Thread by @cafedujord

Happy Saturday, folks! In what may be the shittiest crossover event of all time, NIMBY groups across California are hosting a town hall meeting this morning to fight state housing legislation to legalize duplexes statewide.

🧵 starts here!

Unfortunately, it looks like the "town hall" is in webinar format, and there isn't a chat function, just q&a.

We'll see how this goes.

The meeting starts with Bea Dieringer, mayor of Rolling Hills (median home value $3,700,000) claiming that all cities are unique and zoning must be left to them.

She then makes the outrageous claim that if SB9 passes into law, people in her community will die.

The aforementioned claim that people will die if SB9 passes was made on the basis that if a wildfire happens, duplexes will render people unable to get out of the city.

That is...nuts.

We're now watching two pre-recorded videos. One has very scary music and lots of falsehoods about SB9 and SB10.

The second is of Dan Carrigg, a lobbyist for the Renne Public Policy Group, an org hired by affluent cities to fight housing bills.

This one is pure fearmongering.

Carrigg claims that SB9 allows 5 or 6 units, with "ways to get potentially more units" too, and that the bills allow building in high-fire zones.

Now it's back to Mayor Dieringer, who asks Carrigg what happens to young families who just want to buy a single family home.

Carrigg: you have to wonder what this will do to the "single family lifestyle." Claims it "destabilizes the purchase decision" for young families.

Carrigg: there is no "due process" associated with this. People are going to be outraged.

Author's note: again, the "this" being referred to here is allowing duplexes where one home used to be allowed.

Sure, Dan. 🙄

There's a bunch of absolute nonsense about infrastructure costs, and the video wraps.

We move back to Mayor Dieringer, who brags about the attendance size: 1,500+ people are apparently here. She's very excited by this.

Note: California has 40,000,000 people.

Now we're hearing a presentation from Sherman Oaks HOA members and founders of NIMBY org United Neighbors, Maria and Jeff Kalban.

Maria starts off by saying we don't need to "dismantle" single-family neighborhoods to get equitable and affordable housing. 🙄

The Kalbans are now doing their presentation on SB9 and 10; I've seen it like 5 times now, and it's riddled with inaccuracies, so I'm gonna take a short break.

"There's no mechanism to prevent our single-family neighborhoods from becoming multi-family neighborhoods"

Yes, that's the fucking point!

Literally everything in this picture is a lie. Incredible.

Now the people from the *Sherman Oaks HOA* are doing a bit on how the bills will cause gentrification and displacement and I'm just gonna lose my mind

Ah, but the Sherman Oaks HOA people have a solution! Just put the housing on commercial corridors choked with smog and pollution! A much better solution than "disrupting neighborhoods."

Now we're doing rebuttals to YIMBY arguments. First up is Lynetta McElroy from Leimert Park to combat the notion that single-family zoning is racist.

We're gonna watch a pre-recorded video from her first.

This video is wild. She makes the following statements one after another:

"Where laws eliminate single-family zoning, neighborhoods get richer, whiter and younger."

"As neighborhoods upzone, existing home prices always go down."

Now we've got San Fernando Councilmember Cindy Montanez. She's also the ED of a non-profit that plants trees. Says the millions of trees are at risk because of SB9 and 10.

Montanez confuses density and overcrowding, calls SB9 and SB10 a "fierce attack" on quality of life. Claims that "our communities" will never be the same. Is touting homeownership, and claims SB9 will destroy this dream.

Montanez incorrectly places the blame of housing unaffordability on state legislators. Claims these bills will "kick people out." Says they will lead to gentrification, make people homeless, all because they don't protect SFH. Likens the bills to redlining and eminent domain.

Montanez implicitly threatens the governor, says that "we have a choice" on who we vote for: someone who supports the dream of single-family homeownership, or someone who doesn't.

Wow.

Alright, next presenter is Sharon Byrne from Montecito, a ultra-wealthy area near Santa Barbara.

She's launching into a bit on Blackstone, and claims that SB9 will accelerate institutional investors purchasing SFHs. Cites the anti-eviction mapping project. Oh boy.

Alright, this is pretty boring. We've mostly moved to urging people to contact legislators, get on social media, write letters to the editor, etc.

Byrne claims that SB9 actively promotes building in high wildfire zones, which is a scurrilous lie.

Literally all of these claims are lies, because apparently that's all NIMBYs know how to do

Lynetta McElroy back speaking now. Claims that developers want to "destroy our neighborhoods" because they won't have to pay for or improve the infrastructure, and taxpayers will have to pay instead.

Again:

The wealthy mayor of Rolling Hills is now back to tell us that supply and demand don't apply to housing, because Manhattan is the most expensive to live.

Mayor Dieringer now citing Patrick Condon, says that he proved density increases don't lead to affordable housing because land prices will rise. Says this is what happened in Vancouver.

People in the Q&A seem very concerned about whether or not HOAs and gated communities will be "protected" from the bills.

Surprise, surprise.

Montanez is back, says that the bills aren't designed to "protect people's investments"

Author's note:...yes? Correct? They're designed to get new housing built so people have places to live, m'am

Now they're actively talking about recalling Governor Newsom. There it is, folks.

Mayor Dieringer is back, says that she "can't see" who is being helped by these housing bills other than investors. Says this is "just not fair."

Apparently the millions of people in California who're rent burdened don't count.

Now Sharon Byrne is speaking again, climbing that the bills transcend partisan politics. Claims that it's really about "you, the little neighbor" versus massive financial interests and tech workers.

Mayor Dieringer now claiming that SB9 actually allows for a minimum of 6 units, because people can use the state ADU laws by-right. Claims "people who understand housing" know this.

This is, once again, a complete and total lie.

Now both Dieringer and Montanez are complaining about RHNA, saying that it isn't realistic. Montanez says cities can't maintain infrastructure for existing residents, let alone new people. Says "the right thing to do" is to push for more money for cities.

Jeff Kalban wants to "focus on doing what's right" by putting all the new housing on commercial corridors, which he himself acknowledges are "ugly, unwalkable parking lots."

Dude.

Dieringer back on now, says that it's not okay for the state to eliminate "choice." Says people need places where their kids can play in the street without getting hit by cars.

Author's note: thinking kids can't play safely in multifamily neighborhoods is classist, lady

Lynetta McElroy says that tearing down old homes is bad because they're filled with lead and asbestos, and that's fine while people are living them, but tearing them down will expose those toxins to the environment.

Again, whew.

Sharon Byrne is now deriding YIMBYs, claims we're "grasstops," being well-paid to advocate. Says that tech companies want to hire activists to push these bills so they don't have to build housing themselves.

Says we don't actually have back yards, and we're being paid off.

Back to Mayor Dieringer who says their only interests are in seeing that "your needs are met."

Author's note: the people who's needs they're advocating for are, to be clear, homeowners who don't want to see more housing in their neighborhoods. Gross.

We're finally done. I'm off to grab a stiff drink and pour bleach in my ears. Have a great weekend, everyone, and please make sure to support SB9 and 10!

cayimby.org/email-sb10/
cayimby.org/email-sb9/