Dense housing near
transit our only hope
I recently attended the going away party of a couple forced to leave California because they couldn’t afford our insane rents.
Sadly, for Californian millennials this is a common experience. While cities approve more and more offices buildings that draw workers, they block their residents from building the housing those workers need. They aren’t even allowing enough building to keep up with population growth. The results: an entire generation that can’t afford to live where they grew up, long gas-guzzling commutes, gentrification, urban sprawl and growing inequality.
This is why I’m so excited that my state Senator Nancy Skinner has co-authored SB 827, a bill to allow dense housing near transit. We’ve tried letting localities tackle the problem without Sacramento’s involvement. The result is the crisis we see today.
Tommaso Sciortino
Oakland
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