Dense doesn’t mean affordable
Re “$1-million home is now tragically typical,” Opinion, Aug. 14
Once all the single-family homes are razed and multiunit buildings replace them, will the new, densified housing be affordable? I don’t mean “affordable” as in “market rate” — I mean truly affordable.
And who will own this new, dense world? Homeowners who have made personal investments in their community and who care what happens to it? Or corporate managers?
The new dense buildings gentrifying my community, displacing small businesses and renters living in older, modest and affordable apartments, are built and owned by corporate property flippers seeking only to maximize their profits.
Obliterating singlefamily homes will not stop rents from going up. Ending zoning will not prevent gentrification or displacement. Ending zoning will enable profiteering.
JO PERRY Studio City
Building small rental units in neighborhoods zoned for single-family residences will not lower home prices. Nor will it increase homeownership.
In fact, changing these neighborhoods to higherdensity areas enables developers to turn single-family homes into rental units, which further reduces the supply of homes for purchase, thus raising home prices. Most people want homes to buy to build wealth, not live in small, expensive rental units.
With thousands of square feet of empty commercial space and rental units, rather than destroy single-family neighborhoods, why not put a hold on commercial construction and change commercial zones to residential or at least mixed use?
JANET GEGAN
Culver City
I would love for anyone who advocates for greater density to provide one case study, in the real world, not a model they dreamed up, where this works.
Singapore and Hong Kong make density affordable through public housing. But nowhere has developer-driven housing in dense areas been affordable.
Vancouver went all in on density, and that city is as expensive and unaffordable as anywhere. San Francisco is phenomenally dense relative to Los Angeles, and it is also very expensive.
So show me where it works. Not in a simulation; I don’t live there — in the real brick-and-mortar world.
JESSE CLINE Santa Maria