Sugarcane

[img[002-oldstreet.jpg]]\nThen one day, the rent started to go up, and up, and up. New neighbors moved in, but they worked such long days that no one knew their names. But they had money, and they kept coming, invading the street with the hums and beeps of their robot cars. \n\n[[Can it be stopped?|03-station]]

[img[025-hole.jpg]]\nFor the last hundred years, governments and corporations have consolidated, merging and combing to gain greater power and economies of scale. Meanwhile, households shrank, diluting and isolating individuals.\n\nThat divergence is finally ending, as communal living becomes mainstreamed. \n\n<<if $religion="true">>It's been said that the world is one family; perhaps, one day the prophecy will be fulfilled.<<else>> <<endif>> <<if $randomfamily="true">>It's not perfect but no one ever promised utopia - just something better than the previous norm.<<else>> <<endif>>\n\nThat's as far as the story goes for now.\n[[Start again to try a different path.|01-start]] \n<html><a href="http://www.firstcultural.com">Visit First Cultural Industries for more games and stories.</a></html>

[img[011-alley.jpg]]Taking a cue from worker cooperatives, the maximum income is set at 4 times the minimum wage. Unsurprisingly, the 1% is not happy, and in their usual fashion, sneaks in some loopholes. \n\n[[I guess we're just going to have to do away with money.|19-postmoney]]

[img[013-houses.jpg]]\nThought there was a lot of drama in those shows were residents vote to kick out people? Wait until you see the identity politics involved when residents vote to take in new people! \n\n[[Let's establish quotas for race, gender, income, etc.|14-quotas]] \n\n[[I don't want to deal with this. Isn't there an app for this?|16-random]]

<<silently>>\n<<set $random="true">\n<<endsilently>>[img[016-lookingup.jpg]]\nWhile random resident selection isn't perfect, at least the random number generator doesn't feel unappreciated when it gets scapegoated. \n\n[[Let's see how this goes in the longer term.|17-random]]

<<silently>>\n<<set $inclusionary="false">\n<<set $postmoney="false">\n<<set $communal="false">\n<<set $rationing="false">\n<<set $quotas="false">\n<<set $random="false">\n<<set $randomfamily="false">\n<<set $education="false">\n<<set $religion="false">\n<<endsilently>>[img[001-oldstreet.jpg]]\nNot so long ago in a city called San Francisco, everyone was welcome, and the paint on the bike lanes was greener on both sides of the street.\n\n[[Until one day...|02-gentrification]]\n\n[[I know how this story goes, skip ahead to the first decision.|05-city]]\n\n<html><a href="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=b5aca343f2978b66303db17200ce336b&result=4">I want to make my own story, let me download the 3D files</a> and <a href="sfgardens.tws">Twine source code (right click to save).</a></html>

<<silently>>\n<<set $communal="true">\n<<endsilently>>[img[008-birdseye.jpg]]\nAs video becomes an ever larger part of social media, it only makes sense that we all start living on reality shows.\n\n[[What could possibly go wrong?|13-communal]]

\n\n[img[000-title.jpg]]\n\nan interactive adventure into the future of housing by <html><a href="http://www.firstcultural.com">first cultural industries</a></html>\n\n[[begin story|01-start]]\n\n<html><a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/">Text and graphics CC0 1.0 Public Domain</a></html> <html><a href="http://twinery.org/">Made in the USA with Twine</a></html>\n\n\n\n\n

<<silently>>\n<<set $boring="true">\n<<endsilently>>[img[018-dawnmarket.jpg]]\nIn retrospect, it's easy to see how we got in a little bit over our heads. Back in the beginning, it was just about finding cheap rent. And all that time, the answer was right in front of us. Let's step aside from the activism and the social experimentation and do nothing for a moment...\n\n[[...and sure enough, it's no longer hip to live here.|20-boring]]\n

[img[009-skyline-view.jpg]]\nThe new $15 living wage is a partial success - hipsters, with their limited income, can no longer outbid residents for housing. However, yuppies and hipsters with large trust funds continue to drive rents ever higher.\n\n[[How about lowering the maximum wage?|11-livingwage]]

[img[030-multitower.jpg]]\nLike mushrooms after the rain, more clusters of communities sprout up. \n\n<<if $postmoney="false">>Some folks complain about views being blocked, but guess what, that helps keep property values down and rent affordable.<<else>> <<endif>>\n\nThat's as far as the story goes for now.\n[[Start again to try a different path.|01-start]] \n<html><a href="http://www.firstcultural.com">Visit First Cultural Industries for more games and stories.</a></html>

[img[023-balcony.jpg]]\nJust when it seemed that this experiment would fizzle out as just another fad, conservatives got paranoid and decried random dating as a sign of the apocalypse, suddenly turning it into a political movement.\n\n[[Look, we're just pursuing happiness like everyone else.|25-communalfamily]]\n

[img[029-construction.jpg]]\nGood thing lots of folks studied construction management!\n\n[[Onwards to a beautiful new day!|30-expand]]

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<<silently>>\n<<set $rationing="true">\n<<endsilently>>[img[010-bright-colors.jpg]]\nHousing rationing, though controversial, promised to solve several major sources of housing scarcity.\n\nFirst, there were the rich, who occupied an excess of living space, sometimes merely as vacation homes or empty investments. Secondly, there were those whose family size had changed - maybe they broke up, or the kids had moved out.\n\nThe big challenge? What to do when someone has lots of extra rooms, but doesn't want to move to a smaller house or apartment?\n\n[[Mini-communes here we come!|08-communal]]

<<silently>>\n<<set $religion="true">\n<<endsilently>>[img[022-deck.jpg]]\nDon't worry, there's a method to the randomness. It's just how the Earth and the spirits lets you know what Ze knows to be the best path. Now if Ze would tell us where to house all these new converts...\n\n[[Why, build more homes, of course!|29-expand]]\n\n[[Help them start communities of their own!|25-communalfamily]]\n\n[[How about we just go back to providing four walls and a roof and leave the spirituality to the professionals?|18-boring]]\n

The Hanging Gardens of San Francisco

<<silently>>\n<<set $postmoney="true">\n<<endsilently>>[img[019-courtyard.jpg]]\nIs it utopia yet? Not quite - although housing is no longer allocated based on the ability to pay, it seems like it's still the same hipsters and yuppies moving in. Most troubling, these new residents seem even more overpriviledged, white, and normatively beautiful than before. It's probably too late to reintroduce money, but maybe...\n\n[[...Quotas will ensure that everyone has an equal chance at living here.|14-quotas]] \n\n[[...Humans can't be trusted to not discriminate, and resident selection should be left to teh computers.|16-random]] \n\n[[...This neighborhood is just too hip. Let's make it boring!|18-boring]] \n\n

[img[017-nightsky.jpg]]\nOf course, whoever wrote the random number generator forgot to consider what happens when people fall in love with people outside of the community.\n\n[[Let's make relationships random also! It's not like planned ones have a high success rate anyway.|21-randomfamily]] \n\n[[I'm starting to feel some weird vibes. Maybe we're becoming a cult!|22-religion]]\n\n[[I'm tired of dealing with this, I just want to go back to my room and game.|28-virtual]]

<<silently>>\n<<set $education="true">\n<<endsilently>>[img[027-night.jpg]]\nCongrats to the Hanging Gardens' first graduating class! In addition to facilitating residents sharing skills and learn new things, becoming a educational institution has <<if $postmoney="true">>increased our prestige among other communities<<else>>brought about numerous tax benefits<<endif>>.\n\nJust one thing though. As current residents graduate, where will they go? If they stay, where will new ones live?\n\n[[Maybe the building graduates with them?|24-age]] \n\n[[Can't we just build our way out of this?|29-expand]]

[img[005-skyline.jpg]]\nNow that all the cool people are out here, the suburbs have grown up. Housing costs have started to go up as well. Not wanting history to repeat, the question arises: how do we keep this place affordable?\n\n[[Inclusionary Housing.|06-inclusionary]] Whenever new housing is built, a certain amount of the spaces are limited to low-income residents.\n\n[[Community Land Trust.|07-landtrust]] Land is owned by a nonprofit and individual rooms and apartments can only be sold for a price similar to that it was purchased as.

[img[026-evening.jpg]]\nThank you and goodnight!\n\nThat's as far as the story goes for now.\n[[Start again to try a different path.|01-start]] \n<html><a href="http://www.firstcultural.com">Visit First Cultural Industries for more games and stories.</a></html>

[img[028-fog.jpg]]\nIt's perhaps a little bittersweet that the only way to decommodify the physical world was to divert those consumerist impulses to the virtual world.\n\nThough on the bright side - it's ecofriendly! Virtual fixies never need new tubes and virtual microbrews don't need fertilizer.\n\nAs for food? Well, that's another story. This is as far as this story goes for now.\n[[Start again to try a different path.|01-start]] \n<html><a href="http://www.firstcultural.com">Visit First Cultural Industries for more games and stories.</a></html>

[img[024-penthouse.jpg]]\nIn the past, communities were defined by income, by race, by market segment... Now, the defining characteristic is age. There are cities for people to grow up in, cities for people to fall in love in, cities to grow old in. \n\nThis does make finding and filling jobs a bit complicated, but thankfully, we're on the way to the post-scarcity economy.\n\nThat's as far as the story goes for now.\n[[Start again to try a different path.|01-start]] \n<html><a href="http://www.firstcultural.com">Visit First Cultural Industries for more games and stories.</a></html>

[img[015-bus.jpg]]\nWith discrimination mitigated, the house becomes even more popular! As the number of applications continues to grow, intake becomes ever more selective. Word on the street is that getting into UC Berkeley is easier than getting a room at the Hanging Gardens. \n\nThe upside? The quality of resident has improved, and discussions at the houses are getting more intellectual. <<if $communal="true">>Even after the kegs comes out.<<else>> <<endif>>\n\n[[Well then, let's actually become a college!|27-education]]\n\n[[This is just social class working in a new way - let's try random selection instead.|21-randomfamily]]

<<silently>>\n<<set $quotas="true">\n<<endsilently>>[img[014-corner.jpg]]\nAfter much debate it's decided that to balance free choice and fair chances, there will be a certain number of spaces guaranteed to people with less social privilege. <<if $inclusionary="true">>Hmm, why does this plan sound familiar?<<else>> <<endif>>\n\n[[Is everyone happy yet?|15-quotas]]

<<silently>>\n<<set $randomfamily="true">\n<<endsilently>>[img[021-promenade.jpg]]\nBefore long, apps once designed to randomly select housemates are also being used to set up blind consensual dates.\n\n[[Will it work?|23-randomfamily]]\n

[img[004-ucbart.jpg]]\nOut in the burbs, we kept organizing, and extended the bart and striped new bike lanes. Meanwhile, SF turned into a larger version of Carmel. \n\n[[And then a funny thing happened.|05-city]]

[img[003-train.jpg]]\nWe organized, fought back, and held out as long as we could, though maybe we should have left sooner. By the time we had to leave, even Oakland was unaffordable.\n\n[[Say hello to the 925!|04-suburb]]

[img[020-market.jpg]]\nAt one point, the Hanging Gardens of San Francisco was the talk of the internets, but today, it's just 32415 Mission Parkway, home to a few hundred citizens and a couple of convenience stores. Some of the young folks are bored, but...\n\n[[There's nothing wrong with that!|26-ordinary]]\n\n[[Just give them more gadgets!|28-virtual]]

[img[007-siteplan.jpg]]\nThe excitement of starting a new community that can't be commodified keeps things rolling along for a few years. \n\nHowever, a certain type of drama has started to come up recently in community council. Some folks have bad vibes with their neighbors, but refuse to leave. After all the land trust's policy limits the price they can sell their place for, and that price isn't enough to buy anything comparable elsewhere. \n\nIt's council night again and a long term fix is desired:\n\n[[If they earned more, maybe they could afford to move out...|09-livingwage]] \n\n[[Well, if we're all stuck here, might as well learn to live with each other...|08-communal]]

<<silently>>\n<<set $inclusionary="true">\n<<endsilently>>[img[006-wireframe.jpg]]\nIn the new buildings, half the rooms and apartments are reserved for those making less than the median income. \n\nUnfortunately, we can't solve the entire region's housing equation on one block. The waitlists keep growing, and one can't live in a waitlist. With elections coming up, you propose a referendum:\n\n[[Raise the median income.|09-livingwage]] \n\n[[It's time we start rationing bedrooms!|10-rationing]]