" that the 'cons hate so much?

Diversity?
Equality?
Good paying jobs?
Healthcare for all?
High educational achievement?
Thriving businesses?
Some of the best quality of life on the planet?

Someone needs to call them out on what specifically they're talking about. (Hint: A lack of hate-crazed, white trash supremacy).
2
I have the right to live anywhere I want, evidently.
4
@2:

That's a stupid false-equivalency argument, of which you are no doubt aware. The issue isn't that people should be able to live ANYWHERE they want, but they SHOULD be able to afford living: 1. where they were born, and; 2. where they'll be reasonably close to their job, and their family, relatives, friends, social acquaintances, healthcare providers, cultural and recreational activities, and other vital services. If you think it makes sense that someone earning a measly $11 an hour to provide you with things YOU want should have to live two hours away - because, well, that's where they can afford to live, so suck it poorz - you're not only lacking in simple human compassion, but also bereft of understanding certain economic realities, one of which dictates that forcing people to live farther and farther away from their jobs makes it all that much more difficult for them to get to those jobs, to keep those jobs, and thus to provide you with the goods and services you desire, but apparently don't believe are worth the additional costs - not just in money - but in time lost by the employee just getting to and from their work site. Or would you prefer we simply mass-house all low-wage workers in some sort of dystopian military-style barracks, so you can continue to enjoy the privilege of consuming a $3.00 burger or cup of coffee?
5
@4: But how is your statement that people should have the right to live where they were born or close to their jobs or family really any different then what #3 was basically saying?

If my job moves from Mobile to Manhattan, should I be given a "job voucher" that gives me the right to pay Alabama rent in Manhattan? If my family moves to Hawaii but I can not afford to go, who should be required to pay for my new, more expensive home? Where is the money coming from, who is paying for it?

You just have more specific criteria, but you are both stating (rhetorically or not) that a person has a basic human "right" to live in a specific geographic area regardless of economic factors.

It is easy to say people should have the right to live wherever they want, but in reality, how would that even happen?
6
@4 So how much are you willing to pay for my right to live in San Francisco? I should warn you I only make $15 an hour as a barista, a one bedroom apt is $3k per month, and i have no motivation to either change jobs or go back to school. Oh, and it can't be Oakland, Daly City, San Jose, or any of the other cities near there because i was born in SF, all my friends are there, i really like golden gate park, and my doctor is at UCSF.

I'm waiting for the check
7
OMG, Fixer House in Desirable Seattle Neighborhood the Same Price as McMansion in Spokane! Next up: Manhattan Studio THE EXACT SAME PRICE as Large House in Kansas! BREAKING NEWS: Real Estate Prices Vary Extensively! Houses in Coastal Urban Centers Often Pricier Than Homes Elsewhere! A Half Million Dollars Can Buy a Castle in Some Markets and a Tear-Down in Other!
8
@5 If your job moves from Mobile to Manhattan, chances are you make enough money to afford Manhattan rent, and your company will probably pay moving expenses. One time, my father got a job in the SF area and they helped him sell his house, paid his moving expenses, and provided him a company apartment while he found a house.

They only do that with jobs that have the ability to move. Last I checked, they don't even do that for the Boeing machinists, and definitely not for the Starbucks baristas.

Baristas and lower-income people have little to no housing mobility. They're stuck in a region without help. Housing and rent should be affordable to the people in our region based on what we pay. One of the factors driving up prices in our region is speculation buying and foreign interest. Moving to Spokane is one way to ease the housing pressures, and Seattle has been bleeding artists and creative types to other, more affordable, cities. A person who has to travel an hour+ to work each day has a lower quality of life and will provide a lower quality of work. We should strive to encourage affordability measures, as well as push for rent control to keep our existing citizens.

P.S. If your family moves all the way to Hawaii to get away from you, look into why they don't want to be near you.
9
What in the hell does living close to where you were born have to do with anything? Holy fucking first world problems.

I was born in a Navy hospital in Newport, RI. If I were now to believe that I had a right to live in fucking Newport, all because that's where I happened to be pulled from a vagina, I'd be of the highest order of morons.
10
@5:

Presumably, if your job moves you from Mobile to Manhattan they're going to raise your salary accordingly, so that you can actually LIVE somewhere in the vicinity of that relocated job.

@6:

If you move to SF to take a $15 an hour barista job, you're doing exactly the OPPOSITE of what we're talking about here.

@9:

How long was your parent stationed in Newport? Did you grow up there? Go to school there? Graduate from high school there? Do you have friends or family still living there?
11
@10 Did you forget your own post? I was born there, grew up there, and have family there. According to your own post i should be able to live there no matter my economic situation.

" they SHOULD be able to afford living: 1. where they were born, and; 2. where they'll be reasonably close to their job, and their family, relatives, friends, social acquaintances"

12
$450K is a bargain. A teardown/boarded up place around the corner from my house sold for $900K.

$420K will also get you a 1-bedroom condo in Capitol Hill, $400K will buy an awesome looking 2400 square foot home in Rainier Beach, $400K a 2000 square foot home in Seatac... I mean, houses prices are ridiculous, but if $450K is your pricepoint, you have more options than a teardown. They may not be giant houses, but anyone who lives in one of those houses is a rich density-hating NIMBY anyway, right?
13
What does $450,000 buy you in Seattle? An opportunity to make up to double your money. Tearing it down isn't expensive. Spending $300,000 (your cost) to build a bigger new house isn't that expensive if you sell that new house for $1.5 million. It just depends on location.
14
The point is that sadistic, hate-crazed RepubliKKKan trash are too stupid to realize that they're the reason that people with the means, the smarts, and class don't wanna live around sadistic, hate-crazed RepubliKKKan trash. Those places are called a "brain drains" for a reason.
15
@11:

Where? Newport, RI? Just like @9 who claims to have also been born there? Or are you the same person commenting under different handles?
16
So Comte - does simply existing in a place give you the right to continue existing in that place?
How much time do you need to put in to earn it? It it like accruing vacation days at work? Who manages and makes the rules for this system? Should I be FORCED to pay/fight/care for your "right" to continue existing in a place of your choosing? That sounds pretty whiny and entitled to me.
17
@15
So you deserve more privilege because of where you were born?
What about all the people who were born in terrible places? Places with crime, pollution and blight?
What special privilege do they get?

As for driving 2 hours for $11 an hour, aren't there any $11 hour jobs closer to home?
Of course there are.
You can buy "$3 burgers and coffee" anywhere in America.
18
@15 San Francisco. And really, you should stop commenting if you don't have the comprehension skills to read and understand previous posts. Are you by chance a chatbot ?
19
the difference in locations is seattle is closer to the saltwater, closer to cool stuff(think the space needle, actually don't think that), farther away from idaho and montana, closer to multiple ski resorts, fresher fish, closer to more islands, more vast arts culture, closer to Tacoma!, basically seattle is just cooler than Spokane! thus you have to pay more live here. dumb article begets dumb responses.
20
It's the land. 6,000 sf lot in Seattle is rare.
21
I'm just waiting for a Native American to point out all the irony in this thread.
22
@19 "closer to multiple ski resorts" You obviously have never skied in the Rockies. Spokane is quite close to four really nice ski hills (ever heard of Mt Spokane?) and the skiing there is vastly Superior to the snow in the cascades. Skiing is the only thing the inland northwest has that is demonstrably better than the Puget sound area. Like, way better.

Still a diseased hotbed of racism and general stupidity that lacks a second thing to like about it but the skiing there is awesome.

23
@17:

That's probably true, but then who would work the $11 an hour jobs HERE IN SEATTLE so YOU can have a $3 burger, if all the people who currently do those jobs have to move to Federal Way because they can't afford to live here and then can't afford to commute back into the city? See, that's the point all the "you have no RIGHT to LIVE here" contingent fail to take into account: someone has to do that work or you don't get your cheap McBurger. So, either you force them to live far away and travel long distances - all of which costs money, in case you forgot, because, you know, relocation & transportation expenses, not to mention hours lost to non-productive travel - for a shitty job you don't think they deserve to be paid a living wage to do nor to live close enough to to make ends meet on the shitty wages they earn, OR they work somewhere NOT here. But then you still need to find someone who can fill that position, in which case you're just shifting that burden onto yet another low-wage work-slave who will be in exactly the same position as the person who moved away and gave up the job they're now opening up for someone else to repeat the cycle. OR you can pay them enough to live and work here, but that means you might have to pay $4 or - GASP! - $5 for your McBurger, and that would just be an outrage, wouldn't it?

And why do I get the impression everyone here whinging about people not having a right to live in a particular place are people who are both financially and culturally privileged enough that they are never going to suffer the indignity of being forced to move from the only home they may have ever known, because of all the people who are moving in, pushing them out, and at the same time telling them they don't deserve to live in their own home town? I mean, it's not really like we're giving them a choice, are we?
25
@23
First off, I DON'T live in Seattle.
I live in Detroit.
I'm not "financially or culturally privileged enough" to afford to live somewhere like Seattle.
I grew up in a slum.
You want special privileges because of where you were born.
What special privileges do I get for growing up in poverty, surrounded by crime, pollution and blight?
I asked you that question in my original post, and you completely ignored it.

As for the fine people of Seattle who will pay $500,000 for a house like I grew up in, (the house I grew up in sold for $10,000 just before the recession) I think that they can afford to pay more for fast food and coffee; but I don't make the rules in Seattle. Like I said, I live in a house I paid $70,000 for in an inner ring suburb of Detroit.
My partner and I have a household income of about $60,000 a year, which is just a bit higher income level than the average household in Detroit (That's about $50,000).

Did your family own their home?
If they do, or did, they obviously made a fortune when they sold it, or they have a fortune in equity.
If your family is in Seattle, why can't they help you?

You think you have a right to live in Seattle because you were born there.
You are a privelidge jerk.
I grew up in a slum. Where do I have the right to live?
I can't afford to live in Seattle, and neither can you, but you think you have a right to live there.

If you think you have it hard because you can't afford to live in Seattle, think about all the other people in this country who can't afford ANY home.
26
COMTE
Here's a question for you:
If a rich man loses his fortune, do his children deserve to live in a mansion because they were born there?

You really need to check your privilege and realize that you are NOT entitled to something just because of where you were born or who your parents are.

Be glad you got to live in Seattle as long as you have, because the vast majority of Americans could NEVER afford to live there.
27
This is a big reason why I voted Trump.

Ending illegal immigration and making it harder for legal immigration- I'm actually for a moritorium- would take a huge amount.of pressure off our housing stock.

Seattle has an estimated 150k illegals. Can you imagine the rental and housing market if Seattle we're to say goodbye to those?

How many Indians and so on are here on H1-b's? They all have to be house as well? Can you imagine the cost of living reduction after Mass immigration comes to and end? Not to mention the upward pressure on wages.

Of you want a solution to the housing crisis, immigration must come to an end, otherwise it will never stop, around half of the third world wishes to emigrate to the west.
28
SLOG
Money
The Kind of House $450,000 Buys You In Seattle Versus What It Buys You in Spokane

by Charles Mudede • Jun 22, 2017 at 10:49 am


"Its windows are totally blind; animals that are not human certainly call its two bedrooms and one bath home..." What the hell was he trying to say here?
29
@10: That is an extremely weak dodge for a question you know is rhetorical. The fact that you have no answer is noted.
30
@27- Your acceptance of the lie that "Seattle has an estimated 150k illegals" demonstrates the stupidity of the Trump voters. Given that Seattle's population is about 700,000, this would mean that 20 or so percent of the residents are undocumented. That is ridiculous on its face. Not surprisingly, you don't supply any citation for it. Even if we assume that you meant the Seattle/Tacoma/Bellevue metro area (population 3.7M), this would still mean that close to 5% of the population is undocumented. There is no way that is correct.

And if you had even the tiniest grasp of economics you would know that immigration and H1-B visas exert, if anything, DOWNWARD pressure on wages, not upward. Even the Orange Anus you support knows this (and he does not know much).

31
You call that Spokane address "in the heart of the city"?

It has a WalkScore of 45, which is lower than Spokane's pitiful average of 48.

http://i.imgur.com/xUTDS90.png

Fuck you for lying to me. Fake news.
32
@4 I was born and raised on Capitol Hill and can't afford a house there. I was also lucky enough to buy in the CD during the last real estate crash. But now I'm a gentrifier. I don't feel like I deserve to live anywhere.
33
@31 That really is the heart of the city of Spokane. The address is on 24th ave. It is the older and nicer neighborhood and the first choice if you wanted to live there. Walk scores are relative. You would need to live downtown to get a decent walk score in Spokane and NO ONE wants to live in downtown Spokane.
35
Looking up those places on the map... this isn't the best comparison.

The Seattle house is probably a tear down, sure. But its 2 blocks from a business district, and 1 block from a park. The value is entirely in the lot. The house itself is worth something between $50,000 and -$50,000, depending if one could actually go live in it tomorrow.

Looks like the Spokane* (* Not-actually-in-Spokane) house is 5 miles from the nearest grocery store.

Looking at houses actually in Spokane, you can get a darn nice place for $450k, but its more like a really nice craftsman than a big... well kinda bland new suburban house on a big lot.

Please wait...

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