Reply to Is there a coherent argument that loosening zoning laws will lead to affordable housing in DC?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I hear this constantly asserted, as if it were self-evidently true, but cannot figure out how it could possibly be correct.

There's 700,000 people in the District. There's 5 million in the suburbs. If you add 30,000 housing units in DC, they will instantly be soaked up by people in the suburbs looking for shorter commutes.

As people move into DC from Falls Church and Rockville and Fairfax, their old places will open up for other people. Other people will move into those places from suburbs even further out, which will open up slots in places like Chantilly or Columbia or wherever else those people are coming from and that would put downward pressure on housing prices in the suburbs they've left.

But how does any of that lead to affordable housing in DC?[/quote]

Increasing density will tend make housing more expensive, not less, because if you have a lot of people living in a small area, then businesses want to be there too. Once grocery stores and bars and restaurants and stores move into an area, then everyone wants to live there and prices go up accordingly. It's gentrification on steroids. Look at Navy Yard. [/quote]

Basically you're saying that people want to live in dense neighborhoods, and businesses want to be in dense neighborhoods - so shouldn't we make it possible to have more dense neighborhoods?[/quote]

Basically, I'm saying increasing density drives housing prices up, not down, and speeds gentrification. [/quote]

It's not possible to "gentrify" Ward 3 D.C., which is already wealthy and expensive.[/quote]

,You bet it is! Up zoning Puts more pressure on affordable rent controlled housing in Ward 3.  Developers buy and tear down or upscale older apartment buildings that are rent controlled. The result is ongoing gentrification on a localized scale in  Ward 3 and the eviction of people on more limited incomes who currently enjoy the advantages of living in upper Northwest.  This puts more pressure on affordable rent controlled housing in W3. Developers by and tear down or upscale over apartment buildings that a rent controlled. The result is on doing gentrification on a localized scale in Ward three, and the evection of people on more limited incomes who currently enjoy the advantages of living in upper Northwest  Ward 3 still has a fairly large stock of rent controlled housing, and it is vital that DC does all that it can to preserve this important source of affordable housing that exists today![/quote]

Why do anti development nuts keep trotting this ridiculous argument out?

Ward 3 does not have a fairly large stock of rent controlled housing - rent control units are a small percentage of rental units in DC and the share of rent control units in Ward 3 is proportional to the rest of the city.

The rent control units in Ward 3 (and DC in general) are not income screened and almost no new rent control units are being generated in any DC neighborhoods.  So rent control units are of really pretty marginal value when it comes to affordable housing and they are serving no constructive role when it comes to expanding the number of affordable units.

Also the law requires any rent control units be replaced if a building with rent control units is torn down.

And there happens to be exactly a single example of this happening in Ward 3.  And that building, as required, will be replacing the rent control units with new units.

Since this hasn't happened in Ward 3 it is not a factor in any gentrification in Ward 3.

And the suggestion that Ward 3 is going to be gentrified is just absurd - the ward is overwhelmingly white and wealthy.

You, or others, keep making this absurd argument and I, and others, keep debunking your absurd arguments which you never bother to clarify or back up with any citations or evidence or even basic sound arguments.

But really there is no need to do more than point out the absurdity of your point about Ward 3 being under threat to gentrification.[/quote]

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