Wiener Delivers Housing Reform; Chakrabarti Flops
Over the past decade, Wiener was the hardest working member of the Senate on ending the California housing shortage, passing good reform over stiff opposition. Over the same period, Chakrabarti was a self-promoting charlatan who never spent more than a year in a job. You decide.
Inclusionary Zoning Fails Affordability, Stifles Housing Production
I'm not aware of a single instance where IZ mandates ushered in broad improvements in housing affordability, but I'm aware of loads of instances in which they crushed housing production. Blue cities/states need to take the evidence seriously and scrap...
Institutions Hold Just 1
According to the best available data, institutional investors likely only own 1-3% of single-family homes in Houston. That's not nothing, but that's not what's driving the market. In the typical year, Houston's single-family housing stock grows by 1.5%. https://t.co/i4h6DOr1pm
Inclusionary Zoning's "Reduce Opposition" Claim Is Questionable
It shouldn't be lost in the discourse on here that the go-to "real world" argument offered up for IZ in blue cities and states, where it is nearly exclusively adopted, is that it will reduce opposition to new development. And...
Sacramento, Like Denver, Is the Mountain Gear Gateway
Sacramento served the same original function as Denver: "Ah, you guys are really going to trek into those mountains? Well hey, here's a bunch of stuff you should buy first..." https://t.co/RqQmDMkwuM
Disparate Impact Era Skipped Over Proposition 13
It's a shame that the disparate impact era of jurisprudence came and went without touching Proposition 13.
Santa Barbara's Proposed Fee Spike Threatens Rental Development
The Santa Barbara Planning Commission proposed doubling "affordable housing" fee on new production, such that it would cost $159,968 in fees to build a single median-sized rental unit. This is the housing policy equivalent of applying leeches to a sick...
Beyond Performative Local Control: Genuine Pro‑Housing Reform Needed
On the one hand, Mr. Modica's Marblehead comments were great as a case of classic YIMBYism—calling out NIMBY bullshit at public hearings. On the other hand, it's symptomatic of a performative "local control" approach to pro-housing reform that we need...
Schools Need Traffic Calming Measures for Safer Streets
It sucks that we live in a country where stuff like this happens. This is partly why we now design every school like a prison and put out in the middle of exurbs. We need traffic calming street redesigns around...
Measure V Could Boost Davis Housing by 10%
This year, voters in Davis will vote on initiatives approving two projects that would collectively increase the local housing stock by 10%—enough to really see an improvement in affordability. I strongly recommend that local YIMBYs vote YES on Measure V!...
New Laws Streamline Reviews, Boost Density, Accelerate Housing
Exempt from CEQA thanks to AB 130. Subject to streamlined, ministerial review thanks to SB 423 and SB 330. Entitled to extra density thanks to SDBL. Laws change, housing gets built.
Ending Tariffs Seems Ill‑timed Amid Bourbon Boycott
As a rule, I support the end of all tariffs, but this is a rather strange thing to do right as the Kentucky bourbon and Tennessee whiskey industries are getting devastated by international retaliatory boycotts.
Name the Authority in Your Byline when Appealing
If you're going to make an appeal to authority, shouldn't the name of the authority be in the byline?
SB 79 Isn’t Law yet; Permitting Hasn’t Changed.
SB 79 isn't even law yet. How could it have shifted permitting? Everyone needs to calm down.
MPO Blocks ADU Reforms over Dubious E. Coli Fears
The MPO that covers Detroit and Ann Arbor is opposing a package of YIMBY bills that (among other things) legalizes ADUs and reduces parking requirements partly on the basis that they risk "exposing residents to E.coli..." Truly bizarre taxpayer-funded lobbying....