By Mike Ege : frisko – excerpt
On the other side of the world, a state official holds up San Francisco as a stark example of what not to do as the city girds herself for yet another protracted political fight over development
‘San Francisco and Sydney share many attributes, including beautiful architecture and natural harbours spanned by impressive bridges. Regrettably, both cities also share a housing crisis. While San Francisco teeters on what some claim is failed-city status, Sydney still has a chance to avoid a similar fate. But the window of opportunity to act is closing’’ — Sydney Morning Herald Op-Ed, February 5
On February 5, Daniel Mookhey, the state treasurer of New South Wales, addressed an urban policy summit in Sydney, warning that Australia’s premier city had only a five- to 10-year window to avert what he called a “landed gentry” situation, where people with little or no generational wealth would no longer have any foothold for living there. He deliberately cited San Francisco as an example where the city did not want to head…
Meanwhile, in San Francisco, a campaign to claw back development policy reforms steered by Sacramento and aimed at increasing housing supply premiered last Sunday in North Beach at a town hall hosted by the Telegraph Hill Dwellers, one of San Francisco’s most potent neighborhood groups.
The emerging campaign is essentially a backlash to newly passed housing laws, like Senate Bills 35, and 8 (which streamlined housing project approvals), Senate Bill 9 (which made construction of multiple units and subdivisions on single-family lots easier), and Senate Bill 10 (which streamlined the zoning process for multi-unit housing projects near transit). Most of this legislation has been shepherded by San Francisco’s own State Senator Scott Wiener, and supported by most of the city’s delegation to Sacramento.…(more)