Housing
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We Asked San Franciscans
‘I never thought this would be possible’
This article is part of The Bold Italic’s We Asked San Franciscans series, where we pose interesting questions to interesting readers. If you have a suggestion for a burning question we should ask, email it to us at info@thebolditalic.com.
Over the past year, San Francisco has turned into a full-blown renter’s market. As people made their way out of the city to more spacious pastures, rents began plummeting and many locals (myself included) took advantage of “pandemic pricing” by either moving to a new place with lower rent or negotiating a rent reduction with their landlord.
We’re on the brink of a nationwide rent crisis
California (and the rest of the country) is on its way into a massive rent crisis. Eventually, the thousands and thousands of overdue rent payments that are currently on hold because of Covid will come due.
Nationwide, one in four Americans report someone in their household losing income, or having lost their jobs themselves, during the pandemic. Here in the Bay Area, the unemployment rate hit 7% in December 2020 (compared to 2.7% in January). That means scores of people have struggled to pay their rent at some point over the past year. …
The city’s biggest neighborhood is more than just a giant plot of housing
In every sense of the word, San Francisco is small. Its 49 square mile footprint is only slightly larger than Walt Disney World. Even Reno, for all the attention it gets as the “Biggest Little City in the World,” is over twice the size of SF.
That makes the Sunset District — with its miles-long avenues stretching from the Panhandle to Ocean Beach and all the way to the zoo — all the more interesting.
The Sunset is San Francisco’s biggest neighborhood by a long shot, but it has this cozy atmosphere that, at times, makes it feel like it…
To understand our politics, you have to understand our cultural insanities
Anyone else remember this old map from the 1980s? It was a satirical commentary about Ronald Reagan’s worldview, who, for those of you too young to remember, was the last Republican president that modern Republicans would consider to be too liberal to vote for today.
A creative way to fight landlord exploitation
Ever wonder how much the tenants before you paid for rent — and how much you’re being screwed over by your landlord? If you’ve lived in the Bay Area — or any gentrifying city — in the past decade, then the answer is yes.
Well, a Canada-based initiative, My Old Apartment, is helping Canadians fight rent increases in the most creative way we’ve seen: via good old-fashioned “snail mail.”
The idea is that people send cards to their former rental addresses to let the new tenants know how much they were charged in rent and if what the new…
It felt like a new beginning
When I moved to San Francisco, I got an apartment in a small building in North Beach.
The ground floor was the garage, the second floor was mine, and on the top floor were a couple of German engineers who worked at Salesforce. My apartment didn’t see much other than the basketball court across the street, but the roof deck had a pretty cool view of the bay, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Fisherman’s Wharf.
After a few months, I was still only half moved into the apartment. My Menlo Park startup had recently crashed, and all I had to…
County supervisors nixed a plan to turn a hotel into housing for the homeless
Being a NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard) is basically someone who feels like this: Sure, we want to help vulnerable people — but, like, not if it inconveniences me in the slightest. The Bay Area is full of these folks, who support the idea of housing homeless people in theory, but won’t tolerate it their neighborhood.
Marin has gotten the reputation of taking NIMBYism to the extreme over the years. Lots of things have led to the county being closed off and elitist in many ways, including a lack of public transit as an intentional decision to keep some…
Predatory loans, lawsuits, and foreclosed homes show blatant racism within Oakland’s housing system
In no way, shape, or form am I considered the ideal prospective homeowner. I’m mired in student loan debt, addicted to Depop, and occasionally use a credit card to “go all out” and order Chinese food. It’s safe to say that I won’t be able to take out a mortgage anytime soon. But whether I live in a single room occupancy in the Tenderloin I just moved out of or the studio in West Oakland I just moved into, I consider the Bay Area my home — and it doesn’t hurt to dream. …
Friday Five
We’re now in a renter’s market, so the odds are finally in your favor
As we’ve talked about in our The Californian’s Dilemma series this week, many locals are presently poised with the question of should I stay or should I go — amid a time marked by a worsening global pandemic, ongoing wildfires, and hazy air conditions that we just can’t seem to shake loose. Because of all that, San Francisco, as well as other major cities, now boast a renter’s market — the first in over a decade.
Stories have come out about locals successfully negotiating a rent reduction with their landlords, who are incentivized to have them stay and not have…
An entire industry is cropping up to lure them out of the state
By now, you’ve probably heard (in near nauseating amounts) about the alleged mass exodus from California given the widespread adoption of remote work and the fact that the pandemic and wildfires have stripped away many of our state’s amenities.
A recent poll by job-search database Hired showed some 47% of all Bay Area tech workers are poised to get out of Dodge and find more affordable lifestyles in other parts of the country. That’s a whole lot of liberals moving elsewhere. And there’s an entire industry cropping up to make money off of helping them get out.
Interestingly, though, CalMatters…
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