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The Insane Battle To Sabotage a New Apartment Building Explains San Francisco's Housing Crisis

ReasonTV · documentary · Watch on YouTube

Transit, cities & urban planningLabor, work & inequality

What it is

ReasonTV tells the story of Bob Tillman, who spent nearly five years and $1.4 million trying to convert his San Francisco laundromat into apartments. It walks through the permitting, appeals and neighborhood opposition he faced.

Why Hacker News recommends it

It is HN's go-to concrete example of how local regulation and NIMBYism block new housing in San Francisco and California.

  • 3 people recommended it
  • 4 different months
  • 2 strong recommendations
  • first 2019, last 2025

What HN commenters said

  1. “Watch this video - it's eye opening”

    Shows how politics and citizen opposition block higher-density housing.

    pneill, 2019-06 · Strong recommendation · in “$1B for 20,000 Bay Area homes”

  2. “Here is an awesome video documenting one persons struggle to create an apartment building”

    Documents one person's struggle to build an apartment building in SF.

    ransom1538, 2019-01 · Recommendation · in “SF restaurants are suffocating”

  3. “this video does do a good job of conveying a sense of how ridiculous the situation has gotten”

    Conveys how ridiculous the obstacles to new housing in SF have become.

    brianpgordon, 2019-01 · Recommendation · in “SF restaurants are suffocating”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: nimby, zoning, san francisco, housing crisis, permitting, reason

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