#California Gov #Newsom signs #ScottWiener bill to bulldoze over opposition to expansion of #housing density and residential construction projects along key rail transit corridors.

New #Yimby law "Abundant & Affordable Homes Near Transit Act" (#SB79) creates less restrictive state #zoning codes, limits options for those seeking to stall plans, restrict density or halt new housing near transit stations.

Opposition to legislation included exburb #NIMBY #realestate investors who fear #construction of potential seven story condo bldgs near rail transit corridors that would destroy perception of aesthetic quaintness of #suburbs like Burlingame, or Petaluma etc.

Earlier this summer #GovNewsom signed similarly YIMBY-backed #legislation to exempt most urban apartment projects from #CEQA reviews, the state’s signature environmental protection law. “Go YIMBYs,” Newsom said when signing that bill into law.

The state's "housing crisis" conditions in which distinct lack of rental unit availability, and #Prop13 tax measure after effects etc, have all spiked the price of basic housing options, and put vast swaths of not particularly exceptional suburbs amongst the nation's highest priced #realestate markets.

“In California we talk a lot about where we don’t want to build #homes, but rarely do we talk about where we do—until now,” said law sponsoring state senator Wiener in a statement about his fourth in a decade long attempt to get similar laws passed. “SB 79 unwinds decades of overly restrictive policies that have driven housing costs to astronomical levels, forcing millions of people away from #jobs and #transit and into long commutes from the #suburbs or out of the state entirely. It has been a long road to tackling these decades-old problems, but today’s signing marks a new day for #AffordableHousing in California.”

https://calmatters.org/housing/2025/10/newsom-signs-massive-california-housing-overhaul/

https://www.berkeleyside.org/2025/10/10/california-sb79-housing-berkeley-transit-oriented-development

https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2025/10/10/sb-79-san-francisco-signed.html

https://laist.com/news/housing-homelessness/los-angeles-sb-79-map-neighborhoods-address-housing-california-bill-bass-newsom

https://calmatters.org/housing/2025/09/neighborhood-transit-upzoning/ #UpZoning #Development #WeinerWorld #HousingAffordability

@apophis @franktaber @futurebird @kechpaja I think that you are a little off. The #Boomers were born from 1946-64. At the beginning of the 70s, Boomers were 16-24 years old—the people in power were mostly Silent or Greatest Generation or their parents. None of the people who made the great music of the 50s and almost none in the 60s were Boomers, although we can take some of the blame for Disco. The music industry people who chose the songs, produced the records, ran the clubs, programmed the radio stations, wrote the reviews, and owned all of the media? None of them were Boomers until their parents aged out. My parents and I benefited from the post-war economic boom—there was no tuition when I went to a UC—but it was the Silent and Greatest that ruined that by passing #Prop13 in California, by falling for #Reaganomics, by electing Nixon, and by making the GOP a racist cesspool. Boomers weren’t old enough to vote, just old enough to be drafted.

New blog on how property taxes are distributed in #SantaClaraCounty and how #Prop13 turned it into a zero-sum game.

http://www.jisaacstone.com/urbanmountain/taxes/2023/09/10/one-percent.html

Tax Levies Are Different in CA: The Prop 13 Pie

Tax Districts

Urban Mountain

Very good article about the large #homeless population in California.

Turns out #housingcosts, not #immigration, is driving it.

What the article misses is the #California #tax structure was gutted in the 80’s by #Prop13.

The public was sold on a greedy theft of generational wealth by not aligning taxes with housing prices.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/07/california-homelessness-housing-crisis/674737/

And I sure don’t see many #churches stepping in to help.

The Myth of Homeless Migration

Researchers at UC San Francisco have released the largest representative survey of homeless people in more than 25 years.

The Atlantic
@talzag They also voted for #Prop13 which the dominant party would overturn tomorrow if the resistance weren't monolithic.

@chaosmonkey @VeryBadLlama

It's precarious because sometimes greed drives investment which boosts supply of the necessity (the reason socialist housing does not work).

I would:

- Restrict ownership to owner-occupied in impacted urban/suburban zones

- Remove the 2nd home mortgage interest deduction which fails despite attempt in California

- Tie rent control to vacancy rates

- Start with the corporate loophole in #Prop13 which starves school funding

- Blast zoning as linked in my last toot

The crisis is less the obvious problems but vindicated interests in the degrading status quo & a lack of intelligent, cohesive resistance.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/Californians-home-mortgage-deduction-would-be-14960585.php

Californians’ home mortgage deduction would be capped under new bill

California homeowners with big home loans and vacation properties would owe higher taxes...

SFGATE
Sadly, I would expect this to only get worse. Business taxes keep becoming a larger proportion of local tax revenue, while property taxes keep decreasing.

Prop 15 from 2020 would have addressed that by creating a split roll, but alas, it did not pass.

#sfpol #Prop13
Riders, I need help educating a friend. What are your favorite simple explainers on: (1) Proposition 13 and (2) consultant cost overruns/lack of public state capacity as to why California is so bad at providing services/infrastructure? #Prop13 #infrastructure

I was just reminded that this great website mapping the extreme unfairness of #Prop13 exists. https://www.taxfairnessproject.org

#Proposition13

Interactive map: Prop 13 subsidies

The geographic inequity of Prop 13 homeowner subsidies