Thread by @alevin

At a Peninsula Democratic Club meeting on "finding common ground on housing." Club president talks about looking for housing, looking at a house with 9 people living there including the dining room as a bedroom.

worked with a friend to figure out the math of turning an empty lot into a triplex or apartment building; why doesn't it change? height, density limits, perception of what's desirable.

Don Weden (former Santa Clara County planner), we have a lot of multi-family housing in Santa Clara County that looks like single family housing

Weden is comparing San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties (it would be interesting to filter out San Jose and the San Mateo County coastside and review Peninsula cities)

Weden sees a big change - the aging of the population; the area is becoming more urban; problems include housing costs, transportation, economic inequality, climate change

Can't look to the past for answers in detached houses and suburban land use patterns

need to create cities for all ages including older people who are no longer building, and pay attention to livability and quality of life while urbanizing and densifying

Resistance to change is a barrier, we need consensus about change

Looking at demographics, over 3/4 of growth will be in over 65 age category ((will that be/is that already politically stifling to change))

Growth may be slowing, and that would create different issues including being able to afford services; we need to be careful what we wish for

by 2030 25% of population will be over 65

that was in Santa Clara County; almost 1/3 Adults will be over 65 in 2030 in San Mateo County

Weden's theory of change for many years has been to focus on older people, hoping that they will pay attention to the changes needed to support an older population

when we are older we want to remain active, independent, engaged with family, friends and community; our land use pattern has been auto-dependent; that's how you get around til you can no longer drive

A basic assumption of suburbs was that we will all be able to drive forever; but 20% of Americans over 65 do not drive. A woman aged 70-74 is likely to live 21 years, but will only drive for 11 years

A man will live 17 years and drive 11 years more

Weden: "Who was the planner of American suburbs? Peter Pan, I'll never grow up"

It affects adult children who become responsible for caregiving.

Solutions: improve public transit for seniors? There is no bus fairy, low density development produces too few riders per mile. If we want good transit we need denser land use patterns.

Don Weden shows two kittens named "transportation and land use" (or how about the NYPL lions?)

1/3 nondriving seniors goes for a walk every day in a higher density neighborhood, but in a low-density neighborhood only 1/17 goes for a walk every day

In Santa Clara Cty 25% of seniors are renters, 40% in San Mateo County; seniors are fastest-growing segment of homeless population due to eviction

higher housing costs is pricing out caregivers, a 30year home aide service went out of business because they couldn't afford caregiver

Seniors are more vulnerable to climate change; we need to reduce co2 from auto emissions. It costs on average $10K to maintain a car which cash-strapped seniors could use ((will someone suggest EVs that are cheaper to maintain))

We are entering the 3rd era of development, agriculture, suburban, urban+suburban hybrid

growth will occur in the bayside which is already "built out", within existing city boundaries, not on hills or open space

Land economics, would need to replace single story with multi-story buildings

"there are some younger people who even prefer not to get a drivers license and not to drive"

The difference between a drivable suburban or walkable urban place - if you wake up on a weekend morning, do you get your car keys or your sneakers?

Do you have a walkable neighborhood like that? Are you adding housing there to allow more people to live there or is it becoming an increasingly exclusive enclave?

Santa Clara County we've added 1 housing unit per 8 jobs since 2010 (in San Mateo community leaders are bragging about reducing the imbalance to 1:7)

AARP endorsed SB50, many older adults who can afford to stay are seeing family members have to leave

"like it or not, more urban is our future, the question is how well we do that? If our goal is to prevent change there's more chance that we will create a mess"

Solutions: solve more than 1 problem at a time; we created suburbs when 40% of households had children, now it's only 20%. single-person households were 17% then and 27% now ((although there is zero political dialog about that, it's taboo to mention))

need neighborhoods, not just projects; livability, not just density; green space, stores, libraries in walking distance

obstacles to age-friendly cities, fear of change, fear of density (shows cave painting as example of fear of traffic, crowd laughs) pinterest.com/pin/4090535786…

Need to say the 2 scariest words in the suburbs, "urban" and "density" (shows picture of the actress who played the victim in psycho)

We need to balance current wants and future needs, we need civic imagination and political will

Next part of the program is about the political will for change, with Adrian Fine PA city council and Nicole Fernandez, local party chair, moderated by club head Leora Ross

Nicole: CA party platform on housing is vague and lacking in substance at best

we have many folk who are in favor of affordable housing, and many who are good democrats while being opposed to more growth, these have internal contrasts

Fine, the best tenant protection is more housing. Some slow growth people are supporting tenant protection without building more housing; we can do more housing and more tenant protections

Fernandez supports rent stabilization/rent control. Supports housing options including HIP housing, connecting elderly homeowners with large houses with people who need homes

Fine says that rent control will suppress new housing, but if a landlord can't make $ with 30% increase they are in the wrong business.

Fernandez - can we find middle ground on SB50. People say keep single family housing, the Millbrae hills are so steep, should we be building apartment buildings there ((what? that's not what SB50 did))

Fine - supports SB50 with moderate density housing near major transit.

Does this outlaw single family zoning? Fine: SB50 allowed missing middle housing within the building envelope of houses, and that isn't as dramatic as what people feared

Fernandez - SB50 came on as scary, yimbies were loud, and other people were afraid.

Fernandez - some leaders said that the state legislation allowed them to get off the hook and blame Sacramento. She like exemptions for coastal communities

Fine - Palo Alto City Council opposed SB50 without doing an analysis of it.

Leora Ross - how can dems be unified - young Dems support housing legislation, other clubs oppose it - Asks Fernandez, you've seen that people are avoiding the question - what should we do to find middle ground?

Fernandez it will be hard to find middle ground because this is upending assumptions that current residents have had for decades

Fernandez - support the politicians who support housing solutions.

Fernandez - make it scary for the politicians, have carrots and sticks

Fine - Mountain View is approving thousands of units of housing, we in Palo Alto are approving tens of units

Fine mentions a city that has recently brought childcare for council meetings, would that help?

We need to convey how much housing is a need, tell personal stories, not just about those people over there

which does a better job, urban or suburban, re: climate, social safety net, diversity and inclusion, more time with family/community, healthy economy

Leora Ross - social justice, concern about how some neighborhoods are over-policed ((there was a connection that would be good to draw out))

Fine - environmental and economic efficiency. Fernandez - diversity and inclusion; the schools you attend affect who you become. I am child of immigrants, homogeneity is not good.

Now for the questions: what about regionalism - can't another part of the region solve these problems?

Back when I was working, I would given tactful answers. Now that I'm retired... is "community character" more important than other core values, is that higher priority than climate change impacting our grandkids?

people who hear about more housing think about it in terms of growth and change that benefits other people and not how it benefits me. We need to talk about how it benefits you, like the lack of home healthcare assistants for your husband.

legacy, what are you leaving to your children ((but the perspective is to leave the highest housing value for kids and not supporting somebody elses kids))

Weden - we need to frame the problem in terms of self-interest

Weden - if we don't change, things will not say the same.

Weden - how do we accommodate lower income people? A. we need to build more homes. Last year we needed 180K units and built 80K, and that was on top of the deficit we had before

Q. SB50 focused on transit hubs and not downtowns. A. A lot of downtowns are transit hubs.

Q. What about incentive to build commercial not housing? A. We need to address it one way or another.

promote the benefit for existing residents, it is an insurance policy for you, that you'll be able to downsize. Don't talk about benefits for other people ((if so Democratic party is screwed or not any different than Republicans))

Also, for this "what's in it for me" question, that assumes that current residents are planning for their future in 10-20 years instead of waiting for a disaster when hundreds of thousands of people stop driving

q. what complete neighborhoods do you like, a. Downtown Redwood City, Bay Meadows but not enough housing.

q. about RV dwellers and homeless - PA is identifying parking lots, but he's concerned about impulse to "other" people and have people without stable housing go elsewhere