Dear Editor: The Daily Post needed to ask the five candidates for Jerry Hill’s state senate seat a third question. Not whether you are a NIMBY or a YIMBY (Daily Post, August 21st), but a YIYBY (“Yes In Your Back Yard”) because that is what Scott Wiener (not one of the five candidates) of San Francisco, and others like him, are pursuing via SB50 (Daily Post, August 20th).
If SB-50 and other “housing bills” are enacted, they’ll strip local control from cities (principally suburban cities) in favor of a long list of state-mandated allowances, which are a developer’s dream.
Single-family neighborhoods, part of the “American Dream”, will change into much more urbanized, higher density neighborhoods. Taller buildings (some 55 feet high) would be next to one- or two-story homes, with the attendant crowding (on-site parking may not be required at all) and loss of privacy.
For what purpose? So developers can propose, and elected officials can approve, more and more financially rewarding office developments without commensurate housing to offset the new jobs being created, let alone make any significant dent in the housing shortage we currently have. Our roadways will continue to have massive traffic jams as public transportation remains inadequate for the foreseeable future.
What is needed is a moratorium on large-scale office developments that create jobs, but exasperate the current housing shortage. Then, we can start working on ways acceptable to the various communities to encourage the development of housing “affordable” to lower-income, service workers, not high paid tech workers.
Joe Hirsch
Palo Alto
