It's against narrative, but this is one of the ways SF's downtown is actually extremely well positioned, assuming the trend of office conversions actually takes off.
SF floorplates are usually tiny due to historic biases of our Planning Commission (the dog whistle used to be 'we don't want a skyline of cereal boxes').
In fact, looking at the data [0] most of SF's residential tower floorplates are bigger than SF's office floorplates.
> (the dog whistle used to be 'we don't want a skyline of cereal boxes')
Out of curiosity, what was the actual reason behind the dog whistle? "Segregate black people by... having smaller floorplates"? That doesn't make much sense to me.
One way SF planners made it hard/less economical to build towers was to force the higher floors to be smaller than lower floors (Transamerica pyramid being the near-satirical example).
That has contributed significantly to SF's inability to build enough housing for the people that live there.
Also a dog-whistle is any statement that sounds palatable to the mainstream, but has an underlying meaning to a politically motivated group. It doesn't only apply to today's American right.
Yeah, I'm not getting it either. The "cereal boxes" in New York and Chicago are full of offices, which are full of -- well, it's not all rich people, but a lot of them are rich.
In addition, as climate change affects more and more places, I think SF will be the winner. It maintains a naturally air conditioned 65 degrees all summer long during a decade that has seen even Portland Oregon go into the high triple digits.
Apparently not because these are the hottest days in sf history:
1. September 1, 2017 – 106 degrees
T-2. June 14, 2000 – 103 degrees
T-2. July 17, 1988 – 103 degrees
T-4. September 2, 2017 – 102 degrees
T-4. October 5, 1987 – 102 degrees
T-6. September 14, 1971 – 101 degrees
T-6. May 30, 2001 – 101 degrees
T-6. June 14, 1961 – 101 degrees
T-6. September 16, 1913 – 101 degrees
T-6. September 8, 1904 – 101 degrees
T-11. October 4, 1987 – 100 degrees
T-11. September 8, 1984 – 100 degrees
9 of the next 10 days in Dallas would be on that list. 3 days from last year in Seattle would be in the top 5 days on that list.
We are comparable to the extremes of a coastal eastern city, with significantly lower temperatures between the peaks. There’s not many places in the US that have never seen 106.
As for water, 80%+ of it in California is used for food that is exported elsewhere.
Strawberries in December in New York are much more at risk than humans in CA.
As for fires, nowhere in the world is safe from that, as this summer is proving.
SF floorplates are usually tiny due to historic biases of our Planning Commission (the dog whistle used to be 'we don't want a skyline of cereal boxes').
In fact, looking at the data [0] most of SF's residential tower floorplates are bigger than SF's office floorplates.
[0]https://data.sfgov.org/Housing-and-Buildings/Map-of-Tall-Bui...