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.

Yimby leader calls for rents to go higher.

Yimby leader calls for rents to go higher.

By Tim Redmiond
Januaryy 21, 2024

This one is weird: I thought the main Yimby argument was that more housing, including more market-rate housing, will eventually bring down rents. That’s the central reason that the state is mandating so much new housing—because a housing shortage, which can best be solved by the private sector, drives costs up for everyone.

Everyone is wrong in the Bay Area housing debate. Here’s what’s really happening.

Everyone is wrong in the Bay Area housing debate. Here’s what’s really happening.

By Cade Cannedy
Jan 8, 2024

YIMBYs and NIMBYs, a tale far less old and far more annoying than Cain and Abel, is a perfect fit for a post-pandemic, cyberurbanized California.
For those unaware, a NIMBY is an aging white couple in a coastal community using racially coded arguments to oppose an affordable housing project that threatens to bring in “ruckus.” A YIMBY, on the other hand, is someone on Twitter yelling indecipherably about how legalizing 5-over-1 single staircases is the only way your children will avoid homelessness in California.

Yimby leader calls for rents to go higher.

Letter to the editor: Yes, a taxpayer can sue over the state’s housing laws

By TIM REDMOND
JANUARY 2, 2024

We love letters to the editor. Here’s one from someone who actually knows the answer to a question I raised:
In “Peskin, Chan want to know if SF can sue the state over impossible housing rules,” Tim Redmond asks, “Could a San Francisco citizen, or organization [as distinguished from San Francisco itself], sue? ‘That,’ said Peskin, ‘is a very good question.’”