I wasn't aware that tech companies had any influence over SF's failure to build housing. Were they lobbing for zoning restrictions or excessive permitting or CEQA delays?
Most cities bend over backwards to recruit employers who bring high income taxpayers to their city. I've never understood what's special about SF that would make that event undesirable. If these employers pulled out en masse, which seems like the desired outcome here, I feel like they'd be thrown under the bus all over again for causing urban blight.
I agree with your point, but most cities in the US can't build housing. There's definitely a correlation between tech coming in and house prices going up. In some ways not having tech come in at all is better for the segment of the population that doesn't own property.
> I agree with your point, but most cities in the US can't build housing
The word you're looking for isn't can't, it's won't.
Cities can absolutely crack down on entrenched landowning interests, bring them to heel, and shut down their abusive rent-seeking operation. However, those interests have outsized political sway, and I'm sure they love to see a political circular firing squad amongst the groups that could band together to eliminate the rackets they're operating. Everyone focusing their ire on tech workers is an absolute godsend for them.
It's worth mentioning that the naive go-to lever, rent controls, won't solve the housing crisis because it won't build more housing. It will just create lottery winners and losers.
California is only beginning to address this by using state-level authority to strip zoning privileges from the recalcitrant municipalities and the rentier class they serve, but it's likely going to be a decade before this begins to bear fruit.
All this being said, I would love the government to aggressively enter the housing development market, as Singapore has done, but I'm not holding my breath for that to happen. At the very least we should focus on building more housing by allowing development to happen naturally.
Most cities bend over backwards to recruit employers who bring high income taxpayers to their city. I've never understood what's special about SF that would make that event undesirable. If these employers pulled out en masse, which seems like the desired outcome here, I feel like they'd be thrown under the bus all over again for causing urban blight.