Huntington Beach’s Lawsuit Challenges Newsom’s Housing Mandates

By Will Swaim
03/13/2023
We’ve seen Gov. Gavin Newsom impose questionable — even dangerous and illegal — policies by declaring states of emergency or merely “crisis” with regard to Covid, climate and energy. He’s done it again on the issue of housing. The problems of housing affordability and homelessness constitute a crisis so compelling, the governor says, that they...

TAGS: affordable housing, California housing costs, Gavin Newson, Housing

“Housing First” Policies Create More Homelessness

By Edward Ring
08/31/2022
Earlier this month a guest column in San Jose Spotlight defended efforts by homeless nonprofits to end homelessness in Santa Clara County. The author, Ray Bramson, is Chief Impact Officer at the nonprofit “Destination Home,” a tax exempt organization that collected over $62 million in contributions and grants in 2020. The CEO of this organization made a reported $335,404 in that...

TAGS: affordable housing, California housing crisis, homeless, Homeless Industrial Complex, homelessness, Housing

State Legislature Continues Its Assault On Local Zoning Decisions

By Edward Ring
05/06/2020
With the introduction of the latest housing density mandate, AB 725 in the California state legislature, the battle between state control and local control in California intensifies. At the same time, the pandemic crisis and its economic consequences add additional complexity to an already complex issue. The debate over California’s housing policies offers an unusual combination: vehement...

TAGS: affordable housing

Gathered for the feast at the Hotel California

By Edward Ring
03/12/2020
Welcome to the Hotel California, such a lovely place… Plenty of room at the Hotel California, any time of year, you can find it here… – “Hotel California,” by the Eagles, 1977 For decades California’s aristocracy has engaged in unsustainable feasting, as they consume the leviathan carcasses of what were for a time the world’s the...

TAGS: affordable housing, Edward Ring, homelessness, LA County, Venice Beach

California Pioneers Subsidized Housing for Public Employees

By Edward Ring
12/04/2019
When it comes to affordable housing, what California’s state legislators have done epitomizes what happens when you have a government bureaucracy that serves itself instead of the public, one that is under the complete control of special interests. They have enacted laws that make it nearly impossible for the private sector to build homes, which...

TAGS: affordable housing, cronyism, Edward Ring, special interests, subsidies

San Francisco’s Prop. A – Expensive Insanity Marches On

By Edward Ring
10/09/2019
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. – Albert Einstein There is no solid evidence that one of history’s greatest geniuses ever said this, but its applicability to California’s housing crisis is too big to let attribution get in the way. Because California’s politicians are trying to solve...

TAGS: affordable housing, City Journal, Edward Ring, homelessness, San Francisco

California’s Unaffordable “Affordable” Housing

By Edward Ring
04/23/2019
When discussing the seemingly intractable and growing problem of homeless people living in California, journalists reporting on the issue don’t spend enough time questioning the numbers, much less the policies driving the insane numbers. A recent article in the San Jose Mercury provides a perfect example. The article gets off to a good start with a provocative, and very...

TAGS: affordable housing, economics, homelessness, Housing, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Zoning

Affordable Housing Is a Symptom of Sound Urban Policy

By Randal O’Toole
09/19/2014
Editor’s Note: These few paragraphs by “anti-planner” Randal O’Toole say everything that needs to be said about how flawed policies artificially inflate the price of housing, making it unaffordable to any middle class family. California provides perhaps the most egregious example of this misanthropic bias towards “smart growth,” and “urban service boundaries,” the practical effect...

TAGS: affordable housing, smart growth

Anti-Sprawl Policies Threaten America's Future

By Joel Kotkin
08/23/2013
Among university professors, government planners and mainstream pundits there is little doubt that the best city is the densest one. This notion is also supported by a wide number of politically connected developers, who see in the cramming of Americans into ever smaller spaces an opportunity for vast, often taxpayer-subsidized, profiteering. More recently density advocates cite...

TAGS: affordable housing, Joel Kotkin, smart growth