> These buildings aren't illegal to build because of safety reasons or any construction deficiencies - they are only illegal due to regulations called zoning laws that San Francisco passed to restrict the density of housing in certain areas, originally to keep poor minorities out of white neighborhoods.
You're going to need some sort of evidence to back that up. Most of the restrictions are around keeping current homeowner's values artificially inflated.
"White communities are more likely to have strict land use regulations (and whites are more likely to support those regulations).[25][26] Strict land use regulations are an important driver of housing segregation along racial lines in the United States.[25]"
>> blacks moving into a neighborhood would decrease property values.
I'm not from U.S but why would black people decrease property values? Isn't this really about poor people (that in the U.S are more likely to be black) decrease property values?
I'm reading this claim every day across so many subjects now—that the goal was racist in origin. Not knowing anything about SF myself, I am however tempted to ask if __classism__ is the better culprit. Classism can masquerade as racism (as in this example), creating the same outcomes, but it requires a different antidote to treat.
