Mayor of extraordinarily expensive and racially segregated Palo Alto, Tom Dubois (
@votedubois
), is worried about state housing legislation: "any housing that does emerge ends up housing only the highest wage-earners, not those who need it most."
Housing is the top issue for Californians, but career politicians in Washington have been too slow to provide solutions.
My kids are worried they won’t be able to afford housing in California when they grow up.
I have a 10-point plan to tackle—and solve—our housing crisis ⤵️ 1/
@SodaPeeStream
@MingweiSamuel
As a Berkeley homeowner, I'd be very upset if my tax dollars were wasted on removing this bench unless a city-provided was installed at the same time.
@davidjacoby
@SFMTA_Muni
Most of those cars look like they're intruding on the sidewalk. Sounds like folks should clear the junk out of the garage and start actually parking their cars where they're intended to be.
Palo Alto, CA -- home of
@Stanford
and
@Tesla
-- is probably the most exclusionary major suburb in the United States, and this November's city council election may decide whether the area remains a racially and economically segregated community. (thread)
@DeanPreston
Genuine answer: SF is ground zero for the housing shortage in the United States, and elected officials there continue to make excuses to do anything but build enough housing to keep up with economic growth. No one else wants their own electeds getting the same idea.
@Dodge
I'm looking forward to the day this tweet shows up as evidence in a wrongful death lawsuit against
@Dodge
.
Screencapping here for future plaintiffs:
@AlecStapp
Says a lot about policing in America that an extremely simple, extremely efficient method for evaluating evidence to solve crimes is not well known to cops.
@DeanPreston
Context: Dean is lashing out against YIMBYs as paid astroturfers, because his former campaign manager was just outed as being paid $60,000 to block a 100% affordable housing project in Livermore. He has yet to condemn her, as far as I've seen.
@ebwhamilton
One of the last surviving examples of an atrium-style McDonald's in the US and a rare restaurant catering to the working class, and it was torn down for a mere 377 homes???
@StatisticUrban
Counting a mortgage as being "in debt" is not quite right. You presumably have an asset securing that loan that is worth more than the mortgage. Still shouldn't be borrowing for a wedding, however.
Lori- love the mall. Recognizes that people complain it’s dead, but like the openness. Feels dystopian to build all this housing. I think she’s crying.
Imagine thinking Biden being president at 86 years old is anywhere near as important or threatening as Trump planning to rip up the Constitution in a second term. Silver has totally lost the plot.
Biden's age is not at all comparable to Hillary's emails. It is a much more important issue. He wants to be president until he is 86 years old! Voters ratioanally think it's important. I criticized
#ButHerEmails
early and often. This story is not the same.
The lesson here for politicians is that specific NIMBY concerns about any given housing project are often insincere, and nothing you do will get a NIMBY to support it. So just address whatever concerns you think have any merit, approve, and move on.
Opposition didn't want single adults living in this site, so Sup. Pine listened and changed it to families and seniors. Residents had said they would feel differently if it was families- but the goalposts keep changing. It's the same NIMBY argument no matter what you do.
Last Tuesday a super-majority of the Board voted to delay a market-rate development at 469 Stevenson. For context, San Francisco has far exceeded our ABAG-determined goal for new market rate housing from 2015-2022, with over 18,000 units built and over 56,000 in the pipeline. (1)
@DavidAstinWalsh
The link to file a fair housing complaint in Virginia is here. Even if you don't think you need the help in this situation, the next person who really needs a place to live might:
Nah, the growing amount of yimbys in North Berkeley forced the issue of building at BART prior to state law. Its just that without state law, the nimbys and yimbys wouldve likely split the zoning at 4 or 5 stories rather than the state mandated 7.
After watching the failed last-minute maneuver by San Mateo NIMBYs to remove 200 units from the 961-home Concar Passage project last night, it's worth considering the policy reasons for WHY California state housing law strongly discourages such last-minute downzonings. (thread)
@JakeAnbinder
All starts with Gmail. Once your company, university, or personal life is on Gmail, defaulting to Google Docs is easy.
If your company still uses Outlook, then you're much more likely to use Word.
In this email thread Cupertino City Councilmember Liang Chao argues the Chinese Exclusion act was not racist—because it only affected “laborers”
Don’t think I’ve ever heard someone defend the Chinese Exclusion Act—ever in my life
As soon as I saw the news story about
@bilalmahmood
and questioning his credentials, my first thought was, "Why the hell do a bunch of neuroscientists outside of the state care about a local San Francisco race?" It turns out, one of the accusers is an ally of
@DeanPreston
.
What Assistant Professor Turner doesn't tell you: he's not a casual academic observer from New York. He's someone with connections to local politicians and causes. Here he is standing next to Supervisor Preston at a political rally for Anchor Steam workers.
<Pikachu face> Palo Alto's discretionary approval processes for housing means that a developer decided to build an office building that complies with exist zoning, rather than take the risk of proposing a mixed-use project that could be blocked by Council.
@ArmandDoma
@botoxedbuddhist
@Jeffinatorator
@sam_d_1995
Armand, if we used real-world evidence to inform public policy and improve regular people's lives BUT a developer made money in the process, is the world really a better place? I don't think so.
@Patterdude
Agreed. It'd have been nice if she had deeply engaged in her state's most important policy issue before now, so she wouldn't have to talk in platitudes.
@FavaMandies
@DeanPreston
San Francisco's pre-pandemic population was only 13% higher than it was in 1950, despite multiple tech booms in between. It's coasting off density from World War II that is no longer sufficient.
Next, Berkeley Mayor and ABAG President Jesse Arreguín was having none of it, correctly pointing out:
“There is a lot of room in the western part of San Francisco…it doesn’t have to be in the Mission and the southeast part of the city. That’s San Francisco’s decision.”
@_senseofreason
@Boenau
You should try adding up the taxes each car owner pays for these services vs. the free market cost of them. The taxes are nowhere close to covering costs, and the delta is made up by non-car owners and people who don't drive much.
@nextdoorsv
@kylekatarn95
I think Dave got it right. NIMBY cities need sticks, not carrots, and legislators beyond the local level have a duty to realize that and act on it:
While Porter is finally realizing YIMBY policies are necessary to win statewide elections, she's still not getting it.
5 was her "best" supply policy, and all it amounts to is carrots, easily ignored by rich Nimby cities.
@DeanPreston
How high will rents in San Francisco need to go for the "progressive" faction to realize the "affordable housing only" philosophy won't/can't fix the housing crisis?
@hanlonbt
I'm holding out hope that Dean will one day realize that approving housing in wealthy neighborhoods helps tenants instead of hurting them and face-turns into the perfect YIMBY politician: pro-housing for all income levels, pro-transit, pro-active transportation, and pro-tenant.
I think a harm of online activism is the "THIS IS ACTUALLY EASY" argument.
I've seen lots of folks indicate that a single billionaire could solve homelessness, or that there are 30x more houses than homeless people so we could just give them all houses.
These words are
Seven years later, in 2020, a property that could've had 72 homes, including 60 affordable senior units, will instead have 16 massive single-family homes expected to sell for $5 million each:
@evolve_ca
I live in Berkeley and oppose Prop 13. The community here wishes Evolve CA would stick to its core mission instead of diluting the mission with whatever grievances one of its staffers happens to hold.
@bufordsharkley
@DeanPreston
This thing I said that looks super conservative? It's actually super *progressive*!
I'm still the most progressive person on this site. Phew.
In 2016, 82% of Palo Alto voters supported Hillary Clinton. It's a city that THINKS it's progressive, but its track record clearly doesn't support that. If you live in Palo Alto, I hope you'll get involved in the fight for a less racist, less exclusionary future.
@DeanPreston
Wut. I'm just here trying to lower rents on the Peninsula after San Francisco added a massive number of jobs and didn't build enough homes for those new workers.
There's a mistaken strain of thought among some Gen X/Boomer politicians that Millennials buy "starter homes" the way they did. Reality is that buying a home in CA means financially leveraging yourself to the hilt in your mid-to-late 30s. That's your home until you retire.
Watching ABAG Executive Board President and Berkeley Mayor
@JesseArreguin
try to explain why our region's paltry housing target is actually sufficient was a sight to behold. I'd love to live in his world where most cities treat their RHNA allocation as a floor, not a ceiling.
Beverly Hills Councilmember John Mirisch is, unexpectedly, right about this. For suburban homeowners, housing and zoning policy is not all about money and property values. For many, the thrust of local policymaking is who does and does not "deserve" to live in their community.
Except Dougherty avoids a simple, logical fact: if it were really all 'bout the money for suburban homeowners, they would heartily embrace his WIMBY upzoning, housing commodification schemes, as they would increase property values both quickly and exponentially.
@IDoTheThinking
Strongly recommend the "Sold a Story" podcast on this topic. TL;DR: A large # of American elementary schools have been teaching kids to read using an un-scientific and incorrect "cueing" methodology. Sounding out words (aka phonics) is much more effective
@wwbein
@FreethruJustice
@sam_d_1995
My wife and I got two mattresses delivered from IKEA a few months ago. Delivery cost $90, they moved the mattresses to the bedrooms themselves, and removed the old mattresses for me. You really should've investigated that option before wasting your time like this.
Every serious progressive who cares about making life better for as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, ends up a YIMBY.
@AOC
,
@JesseArreguin
,
@MattHaneySF
, etc.
HOUSING: Rep.
@AOC
: "The reason why people are on the streets isn't just some elusive housing or market phenomenon, it's also because we've chosen not to build."
For context: Palo Alto's median household income is $157k, and the city is just 7% Black or Latinx. The neighboring city of *East* Palo Alto has a median household income of $65k and is 74% Black or Latinx. Here's a photo of the highway overpass that divides the two.
@nedmiles
The Free Speech Promotion Committee will review your tweets to see if they adequately promote free speech and reward or punish you accordingly.
@LiberallyLiving
@DeanPreston
@mattyglesias
Because San Francisco refuses to build enough new housing relative to demand. Supervisor Preston has personally blocked new, no-displacement housing in his district due to a mistaken belief that essentially all market-rate housing is bad.
@BerkeleyScanner
That driver has to have run the stop sign if they had enough speed to kill a pedestrian. That driver needs to be in prison, and I hope your reporting will follow up on the police and DA response to this. We can't let dangerous criminals kill Berkeley residents and go unpunished.
@aburisushii
@silvershelters
I think the actual DSA take is that they want low-income folks to have better housing, but any path to that but government-owned social housing is immoral. If someone will make a profit off of poor people having better-quality housing at similar or lower rents, that's bad.
Despite the obvious data on the housing shortage and Palo Alto's especially egregious role in it, 3 out of the 7 current city councilmembers got their start in local politics by opposing not just housing but *affordable housing for seniors.*
They’re only interested in stroking themselves and their fellow capitalists. The math works well for their profits only when they can build — but not in building anything working people need and can afford. Their fragility is tied to their knowing deep down they’re dead wrong.
@DeanPreston
@adayNU
@ezraklein
The SF Board of Supervisors has chosen, repeatedly, to concentrate new housing in redlined areas and continues to do so today:
When San Francisco's political groups and Board of Supervisors says that Senate Bill 50 targets low-income neighborhoods, check this out:
Left: A map of SF's racial redlining (1930)
Right: Where SF, through local control, chooses to place new development at (2018)
Wow [1/3]
Palo Alto has the chance to build dense, low-carbon emission housing next to Caltrain, and they're probably going to turn it down. We'll never solve climate change if cities continue to prioritize height limits over transit-oriented development. Cc:
@JoshBeckerSV
@AsmMarcBerman
Palo Alto is about to decline Stanford's offer to build hundreds of homes next to the busiest Caltrain stop outside SF.
They want to put apartments by the freeway instead.
I TOTALLY believe he opposes legislation to make it easier to build 2-10 unit buildings in his city because of equity concerns.
Palo Alto home prices, btw:
@seanmc_99
@RamVasuthevan
How many members of Congress would vote yes on this vision of housing? Just trying to get a gauge on whether this could feasibly happen in my or my child's lifetime, or if we should try other things first (e.g., legalize multi-family housing in high-demand neighborhoods).
Great piece, but one quibble: Palo Alto's city council only voted to undo the residents-only rules in Foothills Park after a lawsuit from the ACLU, not because of an epiphany about equity.
Sadly, the council is more NIMBY than ever after the 2020 elections.
Berkeley was the birthplace of racist single-family zoning.
Last week it finally undid the terrible practice.
It’s one small sign that California’s housing politics are finally getting more humane, equitable and rational.
My
@nytopinion
column