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.

Rezoning plan sparks backlash in this quiet S.F. neighborhood: ‘We were blindsided’

California is at higher risk for major earthquakes than previously known.

By Clare FonsteinUpdated
Jan 23, 2024 9:30 a.m

An updated U.S. earthquake model showed slightly greater shaking possible in California than previously mapped.
The National Seismic Hazard Model, developed by the United States Geological Survey, says that most of California has at least a 75% chance of damaging earthquake shaking in the next 100 years — with at least a 95% chance for the Bay Area.