Are California Housing Mandates Ending Community Involvement And Character Of Cities? | Amy Kalish | Lydia Kou

Are California Housing Mandates Ending Community Involvement And Character Of Cities? | Amy Kalish | Lydia Kou

Siyamak Khorrami
March 24, 2024

“The goal is to densify every town in the state. To densify it so that’d be walking around, not driving. In some places, it doesn’t work. But this whole policy has been applied as “one size fits all” with no complaining.”

Siyamak sits down with Amy Kalish, with https://citizenmarin.org/. She’s been studying what the Housing Mandates are for different cities in California. Amy’s going to tell us what’s happening with California communities.

Speculators and Affordability, not NIMBY and YIMBY

Speculators and Affordability, not NIMBY and YIMBY

LINCOLN MITCHELL
MAR 23, 2024

The discussion of housing in San Francisco remains mired in the inane polarized labeling of NIMBY and YIMBY. Neither of these terms are accurate and both obscure much of the nuance around a debate that is about much more than whether or not to build more housing.

The Case Against YIMBYism

The Case Against YIMBYism

Michael Friedrich/
March 15, 2024

Sonja Trauss, the charismatic founder of the YIMBY movement, recently spoke at a conference of fellow travelers about the importance of supporting small home builders. “Most neighborhoods are still zoned low-density, and so if you’re seeing new housing, it’s going to be small projects,” she said at Austin’s YIMBYtown 2024. Trauss bemoaned the onerous regulations, fees, and paperwork—not to mention meddling homeowners—that make it so hard for small firms to build

Why the Wiener housing bills will never work—and could destroy the coast. A detailed primer

Why the Wiener housing bills will never work—and could destroy the coast. A detailed primer

By MICHAEL BARNES
MARCH 12, 2024

Coastal zone residents will soon discover how dysfunctional the latest California Regional Housing Assessment has become.
The RHNA (pronounced REE-na) process, and the housing elements based on it, have always been bureaucratic, expensive, and ineffective. But thanks to the intervention of state Senator Scott Wiener, RHNA has been twisted into a profit-making tool for corporate developers.

Frustration with single-party Democratic rule is rising in California

Frustration with single-party Democratic rule is rising in California

By Zachary Faria
February 28, 2024

Californians are not feeling all the prosperity that California Democrats are often boasting about, and they are letting them know about it in a variety of ways.

Despite mailing ballots to all registered voters and moving its primary date up in the presidential calendar, California is currently on track for the lowest voter turnout in a primary in its history.

Opinion: Proposition 1 Is a Policy Disaster That Won’t Put a Dent in Homelessness

Opinion: Proposition 1 Is a Policy Disaster That Won’t Put a Dent in Homelessness

By Luke Tasker
Feb 25, 2024

Proposition 1, the “Behavioral Health Services Program and Bond Measure, is a policy disaster. From funding involuntary treatment to gutting county programs, the measure fails to even put a dent into the homelessness crisis while actively worsening conditions for mental health. It’s a bloated, cruel, and ineffective bill masquerading as a necessary reform.