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houseofnoel t1_itg9yfb wrote

Reply to comment by houseofnoel in Email City Council to Abolish Minimum Parking Requirements! City Council is meeting at 5:30pm on Monday, October 24th to discuss making it easier and cheaper to build new housing by eliminating requirement for unneeded parking spaces by Responsible-Bath2778

Also copying a comment I posted elsewhere on this thread, because I think it’s important to understand the economics of housing here:

Imagine the US government told auto dealers they could only sell 100 cars a year. Which cars do you think they’d focus on selling? Toyota Corollas? Of course not, they’d sell exactly 100 luxury vehicles, where the highest profit margins are. However, auto dealerships are free to sell as many cars as they want, hence we end up with all sorts of cars on the road, at all sorts of price points. Don’t you see how it’s the same with housing construction? That the totality of local zoning laws limit the construction of new housing so much that developers only build luxury units? But if it was even half as easy, legally, to build and sell housing as it was cars, then they’d collectively build and sell a lot more housing units? Taking away parking minimums is one small step toward removing the barriers to mass housing construction. In my hypothetical, it’s like letting auto dealerships sell 105 cars instead of 100. Yes, they’ll still be luxury cars, but that’s only because you haven’t relaxed restrictions enough.

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Goldenrule-er t1_itit3hq wrote

This is so dumb. There are greater margins for luxury condo sales. If more housing could be constructed in an indemand market such as this, you'll have more overpriced luxury condos-- unless it's gov mandated. Car dealers aren't even close to the situation Cambridge is in. Dealerships have allllll types of buyers. Your analogy isn't even remotely close. Quit spamming.

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houseofnoel t1_itj3ci2 wrote

Dealerships have all types of buyers but housing doesn’t? I don’t think you grasped my analogy at all—the literal point was that car dealerships aren’t in the same situation because we DON’T heavily regulate the manufacture and sale of cars. The margins for luxury condo sales are so high BECAUSE new development of ANY kind is so restricted. I’m not spamming, it’s what any person with a basic knowledge of business or economics would tell you.

Edit: Also, if your concern is too many cars in cities, isn’t the logical solution to BAN MORE CARS (rather than ban more housing, which at best indirectly affects the number of new cars in the city)?

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