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T Keith Gurnee
Scott Wiener: A Relentless Campaign Against Single-Family Communities
Anyone who cares about the livability of their neighborhood should declare State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) California’s biggest threat to single-family communities. By using Progressive gaslighting catchphrases to accuse neighborhoods with detached single-family homes and yards for children to play in, safely, of being “evil” and “racist”, Wiener is placing the upward mobility dreams of lower and middle class families squarely in the crosshairs for high-density development, without addressing the need for truly affordable housing.
However, there is a chance that Wiener just might not get his wish.
Gov. Gavin Newsom recently hinted that he has serious misgivings about Weiner’s most draconian bill, SB 1120, that proposes to shoehorn dense development right next to single-family homes by allowing “by right” subdivision of single-family zoned lots. This isn’t town planning, it is town cramming.
Wiener has become the self-appointed scourge of single-family zoning as well as of the self-determination of local governments. He’s not satisfied just having state laws usurp the powers of cities and counties to plan their own communities, as is guaranteed in the California State Constitution, but he seems intent on snuffing out all aspects of the American dream that are a fundamental goal of families of all income levels.
As it typical of all out-of-touch ideologues and authoritarians, rather than letting us live how we want to live, Wiener will not be satisfied until he’s been able to force everyone else to live the way he wants them to live.
Wiener’s Dystopian Vision
Wiener has found his base to promote a disturbing vision in the state legislature, by playing the Pied Piper for discontented, desperate Millennials, who have undoubtedly been enduring one of the worst strings of economic bad luck in decades. And he’s found financial backing from corporate interests, particularly in tech, who want to continue to lay off the costs of public services and infrastructure on unsuspecting taxpayers, so that their own vested stock fortunes can continue to rise into the stratosphere.
Unfortunately, many state legislators have knuckled under to Weiner’s twisted vision to appear in order to be politically correct, with few, so far, having the courage to even question the consequences.
Wiener has become somewhat of a Svengali of Assembly Members like Buffy Wicks, David Chiu, and Richard Bloom, in concert and collaboration with State Senators Tony Atkins, Nancy Skinner, and Lorena Gonzales, all of whom are drinking Weiner’s Kool-Aid.
If bills like SB 1120 pass, livable neighborhoods will become prime targets for Wall Street bankers and national real estate investors to buy up single-family homes, quadruple density, package them for syndication, and dramatically increase environmental impacts without any financial consequences or local responsibilities
Wiener’s Orwellian vision would have us all live like young, urbanites in high-density, small apartment warehouses with no green space, no parking, and no place for children to play. He would doom coming generations to be renters and subject to the profit-driven returns required by absentee landlords.
Bills like SB 1120, SB 902, and SB 899 and others, such as AB 725, AB 3040, and AB 2345, are currently moving through legislative hearings and are expected to reach the floor for a vote of both houses by the end of August 2020.
If approved, they will be up to Gov. Gavin Newsom to reject or sign into law. With Newsom letting it be known that he doesn’t like SB 1120, we can only hope he will veto them all.
The Destruction of Communities of Color
On August 15, 2020, a group of Black and Hispanic leaders in South LA sponsored a ZOOM conference to oppose SB 1120, the worst of the bills. With over 350 attendees, it was a spirited conversation in universal opposition to what the state would impose upon their middle-class and working-class neighborhoods. Their concerns about gentrification, loss of diversity, displacement of people of color in South LA and East LA, and who should determine the future of their hard-won, home ownership, were palpable.
Astonishingly, Scott Wiener dares to call these vulnerable low-density neighborhoods of color “racist.”
Nearing the Finish Line
With the end of the legislative session just days away, community leaders across the spectrum are raising their voices to defeat so-called “housing” bills that threaten their neighborhoods. Organizations like Livable California have been working with them to help.
Livable California and its allies were instrumental in defeating SB 50 last year, but this year has been a bigger challenge. We are now engaged in a game of whack-a-mole, fighting a flurry of bad bills, on a daily basis. Together, all these bills represent a direct attack on Californian’s fundamental way of life.
We can’t let them get away with it.
Let’s do whatever we can to stop Wiener and his acolytes in the legislature from becoming the enemies of Californian’s upward mobility and community choice.
Elected officials from every city and county in California should be contacting Newsom, right now, by Twitter @GavinNewsom or calling at 916/445-2841, to encourage him to veto these bills.
Time is of the essence!
T. Keith Gurnee, Board Member of Livable California