Category: Uncategorized
That Force Pushing Us
There was something that drove humans during the development of the atomic bomb. This sense that we (as Americans) have to push this technology forward, no matter what the outcomes of it are, in part because if we don’t, someone else will. We’re seeing the same thing now, with the development of AI. I am of the opinion that it’s pointless to restrict it too much — if we do so, we’ll just fall behind as others continue to push it forward.
This force is of course always there, but I think we tend to just notice it more when there is a sense of some level of peril. It’s the result of curiosity, discovery, and competition. In a lot of ways, it happens seemingly against our will, even though it’s individuals that are driving it forward, as if we have no other option, than to just go along with it.
I just find this interesting on some level, because it’s something that’s just baked into how us humans work, and therefore, it’s just a property of the universe itself. And I of course don’t mean for this to sound overly “mystical” or anything, it’s just a natural output of the laws of the universe, which is just, interesting.
But to my knowledge, this process doesn’t really have a name. Perhaps it does, but I’m not aware of it. And it seems like something that’s a large enough driver of happenings in the universe that it really should have a name.
The Office of Community Housing
The Office of Community Housing is a city-run division that works to coordinate individual citizens looking to contribute their own funds towards multiunit real estate developments for the sake of satisfying their own need for housing.
Interested parties will work with a small team from the office, who gather requirements, develop the project costs, and coordinate bids from qualified architects, engineers, and construction companies.
Office Goals
The primary goal for the Office of Community Housing is to ensure affordable and responsible housing for our residents. We do this by distributing the project cost to all future residents. Because these aren’t traditional development projects, with marketing costs and developer profits involved, unit costs stay well below commercial development prices.
Project Scale
The office will handle development projects with a minimum of three units. Our largest projects to date include the 17-story Cheshire Condominiums and the 23-story Walker Tower.
Unit Pricing
Future residents’ units are priced according to comparable units in existing residential buildings. This factors in unit sizes, amenities, cardinal direction, views, what level the unit is on, and other factors. Each unit is then priced to represent a proportion of total project cost with these factors in mind. The project coordinators then help to match potential future tenants to specific units.
Reselling Units
Resell prices on units are restricted. For the first five years of the building’s life, all units are priced based on the above Unit Price Section, plus market appreciation. After five years, the tenant begins building ownership in the unit, which, after thirty years, they will be full owners of their unit. If they sell during that time, they’ll receive the market appreciation amount, multiplied by the amount of ownership they have at the time of sale. The remainder of any profit gets inserted into the city’s low-income housing funds program.
Purchasing Units
Oftentimes there are many interested parties when an existing unit goes up for sale, since the prices on Office of Community Housing projects are drastically lower than market rate units. Usually a lottery system is required, since the unit price is fixed.
A Strong History, a Bright Future
Over our 15 year history, the Office of Community Housing has made it possible for thousands of citizens to become home owners. The department will continue to grow and adapt as needed to continue to be a powerful factor in the livability of our city.
Optimizing Population Density for Scientific Discovery and Technological Advancement
In a previous post, I started playing with thoughts around there being an ideal amount of population density — certainly more than the density of suburban development, but also perhaps less than some of the maximum densities we see in some very isolated pockets in a few North American cities. But there is obviously varying optimal amounts of density based on what we’re trying to optimize for (and another quick thought — perhaps it makes sense to sacrifice extremely high densities in one area to distribute the positive effects of density into other areas, although we’re probably nowhere near the levels of density where that would need to be a leading consideration).
There seems to be some level of “network effect” in place, where higher density areas are just more productive in terms of innovation, scientific discovery, GDP, etc… It would be interesting to see how that lines up with optimizations in terms of citizen health and happiness. It seems like as optimizing for scientific discovery and technological advancement (along with citizen well-being) would be an interesting aspect of urban design to investigate and design for.