| It’s a shame. One only has to look at San Francisco‘s current zoning map to understand why this bill was important to solving the housing crisis in the state. https://sfplanning.org/sites/default/files/resources/2019-02... In San Francisco, most of the city is zoned RH-1 or RH-1(D). Areas not zoned RH-1 (Essentially residential areas that allow the construction of multifamily apartments and other larger condominium projects) are seeing an explosion of growth and change; mostly in lower income minority neighborhoods where developers can affordably purchase property. It’s incredibly unbalanced; and senate bill 50 would have balance the scales to favor more housing options in some of these areas with stringent zoning for only residential single-family homes. Even though Senator Wiener is from San Francisco, the city council itself came out against this bill. San Francisco is the densest large city in California, with a larger ratio of the population living in apartments then most other cities in the state. Sen. Weiner is pretty safe from backlash as a majority of San Franciscans understand that other cities around the state need to do their part in building housing just like San Francisco has over the last century. For other politicians around the state, senate Bill 50 is Kryptonite. Like everywhere else in America, Politicians are elected by residents. The largest constituencies of voters tend to be those in single-family homes because mostly California lives in single-family homes. Very expensive single-family homes. People do not want to change the neighborhood to drastically in a way that would alter the equity they have accumulated in their home. The best way to not be reelected is to support this bill. Why support multi family apartment construction for people who do not live in their district? Very much the “I got mine“ attitude. There is no panacea here. It’s going to take a ballot referendum, which is not likely to pass for the same reasons. Or change to the fair housing act. In the 50s and 60s, California zoning was indeed complicated with racial bias and exclusion. Above all else, it is the epitome of Systemic racism for the time period; and the biggest flaw in the fair housing act. As it turns out, the system is still working as originally intended. Fixing the fair housing act to cover residential zoning might be more achievable then anything California can do on it’s own. |