Every time I've visited the Valley area I can't help but notice the enormous difference in density between San Francisco and the Valley in general.
Where parts of San Francisco are jammed with houses, every nook occupied, not unlike parts of Manhattan or Boston, there are large swaths of the Valley with nothing but parking lots.
Any time I've asked a local why the densities aren't higher, why a ten story apartment building is such an anomaly, I get some vague grumbling about earthquakes. San Francisco has a number very tall buildings with a few even built on the side of a literal mountain, and all of these have survived several significant quakes, so I doubt this is the actual reason.
It's absolutely surreal the amount of under-utilized real-estate one must drive past or around simply to get where they're going.
Where parts of San Francisco are jammed with houses, every nook occupied, not unlike parts of Manhattan or Boston, there are large swaths of the Valley with nothing but parking lots.
Any time I've asked a local why the densities aren't higher, why a ten story apartment building is such an anomaly, I get some vague grumbling about earthquakes. San Francisco has a number very tall buildings with a few even built on the side of a literal mountain, and all of these have survived several significant quakes, so I doubt this is the actual reason.
It's absolutely surreal the amount of under-utilized real-estate one must drive past or around simply to get where they're going.