Thread by @cafedujord

Happy Saturday, Twitter! Last month, CA Governor @GavinNewsom signed several new, transformative housing bills into law to help combat the ever-worsening crisis.

This morning, statewide NIMBY group Livable California gathers to, as the kids say, "cope and seethe."

🍿🧵

The bills people are most infuriated by?

#AB2011, which allows new housing to be built in commercial areas *by right*, bypassing local processes, and #AB2097, which eliminates parking requirements for new housing near public transit.

It’s been a helluva year for YIMBYs!

10 minutes in and the meeting is starting to get underway. There are just 40 people here, including me.

This is an unprecedentedly low participation rate. These meetings used to bring in a 150-200+ people. Repeated YIMBY wins are clearly taking their toll on the membership!

LCA President Rick Hall starts off, saying they had "some failures" this year.

Says the legislature "doubled-down on trickle down, giving away to speculators and taking away from cities."

Hilariously wrong, & indistinguishable from the rhetoric of a certain SF supervisor 😉

Rick: all the "affordable" housing bills failed. The only things that got through are giveaways to developers.

On AB2011, Rick calls it "one of the worst bills of the session." Says "the equity folks also called it one of the worst bills of the session."

Lol, lmao, etc.

Rick says he believes that AB2011 will harm low-income communities of color, and that he believes "equity" orgs in Sacramento will try to water it down during next year's legislative session.

Author's note: it does not do this, and good luck with that!

Alright, we're moving to member comments!

Someone named Patricia says the only way to fix the legislature is to vote against everyone, which she plans to do.

Claims as a "lifelong Democrat" she doesn't want to, but she's fed up.

Author's note: mask off, etc.!

Patricia continues, complaining about parking and AB207.

Says the YIMBYs want to keep her from going to Costco (by eliminating parking in new housing developments???). Did I mention she lives in San Francisco?

Says "we're all victims of the legislature."

There is a YIMBY infiltrator (not me, I swear) in the chat named "Jaques Strap" and I can't stop laughing every time I see the name pop up 😂

Mari from San Francisco says eliminating parking requirements and high parking costs in the city has turned it into a place where "only millionaires" can live and get around.

Mari is apparently unfamiliar with MUNI and what their ridership data looks like.

Diane Lech: every single one of these [housing] bills was written by a Democrat. If we keep voting for them, we'll keep getting this. So we need to change the way we vote, even if it's just this time.

Author's note: mask *completely* off, yet again. Amazing!

Pleasanton Vice Mayor Julie Testa is here! She's here to complain about the California League of Cities. Claims they refuse to "take action" against the legislature.

Says "cities are afraid that they'll be made a target" during the RHNA process by AG Bonta.

We love it!

Julie says that Livable California is "the center of the resistance" and praises everyone for being here and fighting, even though they aren't winning right now

Author's note: we love to see and hear it. Also: lol

Boardmember Isaiah Madison is back! Says "I'd like people to have affordable housing too, BUT."

Amazing.

Says the affordable housing industry is pushing all these bad bills, that non-profit developers are no better than market-rate ones.

Isaiah continues, saying it's not that he doesn't want low-income people or immigrants in his neighborhood, but his neighborhood is built-out, and not everyone in the world can or should live here.

Author's note: whew!

Someone in the chat claims that San Francisco is being "terrorized" by the California Department of Housing and Community Development (for not complying with state law, lmao)

The group is now talking about solving the last-mile problem of public transit (i.e. getting people from the train to their homes). So far, the group has recreated Lyft, but with golf carts.

Incredible.

The guy who proposed Lyft but with golf carts says that his plan would mean we wouldn't have to waste money on building protected bike lanes that will go unused, and folks, I am officially triggered

Jim from San Diego says he's thinking about voting Republican for the first time in his life. Why? To "send a message."

Again: mask off, etc.

Dean Preston has entered the chat

We've got our first mention of "recall Scott Wiener" in the chat. Take a shot!

Author's note: this is especially funny because a recent poll showed that Sen. Wiener has the highest approval rating of any politician in the city (65%+)

Boardmember Isaiah Madison is back, and he's here to complain about single-stair reform! Said he attended a YIMBY event about this earlier in the week.

Says the YIMBYs want to go after historic preservation and stairs.

Author's note: that's goddamn right!

Madison is now claiming that single-stair reform will result in unsafe buildings, people dying in fires. Says YIMBYs want to "deregulate staircases" and "don't care if you die."

Urges people to let their fire departments know that they "love stairs."

Amazing, 10/10, no notes.

Isaiah Madison notes that @AlexFischCC was at this meeting, and says he's praying that he doesn't get reelected in November.

Folks, we've officially reached the "seethe" portion of the meeting 😂

Reviewing the chat, and my dog just started barking for some reason...

Kristi from Portola Valley is here to lament about their housing element, which is considering 4plex zoning.

Says "I thought I was in a single-family neighborhood, but now my neighbor could build 4 units on his property.

Claims it's "pitting neighbors against neighbors."

Earlier in the meeting, Rick asked for bill suggestions for next year's legislative session. Someone named Laurie complains about CEQA being abused to stop housing, and thinks we should do something about this.

I agree, but Laurie, I think you might be in the wrong place 😂

This has gotta be my favorite new conspiracy: YIMBYs are in cahoots with fire chiefs and fire unions to build new housing.

NIMBY comment of the year, hands down

One more call for fundraising and we're done.

Pretty lackluster meeting. Membership has really dropped, and people seemed reserved and quiet overall. I think they know they're only going to keep losing.

Anyway, as always, thanks for following along. Enjoy your weekends!