Conservative San Francisco Chronicle columnist Debra Saunders could not get much of an answer from Mayor Ed Lee when she asked him about the city’s housing shortage, though he introduced a seven-point plan in January. She does, however, have something of a solution of her own: house people on “Google barges,” such as the mysterious floating structure that the company built last fall in the middle of the San Francisco Bay.
Saunders writes that given the likely success of Proposition B, the preservationist/environmentalist effort to prevent high-rise buildings from being erected along the city’s waterfront, there are only radical solutions left:
If backers win passage of Proposition B, it will block high-rise development. That leaves the bay itself to provide new shelter for San Francisco newbies.
The answer to San Francisco’s housing crunch: Offer affordable housing in Google barges, like the mystery barge Google constructed on Treasure Island last year. Google barges could be the perfect accessory for people who wear Google glasses – and they’d be harder to steal.
She seems to have been joking–somewhat.