CommentsGUEST COMMENTARY-Louis Mirante, legislative director for the Big Tech/developer funded organization “California YIMBY (“Yes in my back-yard”)” gets paid to tweet.
He tweets a lot. And when he finds something that he feels advances his funders’ causes, he’s not one to hold back words, as in this gem.
Fucking MASSIVE statistically valid poll buried in City of LA's most recent housing element update. They find that SEVENTY NINE percent of people in LA say upzoning single family areas to allow fourplexes is a priority, FIFTY THREE percent saying this is high/major priority.
State Senator Scott Wiener, described by former LA County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky as a WIMBY (Wall St. In My Back-Yard), retweeting Mirante and putting his favorite straw man on display, added: “I guess housing is popular after all. . . (shrug emoji).”
Yes, Scott. Housing is popular. Homeownership is popular. Single-family homes are popular. And affordable housing, which our state is lacking, is popular.
But, sadly, the policies embraced by you, your WIMBY acolytes and their Urban Growth Machine (UGM) patrons make housing more expensive by fueling speculation. People like housing. Corporations recognize that and look to profiteer off people’s fondness for and devotion to housing. And as much as people like housing, your neoliberal developer friends love housing-related profits even more, if possible. And we get it: you’re down with that. Or, as you once stated: “I don’t care how much money developers make.”
Notwithstanding the poll’s methodology or scientific accuracy, let’s do a deeper dive into the results that have the WIMBY’s cheering.
82% of poll respondents prioritized more protections for renters. One would think this would be a good indication that people want to repeal the Costa-Hawkins Act, which precludes cities from instituting local rent stabilization rules, as well as the Ellis Act, which allows landlords to evict tenants. It’s also an indication that corporate donors spending tens of millions of dollars in deceptive propaganda last November caused the defeat of the ballot initiative which would have given cities the flexibility to institute rent stabilization policies for single-family homes and newer apartments.
It should come as a surprise to no one that Scott Wiener and many of his WIMBY allies oppose the rent stabilization of new market-rate housing.
The “F---ing MASSIVE statistically valid poll” also makes it clear that affordable housing and affordable homeownership are the top priorities for Angelenos. Far more people prioritized affordable housing than supported the “upzoning” ballyhooed by the WIMBY’s (more on that later).
92% prioritize “promoting more affordable means for homeownership and support for first-time homeowners” (75% top two boxes).
92% prioritize “promoting more affordable rental housing” (77% top two boxes).
Also, importantly, the poll suggested that 84% of residents prioritize (59% top two boxes) giving tenants and community organizations the opportunity to purchase rental properties.
This concept is similar to the COPA (Community Opportunity to Purchase Act) which I proposed in Beverly Hills (and, which, unfortunately, thanks to the strong opposition of landlords, our Council majority punted on).
Yet Mirante and Wiener tweeted nothing about any of this. Instead, Mirante, whose organization’s entire policy manual consists in figuring out ways to promote FSD (Free Shit for Developers), tweeted:
SURE SEEMS LIKE THE PEOPLE OF THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES WOULD LIKE UPZONING, PEOPLE WHO REPRESENT THEM
Not so fast, Louis.
Despite your triumphal all-caps tweet, the survey doesn’t really say what you think it says.
The wording of the question whose results you seem to think indicate major support of upzoning actually polls people on the following: “Allowing small-scale duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes in areas currently set-aside (sic) for single-family homes.”
Note the prominent use of the phrase “small-scale.” Small. Scale. In point of fact, recent statewide ADU (accessory dwelling unit) laws already allow up to two ADU’s, or a total of three units per single-family lot.
Does that indicate support for SB9, the rehashed version of SB1120? Understandably, Scott Wiener and his WIMBY buddies are trying to portray it as a “duplex” bill, which they feel would align with these poll results – despite the fact that a total of three units are already allowed under current law. But SB9 actually allows up to 10 units per parcel, as reflected in legislative expert Dan Carrigg’s detailed analysis of the bill.
Is this the kind of upzoning Mirante is suggesting Angelenos favor?
As the hard data from Vancouver has shown, lot splits effectively double the price of the land. This hardly seems to be in line with Angelenos’ overwhelming prioritization of affordability.
On the other hand, in another poll question, “creating new sources of funding to build affordable housing” scored high at 86% prioritization (72% top two boxes).
In a recent SPUR panel, in addition to questioning their motives, Wiener was singularly dismissive of those who argue that housing production should focus on affordability. “We need to remind people that 98% of housing in California is market-rate.”
Indeed. And that would seem to suggest – logically – that we are in greater need of affordable housing than market-rate housing, especially when you consider all the results of the poll Wiener so jubilantly retweeted. Yes, housing is popular. Affordable housing even more so. Over 90% of respondents prioritized affordability. Only 2% of current housing is, by Wiener’s own reckoning, affordable. The course seems clear, and action must be taken to address this deficit.
But, as the Embarcadero Institute pointed out, Wiener and his WIMBY buddies are “solving” the wrong crisis in their zeal to further financialize housing and create a new profit center for their corporatist pals. Their nonchalance about affordability is only making things worse.
Rather than scapegoating cities and shilling for developers and the Urban Growth Machine, Scott Wiener and the state legislature should put their money where their mouth is and provide massive state funding for the kind of housing people want and the state needs. After all, Wiener and Mirante’s favorite poll made clear that 86% of people want new sources of funding specifically for affordable housing.
Since affordable homeownership is also such a clear priority, as indicated in the poll, the state legislature should look to create and implement anti-speculation housing policies to decommodify housing, promote affordability, and allow more Californians to become homeowners.
In spite of misinterpreted poll results, many people seem to understand that FSD isn’t the key to affordability and that attempts to get the market to fix the affordable housing problem are doomed to fail. The Black Response Cambridge (MA) hit the nail on the head when it wrote in response to an upzoning scheme similar to the one Wiener is pushing:
Asking for-profit developers to fix the affordable housing problem is like asking an arsonist to put out their own fire.
And, as for the polling, rather than drawing unwarranted conclusions not supported by the questions, and rather than beating around the bush, how about next time just asking Southern Californians straight out:
- Should single-family neighborhoods be illegal?
- Is there anything inherently immoral about living in a home with a garden?
- Do you think homes are for living in or for speculation?
- Do you not care how much money developers and speculators make?
- What do you think of FSD?
C’mon. I dare you. . .
(John Mirisch has served on the Beverly Hills City Council since 2009, including three terms as mayor. He is currently a garden-variety councilmember.) Photo Illustration by Nix + Gerber Studio for The New York Times. Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.