Different stick, same horse

Beating the same horse as yesterday, here's a WW story on problems in the Portland rental market.  The elephant in the room is that most of the inner east side is reserved for single family housing.  Planners have sort of acknowledged the incongruity between their density goals and the infrastructure on hand, but the only solution they've posed is granny apartments.  They are nuts if they think that is a solution, if people don't want to live in their mom's basement why would they want to live in some other mom's basement?  And on the owner side if people can afford to buy a single family home in the city why would they take on the infrastructure cost and liability of creating a separate unit in exchange for low end rent?  Even in this puff piece they cite $1,200 per month in rent- exactly the high end niche that is already amply served.

The reality is that if Portland wants to encourage high population density it needs high density housing.  What exists  on much of the inner east side isn't it.