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vexingsilence t1_j8f1lvz wrote

Reply to comment by Avadya in Developers build tiny-home neighborhood in Dover to help address housing shortage by NewEnglandBlueberry

>To really make a dent, these cities and towns need be building vertical, high density, multi-story/multi-family housing.

Why not cede the southern half of the state to Boston then? Boston has housing like that, many people that can't afford it or don't want it move here. Time for them to uproot again?

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Avadya t1_j8f2jn0 wrote

Boston is dealing with an even worse affordability/ availability crisis at the moment, so I can’t imagine “handing over” part of a state is good for much other than a thinly veiled meme excuse for “keeping things the way they are”, which is typically bad for business, diversity, education, investment, ecology, etc…

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vexingsilence t1_j8f4150 wrote

Your opinion is that our cities and towns should be building vertical, high-density housing boxes. Boston has that. Yet you're saying it's even worse there? How can that be? Doesn't it stand to reason that doing the same thing here will produce the same result?

This is that other meme about insanity, doing the same thing repeatedly yet expecting different results each time.

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Avadya t1_j8f7se2 wrote

One of the biggest issues in the greater Boston area is the close proximity of single family suburbs to the downtown area…however, the difference between metro Boston and the seacoast is about 3 million people. Their crisis is rooted in centuries of slow development from single, to double, to triple family homes.

Vertical building on the seacoast likely would consist of 3-4 story townhomes or apartment complexes, rather than 15-20 story highrises. Dover and Portsmouth aren’t high rise cities surrounded by well established suburbs, it’s basically suburbs surrounded by undeveloped land. The seacoast runs the risk of establishing spread out suburbs doing stuff like OP posted.

Rather than pigeonholing itself into slow development, the seacoast area could be relatively innovative and prioritize townhomes, triplexes, and apartment buildings, rather than standalone single family homes. This would allow people currently living in the city to stay in the city that they enjoy

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vexingsilence t1_j8fajdu wrote

>This would allow people currently living in the city to stay in the city that they enjoy

Although many might appreciate a sharp rise in the value of their home due to scarcity.

If you're not building the super large buildings, the tax rate may need to go up to build or expand the schools, fire depts, police, etc.

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megagem t1_j8fybf8 wrote

Increasing density is not going to increase the tax rate. Denser housing is more efficient and results in lower taxes per person.

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vexingsilence t1_j8gbyzk wrote

In the long run, perhaps. In the short term, any burden the pose on the community has to be absorbed by the community. The new arrivals wouldn't have even started paying property tax yet. And even when they do, any costs associated with them will take years to collect via property tax.

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megagem t1_j8fy7wh wrote

Building more housing isn't going to make housing more expensive. Boston is expensive because lots of people want to live there relative to the supply of housing that allows them to do that.

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vexingsilence t1_j8gbnuz wrote

There's a selling point. Building housing won't make it more expensive here because no one wants to live here. Except.. they do, that's why there's a shortage.

Next.

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