Featured

(items previously featured on YIMBYwiki front page top box move here).

Featured

posted May 28, 2020: the "Safe Sleeping Village" (as termed by officials), in San Francisco at Fulton Mall near Civic Plaza, between the Central Library and Asian Art Museum and looking towards City Hall. Safe Sleeping Village, at San Francisco's Fulton Mall near Civic Plaza, May 2020. photo by Justin Sullivan This, the first site under a new city policy to create "safe sleeping areas," opened in early May and is one key focal point in San Francisco's intense and internationally-followed battle over homelessness response amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Game-changing California housing bill, SB 827 introduced by State Senator Scott Wiener SB 827 map SB 827, "Transit-rich Housing Bonus," is proposed 2018 California state legislation that would encourage high-density housing development anywhere in the vicinity of regular transit service. It would exempt residential developments in such areas from typical zoning limitations such as maximum density or required provision of parking, and allowing up to 85 feet building height. See SB827 for our complete and updating coverage, including responses and revision proposals from many commentators.

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YIMBY Action (San Francisco) files ballot measure for affordable and teacher housing. YIMBY Action files ballot measure Nov 27 Press Release: "YIMBY Action Announces Ballot Measure to Speed Up Affordable and Teacher Housing". "San Francisco ballot measure on affordable housing would test voters." by Heather Knight, San Francisco Chronicle, November 27, 2017. "Why San Francisco Needs a YIMBY Ballot Measure, According to One YIMBY." by Cathy Reisenwitz; Bay City Beacon, Nov 27, 2017.

 

 

London YIMBY (John Myers) releases housing reform report LondonYIMBY op-ed accompanying report "Forget nimbys. Yimby housing policy can transform the UK – with the political will." by John Myers (@LondonYIMBY) in The Guardian, Friday 11 August 2017. Announcement from the publisher, Adam Smith Institute, London - click here. Full report (PDF): “Yes In My Back Yard - How to end the housing crisis, boost the economy and win more votes.’’ - click here

 

 

Equity Mapping Project it's cookin' on Twittah Equity Mapping Project  (provisional name, discussing ideas for it now) is a project to map and visualize housing property equity gains disparities between taxable (assessed) and actual (estimated market) value for more on this YIMBYwiki project, see: Equity Mapping Project.

 

Truthout article on YIMBYs

snapshot of Truthout article head YIMBY movement takedown effort in Truthout On May 10, 2017, Truthout published an article "YIMBYs: The Alt-Right Darlings of the Real Estate Industry" by Toshio Meronek and Andrew Szeto, both of San Francisco. [title subsequently changed to remove "Alt-Right"]. The article is a great testimony to the rapid rise and influence of the YIMBY movement which, the authors note, is "dominating the dialogue on how to deal with the very real problem of housing inequality." Aside from the flattery, the article and the follow-up SF Examiner op-ed by same authors are, we think, quite a case study in the polarization and vitriol in discussions around housing -- and perhaps, that more generally, in San Francisco and the country. We've gathered links to the original article and SF Examiner op-ed follow-up, annotatable version of the both of those, and responses by various local leaders, in a new article: Meronek and Szeto controversy. Let's see what we might build with this!

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New! California legislation 2016-2017 California-legislation-2016-2017 snapshot.jpg We're experimenting with ways to track, present, and discuss legislation, starting with California legislation in the 2017-2018 session that concerns housing and YIMBY issues. This year there has been a banner crop of over 130 housing-related bills introduced. The article so far has this overview table, adapted from the California Economic Summit 2017-18 legislation tracker, and next we'll try out a) auto-creating page stubs for each bill, and b) integrating with other tracking and coverage.

Oakland-Magazine YIMBY-feature.jpg   "The Real Cause of Gentrification" by Robert Gammon, Oakland Magazine May 2017. cover story of this month's Oakland Magazine, photo featuring and story quoting YIMBY organizer Victoria Fisher, founder of East Bay Forward. The story isn't available online yet, but you can read a good chunk of it in this photo if you squint. See also our new Gentrification page, mentioning this article, and recent Twitter chat on May 2 between article author Robert Gammon, Fisher, and YIMBYwiki.

Monkkonen2016.jpg "Understanding and Challenging Opposition to Housing Construction in California’s Urban Areas." white paper by Paavo Monkkonen, Associate Professor, UCLA, December 2016. "This white paper provides background on this opposition and a set of policy recommendations for the state government to address it. I first describe how limiting new construction makes all housing less affordable, exacerbates spatial inequalities, and harms the state’s economic productivity and environment. I then discuss the motivations for opposing more intensive land use, and clarify the way the role of new housing supply in shaping rents is misunderstood in public debates.     "I also list the various tactics used to block housing projects, demonstrating just how many veto points present in our current system. I conclude with several proposals for reform that have potential to reduce the power of local opposition to new housing construction. The state should take action by enforcing and enhancing existing laws, pushing local planning agencies to represent more people more equally, providing information for public discussion, and developing ways to make planning decisions at a metropolitan, not neighborhood scale." [...]