Key jobs that don't pay enough to live in San Francisco (or some other major cities)

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by Pedestrian

I mentioned I went to college with about half the class being from boarding schools, but most of the rest were from elite day schools or top quality public schools (e.g. New York's Stuyvesant and Bronx Hgh School of Science, New Trier High in IL, New Canaan High in CT etc). The city kids mostly managed to get to and from their schools on public transit in NYC in a pre-Giuliani age when NYC was more gritty than today. I don't know if the credit for their success goes to their parents or the schools. I think a lot may go to their culture (yeah quite a few Jews in that group and today it would probably be Asians).

Yes, the elite test-in NYC high schools have all switched from majority Jewish to majority Asian. Stuyvesant, probably the best, is 70%+ Asian. Secular Jews in the city tend to attend magnet publics or secular privates, and religious Jews obviously attend Yeshivas.

The elite high schools are 100% test admittance. They take the top scores, and that's that. Many white parents think they are too oriented towards rote learning.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by 10023

The problem with inner city schools is not the schools, it's the inner city. It's the gangs that infest the schools and the neighborhood, it's the stuff that kids get up to outside of school, and it's their uneducated parents.

This is purely anecdotal, but I suspect U.S. boarding schools have gotten a lot less domestic in recent years. Wealthy NYC parents, in particular, would send their kids to the elite New England boarding schools, especially after 8th grade. This was especially true from the 60's through the 80's, when the city had enormous problems.

Nowadays, I know few parents who send their kids to boarding schools. The Upper East Side and the like are packed with newer private schools, or older schools with expanding enrollment. The city is cleaner, safer, more kid-friendly, etc. and helicopter parents generally aren't sending their kids to the boonies.

There were also a number of high profile sex scandals in some of the most famous U.S. boarding schools, which probably had an impact.

[ChargerCarl]

Originally Posted by Crawford

People aren't being priced out. This whole "no one can afford to live in SF and NYC and Seattle and DC" is something being pushed by people who don't actually live in these places.

I know tons of people who have come and gone from NYC, and never once did I hear someone claim they were "priced out of the city" as if they had no choice but to live in a garbage can if they were to remain. People are well aware you get less space in these places, and adjust. Most of these places have been ungodly expensive since forever.

And the whole "we need to demolish neighborhoods and build even higher density to making housing cheaper" is another idea pushed by outsiders, not locals. Good luck finding actual Manhattanites, regardless of political affiliation, who would endorse such a policy.

Yes, people definitely are being priced out. Why do you think California has a net negative domestic migration rate?

Originally Posted by Crawford

And the whole "we need to demolish neighborhoods and build even higher density to making housing cheaper" is another idea pushed by outsiders, not locals. Good luck finding actual Manhattanites, regardless of political affiliation, who would endorse such a policy.

Right, because incumbents have a strong financial incentive to engage in NIMBYism and extract economic rents out of prospective residents.

This is exactly why local control of land use policy leads to shortages.

[mhays]

You're correct of course. The first one is obvious to 99% of us. The second depends on scale, like a 2:1 replacement might be a bad idea while a 10:1 replacement should typically be a home run. But also obvious to most of us.

[Pedestrian]

SPUR Talk: Why is Housing so Expensive?
By Roger Rudick
May 31, 2017

The San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR), during a lunchtime presentation yesterday . . . listed all the reasons housing prices are so high and offered some suggestions for how advocates can help supply get more in line with demand. “Sales prices have continued to rise–most new condos are in the $1,200 to $1,400 per square foot range,” said Mark Hogan of OpenScope Studio, which designs in-fill housing projects . . . .

http://sf.streetsblog.org/2017/05/31...-so-expensive/