Tag Archives: Housing

Blog Roundup, Environment, San Diego, San Francisco

October 15, 2007 Blog Roundup

Today’s Blog Roundup is on the flip. Let me know what I missed.

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How a Bill Becomes a Law
(or not)

Ba-Da-Bang!


Other Statewide

Local

Federales

The Rest

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Blog Roundup, Environment, Health Care, Orange County, San Francisco

September 13, 2007 Blog Roundup

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Remind me again how much
of California’s economic growth since the end of the boom has been
based in real estate…

The CA Dem Leadership’s
Pet Project and other “Reform”

Local Motions

Watching the Governor

Everything Else

San Diego

Half of San Diego County households live in unaffordable housing

Cross posted from San Diego Politico

That’s the headline from a new issue brief from the Center on Policy Initiatives here in San Diego.  A study of 2006 Census data released this week discovered that “about 53% of both renters and homebuyers in this county can’t afford their housing, according to federal standards.”  Those numbers according to CPI add up to more than 500,000 households countywide.

Perhaps coincidentally, FoxNews last night ran a story aimed at revealing the “human side” of the foreclosure crisis throughout the county.  The story ultimately focused on analysing all the mistakes people make on the way to foreclosure, conveniently blaming those who end up losing in all of this rather than getting particularly ruffled about predatory lending practices or subprime mortgages that have disproportionately hit Latinos and African-Americans with foreclosure (also touched on in the CPI report among other places).

More than half.  That’s not an ingredient for economic growth, improved test scores, higher health standards, public safety, or anything else generally considered desirable for a community.  The San Diego housing market is already in decline, with dozens if not hundreds of condos sitting vacant and unsold.  Where exactly is this county going and why are we in this handbasket?

Blog Roundup, education, Environment, Health Care, San Francisco

September 12, 2007 Blog Roundup

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When I was a student, we
called this cramming — didn’t work very well then either

The Librul Academy: or
how the taxpayers of California still employ John Yoo as a law
professor at UC Berkeley

Big fish, smaller ponds

Candidates are people too

Everything else

Blog Roundup, education, Environment, Health Care

September 11, 2007 Blog Roundup

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Things to Read Today

Health Care (AB 8)

Environment &
Energy

Reform Efforts and
“Reform” Efforts

Education

Republicans

Homes

Electoral Politics
Generally

All the Rest

Blog Roundup, Budget, San Francisco

July 30, 2007 Blog Roundup

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Today’s Blog Roundup is on the flip. Let me know what I missed.

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Budgets are Still Moral
Documents

Voting Integrity

Local Motion

Statewide

The Remainder

Blog Roundup, Environment

July 29, 2007 Blog Roundup

Today’s Blog Roundup is on the flip. Let me know what I missed.

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It’s a Lazy Sunday
Afternoon, and this is all I found for the last couple days, so I’m not
bothering to sort it.  Yes, this is the actual category
heading.

Blog Roundup, Budget, Environment, Prisons, San Francisco

July 10, 2007 Blog Roundup

1 Comment

Today’s Blog Roundup is on the flip. Let us know if I missed anything in comments.

Also, The California Majority Report seems to be experimenting with a daily news roundup. They’re calling it “Fresh Meat“, which is best thought of as a sort of a spun “Rough and Tumble”. I hope they can keep it up — I tried to do that for a month or two in 2005, and it was brutal. Of course, CA Majority Report should be able to, y’know, pay people.

Budgets are Moral
Documents

All Politics is Local

Our State and Planet

Other State Politics in
No Particular Order

California

Affordable housing and NIMBYism, a statewide problem

11 Comments

As I was strolling the newspapers of our fine state, I kept coming up on a theme of “affordable housing is great, but Not In My BackYard (NIMBY)”.  It’s something that we’ve addressed on these virtual pages, and it’s not to hard to find others talking about the subject.  But, how do we deal with NIMBYism?

So, take this one, from the Eureka Times-Standard:

A proposal by Danco Communities to build 56 affordable housing apartments on Moore Avenue has some neighbors rankled and ready to take their case to the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors. (Eureka Times-Standard 7/2/07)

Or this one from the San Jose Merc:

Almost two weeks after Santa Clara leaders approved rezoning the city’s last 17 acres of farmland for housing, activists who want the land preserved as open space started walking around their neighborhoods collecting signatures for a referendum.

“People are tired and fed up with high-density housing and they want to do something about it,” said Brian Lowery, who spent about six hours collecting signatures this week.(San Jose Merc 7/2/07)

Kindly turn to the extended…

Of course, there are plenty more stories just like this in practically every city of mid-large size.  Housing activists want affordable housing, open space advocates want um…open space, and NIMBYs want pretty stuff in their neighborhood.  Satisfying everybody become nearly impossible to accomplish.

But clearly some of this work must be accomplished. We cannot continue to keep driving people further and further away from where they work. Gas prices aren’t getting any cheaper (nor should we really want them to be if we value our environment), but yet nobody wants that high-rise in their neighborhood.  But, at some level we all acknowledge this might happen.  Somehow people need to suck it up and figure out how we can set up a more efficient process to get affordable housing in all of California’s cities.

California, Orange County

Developing for the Better in Anaheim?

14 Comments

Look at what I found in this morning’s OC Register. This looks interesting:

A new coalition of unions, faith-based groups and community organizations is pressuring developers to build low-cost homes and pay sufficient wages at a proposed complex next to Angel Stadium.

Three developers are competing for a contract to build offices, shops and homes on a 51.4-acre, city-owned plot, which the National Football League has considered for a stadium. On Tuesday, the City Council will discuss the proposals in a closed meeting and may narrow the field of competitors.

The new Orange County Communities Organized for Responsible Development, or OCCORD, is trying to persuade developers to commit to certain standards before the city awards a contract. The city’s lease with the Angels forbids homes on the land now, but developers are talking to the Angels.

OK, so these folks are trying to convince developers to just do what’s right for the community? How the heck does that work? Well, follow me after the flip for more on this interesting development…

So how well is it working? Pretty well, actually. Already, one developer is listening.

At least one developer is interested in making a pact with the coalition.

“We have a lot in common with the majority of their goals,” said Eric Heffner, a principal at Windstar Communities. “Our development site is trying to meet all the needs of the community.”

And why does this matter? Perhaps because there isn’t much affordable housing left in Orange County. Perhaps because there are so many folks out there who desperately need a place to live down here.

One OCCORD member, St. Boniface Catholic Church, is pushing on its own for affordable housing on the land by Angel Stadium, first by meeting with individual council members.

Some parishioners have trouble paying for homes, doubling up in apartments or moving to the Inland Empire, said the Rev. Tim Freyer, lead pastor. The stadium property is in the Platinum Triangle, where none of the 8,292 planned homes is set to meet affordable-housing guidelines.

“There’s an opportunity I think we should take advantage of,” said Freddy Hernandez, a St. Boniface member.

So if OCCORD can pull it off and get the developers to agree to good labor and environmental standards, I say more power to them. And if they can get these developers to agree to include affordable housing in their plans, then we’re one step closer to solving this housing crisis. After all, this is something that we can no longer afford to ignore. There really is hardly any affordable housing left in Southern California. That’s why we so need groups like OCCORD to push these developers to think beyond short-term profits.

Perhaps in the near term, we’ll be OK just building more luxury condos and exorbitant McMansions while ignoring all the poor and middle-class people who can’t find a place to live. However, this isn’t good for the long term. We need good, livable communities. We need communities with safe streets, and parks for kids to play. We need sustainable communities with services withing walking distance, and mass transit readily available to take folks farther distances. However, no good long-term plan for healthy communities is complete without a plan to ensure that people can actually afford to live in these communities. What good are the streets and parks and services and high-speed trains if no one can even really afford to live near these?

That’s why we need to think in the long term. That’s why we need for affordable housing. And that’s why I hope OCCORD can succeed in getting developers to do what’s best for everyone in the community. : )