Latest News
NOTE: The opinions expressed in the news items cited here do not necessarily represent the opinion of Catalysts for Local Control. We try to present a balanced picture of the news on the subject of housing and legislation.
Menlo Park finds development application at 80 Willow inconsistent with standards
by Eleanor Raab
January 17, 2025
Menlo Park has determined that the application for the controversial “Willow Park” development at 80 Willow Road, the site of the former Sunset Magazine headquarters, is not consistent with city development standards. As the project was submitted under the ‘builder’s remedy’ provision of state housing law, this determination does not amount to a denial of the project. Consistency review is a required step under state housing law, even if it does not necessarily change the outcome of the project.
Developers making millions from ‘affordable housing’ program lobbied California lawmakers to shut down regulation
By KATE TALERICO
UPDATED: January 2, 2025
Developers who have reaped millions of dollars from an affordable housing program for middle-income renters with sometimes little-to-no discounts from market rents have spent hundreds of thousands on lobbying and campaign donations in recent years in a bid to keep lawmakers from imposing regulations. The expenditures represent a fraction of the $32 million the California real estate industry as a whole spent on lobbying the state legislature and the executive branch in the past three years.
Marin Voice: To save Democratic Party, Bay Area must build more homes
By DAVID NEWMAN
December 23, 2024
There is a startling contradiction at the heart of Bay Area politics. On the one hand, the Bay Area is an unabashed “blue” stronghold, defining itself by its support for diversity and tolerance. Yet its resistance to building new homes cuts against these values. Experts have proven that suppressing housing is fundamentally regressive, massively increasing segregation, per-capita carbon emissions and rents. The opposition to development is kneecapping the Democratic Party on a national level.
How a Yimby candidate with little experience became Berkeley’s next mayor
By Zelda Bronstein
December 19, 2024
Berkeley’s new mayor, education consultant Adena Ishii, is a Yimby with scant experience in the town’s governance and politics. To be sure, Berkeley has had a Yimby mayor for most of the past eight years. But Jesse Arreguín’s Yimbyism was an acquired taste. He was first elected mayor in 2016 on an anti-Yimby platform. Shortly after taking office, he jumped onto the antidemocratic, “pro-housing” bandwagon.
An Open letter to Gavin Newsom from Fairfax
Posted by: Teliha Draheim
December 16, 2024
Dear Governor Newsom,
Though we welcome you and your family to Marin County, the spreading boondoggle you have created pertaining to affordable housing in California will soon land in your own backyard.
Californians, as residents of the fifth largest economy in the world, have the reasonable expectation that State policy decision making is evidence-based.
Fewer people are living together in the Bay Area — and it’s driving up housing demand
By Kota Suzuki, Data team intern
Dec 16, 2024
The average Bay Area household is getting smaller. According to experts, that means more housing is required to accommodate a stagnating Bay Area population.
The shrinkage in household size can largely be attributed to young people living solo as well as older empty-nesters. The trend isn’t unique to the Bay Area — both ends of the age spectrum are increasingly opting to live with fewer people, a shift that is undoubtedly impacting the housing market.
Will resistant Marin change now that pro-housing governor has moved back?
DAN WALTERS | CALmatters Commentary
December 14, 2024
Gavin Newsom has just two years remaining of his governorship. As it winds down, he is stepping up efforts to build a national profile toward what many pundits assume will be a 2028 presidential campaign. That apparently includes writing his autobiography. As he prepares for whatever follows his 16 years in Sacramento as lieutenant governor and governor, Newsom is also abandoning the state capital in another sense: moving himself and his family back to Marin County.
S.F. has the same housing goals as New York City — which is 10 times its size
By J.K. Dineen
Dec 11, 2024
Last week New York housing advocates celebrated the passage of the “City of Yes” legislation, a plan to rezone the city of 8 million in order to encourage the construction of 82,000 units over the next 15 years, with Mayor Eric Adams calling it “the most pro-housing piece of legislation in city history.” But for those who track housing politics in the Bay Area, the news stood out for another reason: 82,000 happens also to be the number of units state housing officials are mandating that San Francisco — a city with one-tenth of the population of New York
Political optimism, not anxiety, can restore local traditional values
December 8, 2024
Originally published February 3, 2023
Writing for American Greatness, Edward Ring makes the case that political optimism is a revolutionary defense against the radical Left’s fearmongering. Ring breaks down why auspicious outlooks on governance challenges lead to creative innovation and “everything good” — despite (as we see daily in Santa Clara County) pressures for local media outlets to emphasize reactionary, polarizing content.