November 2021 By Ryan McDonald and Mark McDermott/Photography by JP Cordero (This story first appeared on Nov. 12, 2021 in Easy Reader. Republished here with approval of the authors.) Redondo Beach Mayor Bill Brand visited the State Capitol building in Sacramento in early 2018 to meet with state legislators about the numerous efforts underway to
September 16, 2021 Gov. Gavin Newsom today signed SB 9 and its cousin bill, SB 10, two deeply flawed and troubling bills that target single-family areas for density but with different approaches. Neither bill requires any affordable housing to alleviate California's affordability crisis. And SB 9 is the first housing bill signed in California's
(SOAR Photo) Jan. 9, 2021 (updated July 8, 2021) SB 10 does two things: First, it lets city councils overturn voter-approved ballot measures that protect from overdevelopment local farmland, urban boundaries, shorelines, canyons — or that protect neighborhoods from overdevelopment by enacting height limits or other concepts. Second, SB 10 allows hundreds of cities
May 27, 2021, republished by permission. By Cynthia Davis and Susie Shannon In California, politicians and developers are attacking single-family home zoning. Yet they suspiciously ignore that homeownership is a crucial tool for communities of color to build wealth. Politicians should not take that away by banning single-family zoning: people of color will suffer serious
Map: El Camino Real runs 43 miles through Silicon Valley and can absorb 250,000 housing units instead of TEARING APART our neighborhoods. The Bay Area has 16,000 acres of underused commercial lots that could absorb 1.6M new units of housing. [May 24, 2021 Editor's Note: Famed Sustainable Communities author and urbanist Peter Calthorpe is a
The Infamous SB 50 is Hiding in 7 Bad Bills: SB 6, SB 8, SB 9, SB 10, SB 478, AB 1322, AB 1401 Sacramento "trickle-down" housing proponents are trying to revive the divisive pre-COVID legislation SB 50 through a group of 7 bad bills. Without your intervention — meaning you contacting your own senator
Updated April 7, 2021 Incredibly, state senators Scott Wiener and Toni Atkins are going to make ANOTHER push for massive market-rate density forced upon thousands of single-family streets statewide. The bill is SB 9, Son of SB 1120. How do we get this pair to understand that California needs one thing in the housing arena: Affordable
News update: Heavy-hitter Black leaders in California came out swinging Saturday, Aug. 15 at the Town Hall against SB 1120, including Assemblymember Sydney Kamlager-Dove; Emeritus Los Angeles City Council President Herb Wesson; and former Los Angeles City Councilmember Jan Perry. Los Angeles City Councilmember Paul Koretz, who led the city's fight against SB 50,
Senate Bill 902, authored by the home-and-yard hating state Sen. Scott Wiener, is even worse than his SB 50 neighborhood-bulldozing bill, which we all worked to kill TWICE. And SB 902 is far worse than Wiener's demolition derby bill SB 827, which we all worked hard to successfully kill in 2018. SB 902 requires no
Map: The El Camino strip runs 43 miles through Silicon Valley and could provide 250,000 units of housing without displacing any existing homes or apartments. And there are 543 miles of strip in the inner Bay Area lined with 16,000 acres of underused commercial land with capacity for 1.6M new households. [Editor's Note: In an