Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Honesty on housing in short supply


Paul Krugman provides some:
What we need is effective land-use regulation that doesn’t strangle housing construction. But how do we get there politically? No idea.
Unlike Scott Wiener who apparently thinks it's easy:
...A greater breakthrough would be SB35, state Sen. Scott Wiener’s bill to speed private residential development in cities that aren’t meeting housing needs. The measure requires projects to meet a host of conditions that make its impact hard to predict, but it has the virtue of beginning to take on the local obstructionism at the heart of the housing shortage. Wiener, D-San Francisco, called the emerging legislative package “a healthy down payment” on a solution. “We have years of work ahead of us,” he said. “It took us 50 years to dig this hole.” It’s time to stop digging and start building.
Right. If only Scott Wiener had been here years ago with his Harvard degree to show us the way! 

Wiener doesn't understand and lies about CEQA; lies about the Geary BRTadvocates digging costly tunnels under San Francisco with the help of some "pixie dust"; thinks supervisors should have the right to amend initiative measures passed by city voters; and, failing that, wants to make it harder for voters to put those measures on the ballot.

Where in San Francisco does the Chronicle's editorialist want more housing built? The city is already in the middle of a housing and population boom that is heedless of the impact on city traffic and infrastructure: 

"Smart" growth in San Francisco? 19,000 people on Treasure Island? No problem!

Marin County and Wiener's simplistic solution: Lawmaker’s proposal to extend ‘urban’ zoning in Marin.

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