I Visited the Epicenter of the U.S. Housing Crisis

Caltrain is now electrified, with an improved timetable — so I rode it up and down the San Francisco peninsula to check in on Silicon Valley, America's most expensive region for housing. And man do I have thoughts.

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CityNerd background: Caipirinha in Hawaii by Carmen María and Edu Espinal (YouTube music library)

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[danielbaulig]

Probably a good thing you didn’t get off in Atherton, not only due to a lack of sidewalks.

I used to live in Menlo Park (next stop along Caltrain) and once accidentally got off in Atherton coming home from the city.

It was in the afternoon and a nice day so I decided to make the 30 min or so walk to Menlo Park. I had just moved from Germany and that seemed like the most normal thing to do.

Besides realizing that there weren’t any side walks, it took less than 5 minutes for a cop car to pull up next to me and ask me what I was doing in the neighborhood. I just told him that I accidentally got off at the wrong station and was waking to Menlo Park and he just let me continue, but it was very clear that random people strolling around Atherton are suspicious and not welcome.

[shanstereo]

Atherton also has the highest pedestrian death rate along the El Camino corridor section because they refuse to put street lights as well as no sidewalks. Driving at night on El Camino from Redwood City hitting Atherton goes from light to almost pitch black just headlights then 3.5 miles hitting Menlo Park light again with street lights. Seems like they have calculated human life against property values and chosen the profit for Atherton property owners.

[tomtaber]

Measure T will raise the height and density limit for areas in San Mateo that are close to downtown and the three Caltrain stations. That is exactly where new housing needs to be built. Unfortunately, there are lots of NIMBYs living here who want to keep the height limit to 55 feet and only 50 housing units per acre in those parts of town. If you live San Mateo be sure to tell your neighbors to vote YES on Measure T.

[stripybread]

City Nerd may not be pregnant, but he never fails to deliver

[ArleyLewis]

Thanks for covering my commute, Ray!

Your comment at 21:35 describes one of our big problems here:
"...you roll by an unbroken procession of auto repair shops, almost hidden and out of sight from drivers but readily apparent to train commuters, it just reminds you what a huge scam so much of suburban living is..."

Exactly. In fact, in Belmont, those repair shops use our main bikeable north-south road (Old County Road) as the parking lot for the cars they're working on. This means that we bike commuters on our way to and from CalTrain suffer frequent close passes from cars on this narrow road, half of which is given over to partially disassembled cars.

Think about that for a second: The city of Belmont is subsidizing the Old County Road car repair shops by giving them free space on the street to park inoperable vehicles!

Kudos to Belmont's better neighbors, San Mateo and San Carlos. Both cities ended this freebie for their autobody shops and instead installed bike lanes!

[PhysicsMarc]

Some more fun facts about Atherton: They shut down the CalTrain stop for "safety", they also disallow train horns at the crossing. El Camino Real going through Atherton is one of the deadliest stretches of roads, with much higher pedestrain deaths than in Menlo Park/Redwood City portions of El Camino. The kicker is that they claim "there is no money in the budget for streetlights" IN THE RICHEST CITY IN THE USA.

I think Atherton looks so much worse given that pedestrianized downtown Redwood City is just a few miles away.

I've lived in the Bay Area for about 4 years now, and I honestly feel like it's the biggest fumble in terms of urban environment I have ever seen. The potential is so, so, so high. Perfect weather, plenty of resources, lots of diversity. If we installed a good rail system and build more housing I honestly think we could compete with NYC for being the best urban area in the US, but the difference between potential and reality is so stark. I am glad they are making incremental progress with pedestrianizing streets near Caltrain stations, but we really need a total overhaul.

[ilanrosenbaum]

AFAIK as somebody who grew up in the area, Hillsborough and Atherton break California low income housing laws but get away with it because money

[atm]

As a native son of San Mateo County who has visited 99% of the locations shown, COVID was really the harbinger of the mass pedestrianization of our downtowns. Prior to 2020, pretty much none of the downtown areas you went to were pedestrianized. Now, the vast majority of them are, because merchants and businesses realized that increased foot traffic means way higher profits.

[nomadzophiel]

If the people working in a walkable city can't afford to live there, it's not a city. It's a theme park.

[awrenceofarabia]

As a San Mateo native who was priced out by not working in tech these are spot on critiques. The convenience of walkable urbanism is there if you're upper income while literally millions of others have little choice but to commute to these places via car sometimes for multiple hours.

I'm really encouraged to see the peninsula staring to move the needle but it feels like my kids will be adults by the time we could afford to move back.

[BirdsNNVA]

You cracked me up with your comment about how replacing a flat grade crossing every ten years means the project will be done about the time California high speed rail opens.

[Christian-vpvp]

Can't believe you're over 300k subs I remember joining when you still would intro with a stadium that could fit your sub count, like 30k or something!

[iamfishhead]

Hey, I'm in my apartment across from the 4th and King station right now. I'm really enjoying these shots of my neighborhood more than I should. Not finished with the video yet, but, so far, it's accurate.

[chris]

As an sf resident I appreciate the positive comments about the city and fair criticisms! Still way too many cars, I’m hopeful for muni and bike improvements to encourage more mode splits soon.

[GirtonOramsay]

17:29 To answer your curiousity - I came to southern California as a remote tech worker, then got laid off after a month of moving here. I'm a min wage worker trying to make ends meet now and wonder the same damn thing...turns out most of my coworkers either own a house for 20+ yrs, live with family in their upper 20s (including me), or have 4+ roommates and pay 40-50% of their paycheck to rent. For reference, I moved from a very affordable area of the country where I could have my own apartment.

[BirdsNNVA]

When I lived in Palo Alto 1978-1981, i was told that BART did not extend down the Peninsula because the upscale people in the south did not want the riffraff of the north to have easy access to their area. Same with Robert Moses making the bridges over roads connecting the NYC burroughs to Long Island low, so a city bus could not fit under them.

[robinmorris]

Thanks for featuring San Mateo. I saw about 8 yes on T signs on my run yesterday in the yards of SFHs and only one no on T sign, so I'm hopeful. This is to override the very Nimby measure Y, which won a few years ago by less 100 votes. I have a sign, too, of course.

Downtown San Mateo has a walk score of 96, so it is a great place for high density housing.

In general, the peninsula is a great place to live if you can afford it. I wish more people could. Coming from a life where driving 20-30 minutes to get anywhere was normal, it is so wonderful not having to drive regularly.

Btw El Camino Real is pronounced the Spanish way, but in 18 years living near it, IDK if I've ever heard anyone say the Real part. It is just El Camino.

[sophon]

Sunnyvale born and raised here. I've spent a lot of time in each of these cities, and you nailed it, point after point! This is why you're my GOAT CityNerd :-) shared w/ everyone

[beandoggle]

All those peninsula downtown main streets went carless during the pandemic and thankfully it stuck.

[howardthompson]

I'm confident, without checking, that the clip of Highway 101 wasn't taken during the "rush" hour.