Taking SF as an example, there is a huge amount of space left. Paris has about 20k /sq. km, whereas San Francisco is about a third of that. And Paris' skyline is not dominated by highrises.
There's more than enough room in SF proper, and there's absolutely tons of room down the peninsula. It just happens that current residents don't want their city to be more like a city, and don't want to improve the infrastructure so that more people move in.
That would seem to be their choice to make, rightly or wrongly. And, to my point, there's plenty of space for people around the US and even in cities--just not in some specific places today as they're currently built out and provisioned for infrastructure.
That would seem to be their choice to make, rightly or wrongly.
My position on this is undoubtedly going to seem absurd to anyone hearing it for the first time, but it's that, no, in fact, San Francisco does not belong to the people who happen to live there already. The most good could be done for the most people by opening it up to -- unsurprisingly, almost tautologically -- more people.
Well, it would be their choice to make if it was their property. But is it their choice to stop any development anywhere?
That's the reality that many California cities live with: people who moved there a decade or more ago want their place to not change at all from the moment they moved in, not realizing that their own arrival also disturbed those who were there before.
Because the problem isn't so much people not building stuff on their own property, it's a small number of highly motivated people that can stop any change at all, or interfere with others use of their land to the extent that they can not build, even within existing permitted use.
>But is it their choice to stop any development anywhere?
Any development. Anywhere? No. But they can vote to influence the type of development allowed in the community where they're a voter. This isn't unlimited. Other property owners have rights based on the rules that were in place when they bought.
>interfere with others use of their land to the extent that they can not build, even within existing permitted us
There's more than enough room in SF proper, and there's absolutely tons of room down the peninsula. It just happens that current residents don't want their city to be more like a city, and don't want to improve the infrastructure so that more people move in.