Capitalism is great. For every need, there’s a product to fill it. Even in the deeply adulterated version of capitalism practiced in places like California, the spirit of free enterprise still shines through in places. Mind you, California could use a lot less commie horse squeeze and a lot more unadulterated capitalism, preferably the kind of free-market capitalism that would make Ayn Rand clap her hands in glee. But California’s “Commie Lite” system has wrought its damage, particularly in housing, where one must have three bags full of money to get an apartment that would set you back no more than a 12-pack of cheap beer a night in any civilized setting.
But capitalism is hard to stamp out completely. Now, a San Francisco startup is offering a solution to the city’s astronomical housing prices: Pods.
It’s been two topsy-turvy years for Brownstone Shared Housing since the startup opened up its tiny bed “pods” for rent in San Francisco’s SoMa neighborhood — without the necessary permits — in 2023. The startup’s 26 to 30-pod complex in Mint Plaza has withstood complaints from city officials, outlasted the threat of debilitating fees and, recently, avoided an eviction threat.
All the while, Brownstone has rented beds to a rotating cast of tech startup founders, immigrants and other new-to-the-city characters willing to stay in barely private, 4-foot-tall boxes for $700 a month. And now, CEO James Stallworth is ramping up Brownstone’s ambitions.
He told SFGATE on Wednesday that the startup is close to leasing a new space not far from Mint Plaza, big enough for 100 pods. But it would likely be the last building Brownstone runs itself — Stallworth also wants to shift to a franchise model, where San Francisco’s landlords would tap into his pool of applicants by converting their offices into space for pod housing. His goal is lofty in the extreme: 10,000 new pods downtown.
“We’re not doing this just, you know, for self-gratification,” Stallworth said. “Our goal is to create as much housing as people need.”
Well, if their goal was really a capitalist one, it would be “…to make as much money as we can,” but one just doesn’t go around saying things like that in San Francisco these days.
Note the size of these things; an earlier SFGate story describes these things.
Startup founders are paying $700 a month to stay in bed “pods” — tiny, semi-open boxes that only fit a single twin mattress and stand just 4 feet tall — according to media reports this week. The pods, made of steel and wood with a blackout curtain at one end, are arranged in a two-high, 14-long grid; residents share five bathrooms and a few common spaces, but don’t have a full kitchen or any laundry machines.
The fact that they are charging a monthly rent says a lot – as in, people are using these as residences.
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Now, Japan is famous for something similar. The country’s famous “pod hotels” are mostly found in the big cities, like Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, and so forth. I’ve never stayed in one, in all my wanderings in the Land of the Rising Sun, but I’m familiar with them, and their use; they are mostly located near train stations, and are most often (I’m told) used by people who got too drunk and missed the last train home. People don’t live in them.
Look, this is a creative solution to a serious problem, and I applaud these guys for coming up with it. But it isn’t and shouldn’t be thought of as a permanent or even a long-term solution. The Bay Area in its entirety needs to relax on housing regulations and zoning. They need to return to a free housing market, in which developers and entrepreneurs can design and build livable housing, not pods, with their own kitchens, bathrooms, in all sizes and shapes to meet all needs. Pods aren’t a long-term solution. They are a symptom – a symptom of a city captured by socialist nitwits.
As it happens, I was able to obtain some totally unscripted, totally impromptu video of a San Francisco pod-dweller greeting a friend after emerging in the morning. Watch:
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