As the councilmember who represents the birthplace of racist exclusionary zoning laws, it is my great pleasure to announce that my colleagues @TaplinTerry, @benbartlettberk, @RigelRobinson & I are introducing a resolution calling for the end of exclusionary zoning in Berkeley.
Separately, Mayor @JesseArreguin has agreed to work with @RashiKesarwani, @TaplinTerry & I on legalizing quadplexes in Berkeley. This has been my passion for years and this represents a tidal shift in Berkeley. I’ll tell you why this is a historical moment. 🧵
In 1915, City Attorney Frank Cornish talked about protecting the single family home owner against the “less desirable & floating renter class.” The following year, the Mason McDuffie Co. used Berkeley’s zoning laws to prevent Chinese laundromats and African American dancehalls.
These laws and racially restrictive covenants also prevented communities of color from purchasing or leasing property in East Berkeley. In 1917, racially restrictive zoning became illegal but the feds created HOLC in the 30s to identify mortgage lending “risks.” aka redlining. 
Here is our current zoning map:
In the 1970s, residents of Berkeley passed the Neighborhood Preservation Ordinance which banned multi-unit housing in certain parts of Berkeley. Many stand steadfastly by that decision, including some former and current elected officials.
However, the Neighborhood Preservation Ordinance led to a massive drop in housing production over several decades despite its intentions. Yelda and @benbartlettberk wrote a great op-ed about it here. berkeleyside.com/2017/06/13/opi…
The UC Othering and Belonging Institute recently released a study on racial segregation and zoning practices which revealed that 83% of residential land in the Bay Area is zoned for single family homes. news.berkeley.edu/2020/09/10/why…
The researchers found that the ramifications of such zoning practices leads to a greater percentage of white residents, as recounted by @e_baldi and @solomonout here.
kqed.org/news/11840548/…
kqed.org/news/11840548/…
And of course @berkeleyside here: berkeleyside.com/2018/09/20/red…
Today, with the median home sale price at $1.4 million and the typical White family having eight times the wealth of the typical Black family, this de-facto form of segregation is even more pronounced.
The @UCBDisplacement also found that exclusion is more prevalent than gentrification in the Bay Area. While Berkeley has created policies and designated funding to prevent gentrification, policies that focus on preventing exclusion have lagged.
My fmr planning commissioner& @UCBDisplacement head Karen Chapple said zoning reform “has the potential not just to address the housing crisis but also to become a form of restorative or even transformative justice. There is no more important issue for planners to tackle today.”
In 2019, I, along with @benbartlettberk, @RashiKesarwani and @RigelRobinson introduced Missing Middle Housing legislation in order to facilitate the construction of naturally affordable missing middle housing.
There was a great deal of passionate debate and Council eventually decide to *study* the issue but our budget was stripped due to COVID-19. I'm no longer willing to wait.
In 2020, zoning reform became part of the national discourse. Former Celebrity Apprentice host Donald Trump claimed Democrats will “eliminate single-family zoning, bringing who knows into your suburbs, so your communities will be unsafe and your housing values will go down.”
Trump said this to fearmonger even though zoning reform doesn’t ban single family homes. OTOH, President Biden has indicated that he plans to invest $300 million in local housing policy grants to give communities the planning support they need to eliminate exclusionary zoning.
Not only is this an issue of racial & socioeconomic equity, it’s an affordability issue. According to ACS, missing middle housing houses middle & lower income families in Berkeley, while single-family homes, no matter what year built, are exclusively higher income.
Now, I know that this issue may concern people in my district and other areas of Berkeley currently zoned R-1 but the plain truth lies in the fact that it is fundamentally unfair to ban certain types of homes in certain neighborhoods in Berkeley. They are already there!!
Not only that, it means that affordable housing is banned in *certain* parts of Berkeley. This is wrong and I feel morally compelled to act. So, let’s join hands and address this together. We will be on the right side of history.
Join us on February 23rd to start this conversation. More details to come.
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