Happy Saturday, folks! As is tradition, I'm at a meeting of statewide NIMBY group Livable California.

Today's discussion will focus on freaking out about statewide upzoning legislation (SB79) and CEQA reform. Grab some🍿, 🧵 starts here! We're starting off strong in the chat! Folks, did you know there's no housing shortage in California? Big if true! (It is not true)

Happy Saturday, folks! As is tradition, I'm at a meeting of statewide NIMBY group Livable California.

Today's discussion will focus on what they deem "the worst two bills" of the year: upzoning and CEQA reform proposals by Scott Wiener.

Grab some 🍿,🧵 starts here! First up is SB79, Scott Wiener's bill to allow taller, denser housing within a half mile of public transit stations.

Sounds reasonable, right?

Wrong! Says LCA President Rick Hall. He says it's one of the worst bills of the year, and they're apoplectic about it.

Happy Tuesday, folks!

I'm spending my evening in the affluent Bay Area suburb of Menlo Park, where the city council is hearing an appeal of an 88 unit, 100% affordable housing project for school district staff.

This is gonna be a good one, so grab some 🍿!

🧵starts here! Some background: more than a decade ago, the Ravenswood School District closed an elementary school, Flood School, in Menlo Park.

The school was demolished in 2018, and the district wants to build housing for district staff there, who struggle to afford housing in the area.

Evening, folks! I’m once again at Half Moon Bay’s hottest venue, the Ted Adcock Community Center, for the third planning committee discussion on a 100% affordable housing project for senior farmworkers.

Hopefully the 3rd time’s the charm charm! 🤞🏻🧵 Staff from Mercy Housing speaking now. It sounds like they’re shaving off 5 feet of the project’s height, and including fewer 2 bedroom units to appease the planning commission 😞

Happy Tuesday, folks! I’m spending my evening at the hottest new venue on the coast — Half Moon Bay’s Ted Adcock Community Center, where the planning commission is reviewing a 40 unit 100% affordable housing project for farmworkers. 🧵 A little about the project: it’s 40 units on just .38 acres, 5 stories, replacing a single family home, with just 18 parking spots.

To do that, it’s using state density bonus law’s super density bonus created under AB1763.

Folks, we love to see it!

Happy Saturday, folks! 10 days ago California Governor Gavin Newsom signed major new housing streamlining legislation, #SB423, & many other new housing laws.

Today, statewide NIMBY group Livable California meets to discuss their legislative losses. Grab some 🍿, 🧵starts here! Livable California president Rick Hall has thoughtfully tallied up all of their Ls for us to start the day. We love to see it!

Good evening, Twitter! I’m spending my Friday night in the affluent Bay Area suburb of Millbrae, where the county is presenting a plan to turn a hotel into ~100 homes for unhoused residents.

It appears that the entire city is here, and they are *pissed*. 🧵 It’s gonna be hard to live tweet, because there’s no wifi and my cell service is pretty bad. Also, I’m in an overflow area where it’s hard to hear. But I’ll do my best!

Evening, all! I'm watching a local meeting in the affluent Bay Area suburb of Millbrae, home of SFO.

The council is hearing a county presentation on a plan to use state funds to purchase a convert a hotel into 100 units of homeless housing.

As expected, people are Big Mad. 🧵 We start with a fiery speech by the Mayor, chastising housing advocates, the county manager, etc.

Says Millbrae (median HH income $140,000/yr) is an underresourced community.

Says the city has no money, hasn't done a tree inventory since 1992. "We have no swimming program."

I’m in the Bay Area suburb of Santa Clara tonight supporting an interim housing project for 30 unhoused families. Debate and opposition are fierce.

We’re on hour 10, over two council meetings, with 12+ more hours in 4 community meetings.

How does this process make any sense? Councilmember Becker speaking now, explaining his parent's history of housing insecurity and being priced out, unhoused family members, and why he's supporting the project.

The audience shouts him down, and the mayor has to bang her gavel. Several times.

This is the most concise piece I've seen on the mayoral recall effort in San Mateo.

Tl;dr: the city's Old Guard (NIMBYs, realtors, politicos of yesteryear) has largely lost their grip on power. They're willing to do or say anything to regain it.

sfchronicle.com/bayarea/articl… What's at stake are competing visions for the city: one as a walled off retirement community for the rich and nostalgic, and one that welcomes people of all racial and socioeconomic backgrounds.

You can guess which which one I (and Mayor Lee) am fighting for.

Happy Saturday, folks! It's been a minute, but I'm back once again to bring you the (best?) of statewide NIMBY group Livable California.

Today's discussion will feature updates on new state housing legislation that they're mad about.

As always, grab some🍿, 🧵starts here! I tuned in a little late, and hopped in during the middle of some complaining about courts upholding housing laws, as well as the Washington State Supreme Court upholding a new tax on capital gains.

Lol, lmao, etc.

Evening, folks. I'm currently attending a community meeting on an interim housing project via Project Homekey for unhoused residents in the Bay Area suburb of Santa Clara.

Previous meetings have been extremely heated. There are nearly 400 people in the Zoom. 🧵starts here! A summary of all the concerns thus far. And there are...many. Chief among them: safety and property values.

Hey, folks! Want to hear from California legislators on how to solve the state's affordable housing crisis via new legislation? @HACdotorg, @cayimby, @gbeltalliance and @yimbyaction have you covered!

Sign up below, or follow along here! 🧵

actionnetwork.org/events/afforda… First up is Assemblymember @BuffyWicks: says we need $100B over the next 10 years for affordable housing, which is why she's introduced a new housing bond.

"This issue has metastasized into such a crisis that we have to grapple with that."

Tonight in San Mateo, city staff is recommending adoption of our housing element, despite the fact that it hasn't been certified by @California_HCD.

The element doesn't meet state standards. This is a 100% bad faith attempt to try and avoid the builder's remedy. There are a million problems with the element, including:

- severely deficient AFFH and constraints analyses
- no rezoning
- no mitigations for our 5 story 50 unit/acre height + density limits, despite it being listed as a major constraint to affordable housing

Evening, folks! I'm currently attending a council meeting in the city of Santa Clara, the Bay Area suburb home to the 49ers.

The topic? A 100% low-income housing project replacing a parking lot.

Tensions are high, and opposition is out in force. 🧵 Some background on Santa Clara: the city has a median home price (per zillow) of $1.6M, and a median household income of almost $140,000.

Between 2010 and 2019, they added nearly 30,000 jobs, but just 6,500 homes.

Morning, folks! As usual, I'm covering a meeting of statewide NIMBY group Livable California.

Today's speaker is a former councilmember from the tiny Bay Area city of Albany, here to complain about their state mandated housing (RHNA) numbers, a fight Livable already lost.

🍿🧵 The speaker, Michael Barnes, is starting now. He says that we have an affordable housing crisis, not a market-rate housing crisis.

Author's note: always fun to see suburban NIMBYs 🤝 San Francisco "progressives" using the same language

Happy Tuesday, folks! I'm spending my evening at a town council meeting in the affluent Bay Area suburb of Atherton, home to many silicon valley billionaires.

Tonight, the town is discussing (read: freaking out about) their state-mandated housing plan. 🍿 recommended, 🧵 here: This is something of a double-header, as I was covering Hillsborough (a few miles down the road) last night. That thread is here:

https://twitter.com/cafedujord/status/1579688891942342656

Evening, all! I’m once again attending a town council meeting in the hyperaffluent Bay Area suburb of Hillsborough (median household income $250k+)

The town is finalizing their state mandated housing plan, and discussing penalties for noncompliance. I expect sparks to fly. 🧵 Here's a link to my last thread to catch folks up on what we're talking about

https://twitter.com/cafedujord/status/1574596879899246592

Housing is an ecosystem. When wealthy places like San Francisco refuse to build enough, people get priced out to cheaper areas, driving up prices elsewhere, causing displacement across the state.

San Francisco does not exist in a vacuum, and its poor policy choices harm us all.

https://twitter.com/DeanPreston/status/1579158949885972481

And frankly, the fact that San Francisco electeds don't seem to comprehend that their actions have an effect on other areas is extremely damning.

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!

Hi folks! I’m attending a council meeting in the San Francisco peninsula suburb of Hillsborough, one of the most affluent towns in California.

Tonight’s topic: the town’s state mandated housing plan. Rezoning for multifamily housing is being considered. People are *big* mad. 🧵 Hillsborough has a median household income of $250,000+, and is home to some of silicon valley's most affluent residents.

They are not fans of the latest plan, which includes potentially turning city hall and the police station into apartments.