Housing as platform for Bay Area economy
March 2, 2008 – 9:47 pmThe Silicon Valley Index by Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network and Silicon Valley Community Foundation was released last week, and it showed that middle-income jobs are becoming scarcer, while low-income jobs are growing fast and high-income jobs are growing moderately. The SF Chronicle editorialized about it today (3/2/08), and this quote stood out for me:
“If there was just one thing that would make a difference, it would be having a larger stock of housing at affordable price points in the Bay Area,” said Sean Randolph, president of the Bay Area Council Economic Institute. “But the main reason it hasn’t happened is because a lot of communities don’t want to see growth.”
I’ve been saying that San Mateo County has outsourced our affordable housing for the middle- to lower-income employee base. How much can we do that before that base simply erodes?
– Chris Mohr
