At the end of 2017, 56 percent of households in the U.S. could afford the median priced U.S. house, according to the California Association of Realtors. But only 21 percent of people in the Bay Area can afford the median priced house there,…
Plan to dramatically increase development would transform some L.A. neighborhoods
Senate Bill 827, written by state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), would loosen or eliminate restrictions on height, density, parking and design for residential properties near major rail and bus stops. The impact could be huge. A Times analysis found…
What to know about the housing bill that has people freaking out from Marin to Compton
Memes of a mild-mannered California legislator photoshopped as a Star Trek villain. A San Francisco supervisor suggesting the city should sue the state, to “thunderous applause.” Wealthy Marin County homeowners and South Los Angeles tenants’ rights groups working as political bedfellows.…
California Housing Problems Are Spilling Across Its Borders
RENO, Nev. — A growing homelessness crisis. Complaints about traffic congestion. Worries that the economy is becoming dominated by a wealthy elite. Those sound like California’s problems in a nutshell. But now they are also among California’s leading exports. Just…
The myth of “forcing people out of their cars”
California state Sen. Scott Wiener’s SB 827 — a sweeping approach to solve California’s housing crisis by having the state government preempt local zoning ordinances and allow for greater density near rapid transit stations and high-frequency bus stops — is one of the most…
A Bold, Divisive Plan to Wean Californians From Cars
California has made impressive strides in solar and wind power and its push for electric vehicles. But the combination of high housing costs and rising commute times threatens to keep the state from achieving its ambitious target of cutting emissions 40…
SB 827 helps solve Bay Area housing, traffic challenges
Allowing more people to live near public transit is a win-win: It makes it possible for more of them to commute by rail or bus, while at the same time making transit less expensive for taxpayers to build and maintain.…
Want Affordable Housing? Just Build More of It
After years of dithering and hoping the problem would go away, California is finally taking steps to address its housing crisis. In 2017 the state passed a series of bills designed to encourage the construction of new affordable housing — streamlining the regulatory approval…
Bay Area’s housing crisis is forcing tenants out of the cities
It doesn’t make any sense to me why the mayor of Berkeley, Jesse Arreguín, recently called the housing bill SB 827 proposed by the California State Senate a “declaration of war against our neighborhoods.” He sees the bill as dangerous and believes…
Better infrastructure and density are not mutually exclusive
San Francisco Examiner columnist Sally Stephens recently wrote that San Francisco needs to build the appropriate infrastructure for transit and fire safety before building new homes in the western and southern neighborhoods of The City. As a resident of the Richmond, I…