Voices Opposing Proposition 10 Getting Loud
A chorus of opponents of Proposition 10, the statewide rent-control initiative on this year’s November ballot, is growing louder and eminently more boisterous. It isn’t your traditional business groups, either. As you might guess, the Cal Chamber, REALTORS®, builders and apartment owners were early joiners to the long list of opposing groups and, thus far, […]
Where Your Money Goes
Ever wonder where your tax dollars go every year? Certainly, you know that federal, state and local governments hire a lot of people – and you pay for that. And, they’re working for you, in case you didn’t know. Remember that the next time you visit the local Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). You will […]
The True Cost of Climate Change
According to an analysis by Governor Brown’s Office of Policy and Research (OPR), the cost of mitigating climate-change symptoms each year will cost Californians well over $50 billion. That begs the question: Is it worth it? If you believe the doomsday predictions of global-warming enthusiasts – more droughts, melting snow caps and rising seas, to […]
Why Don’t Democrats Just Propose New Housing?
They own the majority in both houses of the state Legislature and will for a lifetime. They are constantly stacking committee membership with like-minded lawmakers who regularly grant permission to pass onto the floor or another committee the bills of their fellow partisans. Legislatively, they control the agenda in Sacramento and can virtually do anything […]
Is Middle-Class Housing Obsolete in CA?
Recently, California homebuilders delivered to the state Legislature a healthy dose of reality. At a special hearing of the Assembly’s Select Committee on Housing Affordability (the Committee), representatives of the California Building Industry Association (CBIA) illustrated why housing in the state is so expensive. In fact, CBIA may have made a case at the mid-August […]
Environmental Mugging
A dispute has arisen in San Diego over whether or not developers should be able to offset their contribution to alleged greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions. The contestants include, of course, developers, the County of San Diego and a sampling of California’s most aggressive environmentalists. And, to settle the argument the latter interests have chosen to sue. […]
If It’s Not CEQA, What Is It?
If the Habitat for Humanity affordable housing project in Redwood City isn’t an illustration of CEQA abuse, what is? In fact, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is the cause of a 2-year delay in building the project, which matches up nicely with the region’s “smart growth” standards: six stories and 20-units of lower-income, […]
Government Sends Not-So-Bad Landlords Packing
To the proposition of what’s become a trend in California – the increase in the number of Mom and Pop landlords – I can speak from experience. I’ve been one – for more than 10 years – and I can say it both humbled and frightened me. I owned two rental properties here in Sacramento […]
Rent Control: Knowing Who Your Friends Are
Now that the California Democrat Party has heartily endorsed the statewide ballot initiative to repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act that limits local governments’ ability to impose rent control, property owners should be asking gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom and any Party candidate they are thinking about supporting in November: will you publicly repudiate the recent action by […]
Climate-Change Mitigation – Not So Fast
The best thing we can say about the 10-year-old SB 375, according to a recent report by the University of California, Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation, is that it “offers valuable lessons for other states and regions attempting to mitigate climate change through sustainable development.” That’s it. We’re not able to report that this […]