Senator Scott Wiener says “market-rate” isn’t a bad word
by
State Senator Scott Wiener took to Medium
over the weekend to pen a nearly 1,700-word essay on the merits of new
market-rate housing construction in the Bay Area and California.
In piece titled “Market-Rate Housing Isn’t a Bad Word, and We Won’t Solve the Housing Crisis Without It,”
Senator Wiener alleges that lawmakers and community groups show
“skepticism and even hostility” toward any new construction that is not
“exclusively or largely [focused] on publicly subsidized, income-based
affordable housing,” creating a culture of anger toward those who want
to sell new homes at market rates.
To underscore the need for more housing, the senator breaks out some cold, hard numbers:
“According to California’s Legislative Analyst, the state
needs to produce about 180,000 units of housing a year to keep up with
[population] growth. In practice, we produce less than half that.”
California’s Legislative Analyst Office did in fact say that in a 2015 report,
adding, “Seattle—a coastal metro with economic characteristics and
average temperatures that are similar to California’s Bay Area
metros—added new housing units at about twice the rate as San Francisco
and San Jose over the last two decades.”
So okay, just build more affordable housing if that’s
what people want. But Wiener says, pointedly, “We will never — and I
truly mean never — produce enough of that housing to satisfy” all of our
housing needs.
Posted by Steve Sinai
6 comments:
Sorry the NOBY's will not allow any kind of housing to be built in Pacifica. It might impinge on their "I got mine screw every body else religion". They prefer instead to lecture and label the real estate industry as evil and raise taxes on people outside of their cult through "rent control".
Deirdre, Keener, Digre and their puppet masters are hypocrites and the true enemies of Pacifica.
WOW 10:57!!! You actually managed to complete your rant without putting at least some of the blame on President Trump. This is a first. You're loving him now, aren't you?
Deirdre and her gang are incompetent, unethical liars, JUST LIKE TRUMP!!!!
Happy now?
I understand the NIMBY mindset and the desire to keep PACIFICA small. However, as will all things, moderation is the key. It's a balancing act and the pressure for housing is becoming so severe that's something's gotta give. When difficult issues, like the homelessness we see all around us, become so glaring that eventually a backlash will occur. Just like what we've seen on the national level with Trump's election, BREXIT and now France. So I hope our city council pays attention to this factor.
Frank Vella wrote to Tribune this morning saying there should be a recall of Keener, Digre and Martin. If
the Gray Davis recall is instructive, such a recall ballot questoin might coincide with a list of candidates to replace them. I think we could see some freaks come out for that night! As you may remember, there were over 90 candidates who wanted to succeed Davis.
I think a recall campaign might be successful in that none of the above recieved more than 50% of the votes, they all were elected in multi-candidate elections. This City has a history of recalling council people. We can learn from this history. If the recallers can pitch rent control as a threat to single family home owners more effectively than the social justice warriors, they really have a shot at it, IMHO.
Does NOBY mean?
Not on Brays Yard?
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