I spat out my omelette at this.

Egg-celent question.

So much love for this. Judging by all of the comments on this sub it appears that twitter folks are doing so much better with their comprehension of fundamental economics than the average r/providence user.

I mean, I'll take the bait. I think luxury housing can free up other housing and that can be true and other nuances can exist at the same time.

Building more luxury housing would absolutely free up housing supply, assuming that there is no/low er....gene flow between populations(geographic flow, if you will, but I like science analogies). Lets say a luxury high rise gets built and it's 60% people who didn't live here already-- that means only 40% of the capacity actually freed up current housing. But, that is assuming 100% capacity, which is often not the case with luxury builds who may be able to write off vacant units or people doing rental arbitrage. None of these factors are accounted for because even the best models have to be simplified (again, science).

So there are a few hiccups here:

• Are some people going to move who were deterred before by the lack of high rise living?
• Are some higher income earners staying put because they don't like wasting money?
• Are the new builds actually being filled to 100% capacity? (this one is easily measured)
• Are there vacancy write offs or airbnbs operating?

Is the model still true? Yes, but with confounders.

It's like the egg analogy, but also eggs are now the new superfood and now twice as many customers are buying eggs as before avian flu. Oh, and eggs were just advertised as "2023's best breakfast food" while nearby breakfast foods like Bacon and cereal are getting terrible PR. So yes, maybe some lifelong egg eaters are a bit worried about their eggs because every time a truckload comes in a swarm of new shopper clears the shelves.

Dismissive stuff like this really divides people here and makes current residents feel even less heard. This type of stuff is not the community that I know and love here who should be open to acknowledging people are scared of the unknown.

Dude what?

Even if 40% of them were locals moving up the ladder, it's still better than nothing. Rental arbitrage opportunities around here are nearly nonexistent, can you substantiate their impact on the local market or otherwise prove that arrangement is an issue? Typically the subletting you see going on around here is student housing that's by the room.

The likelihood that the condo association would be originally constructed to permit short term rentals in a brand new luxury build is very slim.

You cant write off vacancies as they are not an expense. Rental vacancies are marginal in RI, and there is a supply/demand imbalance in the retail market that requires no explanation...

People need to get over it and let growth happen so we can move this city forward.

Mountain_Bills5743 what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

All I said was that this was based on a model and that all models have some flaws. Why can't we entertain some nuance about where these concerns come from? I say this as someone who isn't opposed to luxury housing but pro empathy.

The way to move this city forward is to build bridges with the people who live here, especially on the fringe, not dismiss them with contemptuous tweets suggesting they're simpletons--these are our neighbors. It's honestly appalling to me to see something so dismissive as this post adjacent to posts about turning your heat off in January to stay afloat.

actually licking a new york property developer's boot and accommodating his vanity project is progressive

Wait, so in this sub do people just downvote stuff they disagree with? I thought downvotes were for low effort posts or posts that don’t contribute to the discussion

Thanks, pal. The post was marked "discussion" and thematically about analogies with eggs, so I stuck to that. OP seems to have good intentions, but the tone of this post just felt more divisive than constructive.

Haha, I guess the downvotes are my answer!

Avian bird flu. Now, all we have are artisanal eggs!

I mean, are the people buying the luxury eggs actually going to eat them, or is it foreign investments and hedge funds and businesses like AirEne that rent eggs to people that want to live in an egg while on vacation, which will further artificially drive prices higher?

That was a $45 spit-take.

There ya go sport... I brought ua back up to 0. lol. It's the age old law of human nature... give a little bit of power to those that have never had it and they will surely abuse it.

And some dick head already down voted you back to -1 again LOL

Yo bro.... wtf does this have to do with eggs ?

I can't wait to decorate a bunch of Easter potatoes this year LOL

I mean...OP used the word eggs 4 times in the post.

I don't think it was an analogy wild Bill. I just think Mr fancy pants OP likes his eggs fried, over luxurious

He's an egg lover. He's gonna die of high cholesterol obviously, but I gotta respect a man who knows what he wants.

Build more towers man, that’s what I’m saying man, more towers

I think that your contribution was just low quality which is why people downvoted you into oblivion. The post responding to you was perhaps rude at the end, but it was addressing your exact points.

You claimed that people were oversimplifying models, and that “none of these factors are accounted for”. They are actually standard considerations in urban planning and development, and those factors have been examined and debated at length for not only the purposes of this project, but for the community’s intentions w/ development more broadly. If you’re tapped into the scene, these topics are low hanging fruit and generally a waste of time to discuss. This city’s journey forward has been completely mired by people who are brand new to the issues and interject with what they believe are original thoughts in the matter, when they’re hardly the first to consider these things. All it does is force the conversation back to an unproductive point.

It’s frustrating to have to constantly talk about Airbnb activity being a primary economic consideration for any/every development when it actually hardly matters in the context. Or worse, the suggestion that another major factor to consider is whether or not the wealthy are utilizing “vacancy write offs”, which literally do not exist… Where does this idea even come from? It betrays a complete lack of understanding of how any of this works.

The post isn’t divisive in any political or personal sense, it’s divisive in the sense that you can immediately tell who in the thread has no idea what they’re talking about.