So conflicted about stories like this because people shouldn't give in to entitled asshole companies, but it is also selfish to stand in the way of increasing #UrbanDensity.
https://www.npr.org/2024/03/16/1236266122/florida-man-refused-sell-home-developer-coral-gables
And it is further complicated by the fact that all this development is happening in a community that is going to be drowned by rising sea levels and hurricanes, which is obviously not mentioned at all in the story.
@mikemccaffrey An easy solution to this is rent control. Suddenly nobody's beating down Capote's door, since they can't make money on it anymore! Once the desperate corporates can't get away with their crimes, the area can be developed for higher density by the public government, with Capote's participation.
Or not, since as you say, why build huge apartments in a flood zone?
@mikemccaffrey Should add this is a hotel not apartments, and anyone building a *hotel* has thereby revoked their right to exist. There's no increasing urban density here, just grift and tyranny.
@cy But hotels are supposed to be the ethical alternative to AirBnB since they don't take housing units off the market!
@mikemccaffrey I can think of at least two places in Portland that look like this:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figo_House
- https://www.wweek.com/bars/2016/02/10/the-dockside-saloon-will-live-forever-in-a-slot-in-this-building-just-like-the-house-in-up/
@anniegreens I wonder how much additional housing would have been created if they didn't need to work around those buildings. Could be that they were fine using that space to allow light and air into the units.
@mikemccaffrey I'll buy the "additional housing" argument as soon as surface parking lots disappear and out-of-country buyers are not allowed to purchase condos and let them sit empty for real estate investment purposes. Also all the monolithic "extra storage" buildings popping up everywhere.
Seems the people owning those two examples I linked to didn't want to sell and they're being used for other purposes. I'd rather see parking lot owners be forced to sell over two historic structures.
@anniegreens I'm curious at how much of the public storage explosion is the fact that it's so much easier to buy things than give them away responsibility, or whether people just can't afford houses that can hold all their things.
@mikemccaffrey I've wondered that too. I think it's a combination like what you said.