On October 3, 2024, Politico published the following article about the actions taken by Governor Newsom against the city of Norwalk.
Norwalk is a working class Latino LA suburb that is only 11 percent White non-Hispanic. Here is a link to the American Community Survey Narrative Profile for Norwalk.
The following quote from the article shows just how clueless the writers are, even though one used to write for the Sac Bee, and the other for the SF Chron:
"That’s
why Newsom's action is actually more than just a blunt instrument. It’s
an unmistakable warning siren to dozens of other cities that are on the
state’s proverbial “naughty list” — such as Huntington Beach, Millbrae,
or Elk Grove — for opposing housing: Build your state-assigned share of
homes — or give up local planning control.
First all, cities don't build housing. Some, like Berkeley, used to a few decades ago, but the federal (and state redevelopment) money is long gone. I wish cities could build housing. It makes more sense than just throwing money at developers.
Second, the state-assigned numbers are pure B.S.
Third, after about 200 bills, local planning control is already mostly gone, and it will really be gone once cities fail to meet their mid-point RHNA targets.
What Newsom is basically saying to Norwalk is, 'So you don't want to build affordable housing? OK then, we'll take away your homeless and affordable housing funding, and allow developers to build all the market-rate housing they want.'
Yeah, Newsom, that'll show 'em.
