What’s behind this sameness? While it’s been well explained before,

I think only part of the story has been told

riiiight - 'cuz we gotta get a mid-level flack from a multinational finance firm to give us the corporations' point of view from the false perspective of those poor disadvantaged techbro YIMBYs for whom zoning is always, has always, shall always be oppression of their FREEDOMS!

Look. Zoning laws are the most socialist shit we've got in this country. They keep me from knocking my house over and putting up a thirteen story condo tower with no parking for my neighbors to deal with. They keep Unocal from spreading their fuel depot into every adjacent neighborhood as they run out of tanker space. They keep the guy up the street from curbstoning fifty fucking cars for sale all over your neighborhood. They prevent your upstairs neighbor from opening a band rehearsal space in his spare bedroom but only between 10pm and 7am because he works graveyard shift.

I'ma have to start using a word I can search for whenever this YIMBY zoning bullshit comes up because I've said the same thing a dozen times over: zoning laws are designed to keep neighborhoods livable. Don't like the zoning laws? Apply for a zoning variance. Don't get a zoning variance? Change the zoning laws. Can't change the zoning laws? BUILD SOMEWHERE ELSE. San Francisco rents took it in the ass during COVID because turns out nobody wants to pay that much to live in San Francisco if they don't have to. So why do they normally? Because bullshit predatory corporations don't have to pay for public works and can make bullshit predatory techbros pay 80% of their salary to live in a shitty 1BR in Oakland. I mean look how fucking transparent this bullshit is:

Stick-built five-over-ones, while more affordable than steel-or-metal-framed buildings, are still massive construction projects that require a lot of money, in addition to the upfront acquisition costs of the land. The more expensive land gets, the more units have to be built to yield a return for the developers.

The more expensive land gets, THE MORE INCENTIVE YOU HAVE TO BUILD OVER FIVE STORIES. And the more exclusive multifamily gets, the more "those with the means to choose" OPT FOR DIFFERENTIATION. The existence of 5-story stick-built crackerboxes is a sign of ECONOMY, not expense but since it's always a zoning problem, we can make all the world's ills about some bullshit Ayn Rand-reading KPMG flack declaring that parking restrictions are going to be the downfall of architecture.

But sure. Let's blow up zoning laws. POOF you can suddenly build a skyscraper on your quarter-acre plot. Only, you can't. Because ballpark construction costs are gonna be $400-500/sf which means if you wanna build 1000sf house for you, you need a half-mil but if you wanna build a 1000sf for your ten closest friends you need FIVE MILLION DOLLARS. And corporations will always have an easier time finding five mil than you will. That's math, not tyranny.

This shit's pretty fucking basic: If you want to build an apartment building you buy up six or eight adjacent houses, put together a plan that meets or exceeds multifamily zoning requirements, put it in front of the city and council and if you win, roll the bulldozers. People do this shit ALL THE TIME but stupid techbro YIMBY fucks hate that whole "buy six or eight adjacent houses" part because it's hard and if the neighbors figure out what you're doing, they charge you more.

That's just fucking capitalism, operating under socialist controls, as Piketty has argued nearly all successful modern economies do.