Also, the latest on fishing pier restoration project, Rankin pool equipment upgrades, refinery investigation, mercury spill cleanup, Sturgeon baseball season and waterfront planning
We are in an housing crisis like none before. I call it a Housing Catastrophe. The reality is that those under 35 are enraged that the ladder has been pulled up, they have have no chance that they will ever own a home. This rage is showing up in elections & the swift shift in housing policy & law. Put this reality on top of the Climate Crisis & the need to live much more densely & use public transit, there is no other direction to go. Great report. If CEQA isn’t reformed soon, as well as the Coastal Commission reform, they will both be swept aside by the coming generations as abject failures for blocking housing & not addressing Climate Action.
There used to be an unwritten rule that every generation was expected to leave the next generation better off, with more opportunities and paths to happiness, than they had it. And they were expected to make whatever sacrifices were necessary to ensure that reality. That principle has been shattered into a million pieces. I've been following City Council meetings in various cities for years, and the lack of interest in the issues and challenges facing young people has been nothing short of astounding. Whether the damage can be repaired, I don't know.
One of my former journalism colleagues from long ago wrote this piece last week for the Wall Street Journal. The headline says it all.
Thank you, Craig, for explaining why there is a housing crisis. Young folks want a piece of the pie but prices here in the Bay Area often crush that idea. I would love to see co-op residences take form for those with low and middle incomes. Sometimes it take a village to establish help that is needed and we so badly desire that all people are eliminated from being homeless. We want them safe and be active in their community. It’s called uplifting those who have fallen. We have lands that could be developed if owners would sell them. That seems to be another problem, as well. The building on the corner of Main and Court has been unoccupied for way too long. Needs retrofitting. That building could house quite a few hundred people.
Glad Courtney spoke out about the refinery and the possible effects of our schools being recipients of the spent catalyst. I am anxious to hear about the report.
The Sharkey building would be unsuitable for housing due to the prior use as a newspaper printing facility, I believe that's why Southport made the decisions it did in relation to use. Plus it's designation as a Historic building limits the degree with which it can be redeveloped. While the corner spot has been unoccupied for the majority of time there are tenants in other office spaces and pretty sure it was retrofitted to the degree it needed to be as a historic building.
Thank you Craig for covering the Pleasant Hill story. When I had the opportunity to move my children away from the influence of the San Gabriel Valley through a paid job transfer we landed at the Northridge Apartments. I struggled but it was manageable. By the time Pleasant Hill decided to redevelop the property where we used to shop for groceries, have pizza, shop at Kmart, etc., and turn it into a used car (CarMax) lot and "plaza" I was happily installed in Martinez. The perfect place for any new housing development would have been there, but someone decided retail sales taxes were more important. Now when I read residents were pitching the JCP Home Store site as a suitable location for an affordable housing project I'm disappointed beyond belief.
Today, that same single mother would have been unable to make the move. At least not without moving into a similar situation she was looking to move away from in the first place. I'm normally not a fan of Big Brother stepping in, but in this case the younger siblings have failed in their moral obligations.
I wonder how many of those enraged Pleasant Hill residents voted for Tim Grayson, who has sponsored bills establishing housing mandates in the California Assembly.
Everyone in this state should be enraged! We as a state have voted in some of worst politicians in the history of this state. There is plenty of land to build state owned and run housing in outlying areas in this state. If the homeless don’t like it tough shit! A governor that has higher aspirations to become our next president. I hope the rest of this country sees how bad the state of California has become.
John, the next time you're in line at Starbucks, picking up your kids from school (assuming you have children), or allowing that courtesy clerk to bag your groceries, let them know how you feel about their housing needs. Affordable or Low Income, particularly in the Bay Area, does not only mean homeless shelters. People who work in retail, casual dining, service industries all live at or slightly above the poverty line because the cost of living has become ridiculous. Should they all move out to nowhere's ville? Fine, then forego all your creature comforts and necessities because the people who make those things possible can't afford to live where they work.
And it goes even further. We’re facing crisis shortages of teachers and police officers. How are we supposed to stay safe and make sure our kids get a quality education if the people we count on to do those jobs can’t afford to live here? We are losing residents every year, and those are residents who do the jobs we expect and need to get done.
It should be pointed out that California has Article 34 of the CA Constitution that makes public housing impossible because it has to be voted on. It was passed along with other segregationists legislation during the Civil Rights era.
With the number of people fleeing California the last several years (I've seen it estimated at 500,000) over our horrendous taxes, woke politicians, crime, and homelessness, do we really even have a housing crisis? The majority of homeless are drug addicts or mentally ill who don't want to follow any rules to even live in shelters or temporary housing. If the state is so concerned about affordable housing they should buy up the Concord Naval Weapon station land from the City of Concord and build their own utopiaville of high density low income homes.
Yes, we do have a housing crisis by any objective measurement (supply and demand, sky-high home prices and rents), which is why many of these people are leaving the state, and lots of homeless are not drug addicts or mentally ill. They are also hardworking parents of children forced to live out of cars because our state hasn't afforded them the same opportunity to make a living for themselves that was afforded to the rest of us. Besides, it would seem that a first step toward treating drug addition or mental illness would be to provide a place for these people to live; not easy to treat these things when people are living on streets.
We are in an housing crisis like none before. I call it a Housing Catastrophe. The reality is that those under 35 are enraged that the ladder has been pulled up, they have have no chance that they will ever own a home. This rage is showing up in elections & the swift shift in housing policy & law. Put this reality on top of the Climate Crisis & the need to live much more densely & use public transit, there is no other direction to go. Great report. If CEQA isn’t reformed soon, as well as the Coastal Commission reform, they will both be swept aside by the coming generations as abject failures for blocking housing & not addressing Climate Action.
There used to be an unwritten rule that every generation was expected to leave the next generation better off, with more opportunities and paths to happiness, than they had it. And they were expected to make whatever sacrifices were necessary to ensure that reality. That principle has been shattered into a million pieces. I've been following City Council meetings in various cities for years, and the lack of interest in the issues and challenges facing young people has been nothing short of astounding. Whether the damage can be repaired, I don't know.
One of my former journalism colleagues from long ago wrote this piece last week for the Wall Street Journal. The headline says it all.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/death-rate-children-teens-guns-drugs-54c604f4?fbclid=IwAR3rXd2MZVZIvm4XaS-ZziaVhNFhS5NCCvtFd2haixOvX6YSDAgskcVRgTM
Thank you, Craig, for explaining why there is a housing crisis. Young folks want a piece of the pie but prices here in the Bay Area often crush that idea. I would love to see co-op residences take form for those with low and middle incomes. Sometimes it take a village to establish help that is needed and we so badly desire that all people are eliminated from being homeless. We want them safe and be active in their community. It’s called uplifting those who have fallen. We have lands that could be developed if owners would sell them. That seems to be another problem, as well. The building on the corner of Main and Court has been unoccupied for way too long. Needs retrofitting. That building could house quite a few hundred people.
Glad Courtney spoke out about the refinery and the possible effects of our schools being recipients of the spent catalyst. I am anxious to hear about the report.
The Sharkey building would be unsuitable for housing due to the prior use as a newspaper printing facility, I believe that's why Southport made the decisions it did in relation to use. Plus it's designation as a Historic building limits the degree with which it can be redeveloped. While the corner spot has been unoccupied for the majority of time there are tenants in other office spaces and pretty sure it was retrofitted to the degree it needed to be as a historic building.
Well, good grief! I cannot believe there aren’t exceptions to the rule.
Thank you Craig for covering the Pleasant Hill story. When I had the opportunity to move my children away from the influence of the San Gabriel Valley through a paid job transfer we landed at the Northridge Apartments. I struggled but it was manageable. By the time Pleasant Hill decided to redevelop the property where we used to shop for groceries, have pizza, shop at Kmart, etc., and turn it into a used car (CarMax) lot and "plaza" I was happily installed in Martinez. The perfect place for any new housing development would have been there, but someone decided retail sales taxes were more important. Now when I read residents were pitching the JCP Home Store site as a suitable location for an affordable housing project I'm disappointed beyond belief.
Today, that same single mother would have been unable to make the move. At least not without moving into a similar situation she was looking to move away from in the first place. I'm normally not a fan of Big Brother stepping in, but in this case the younger siblings have failed in their moral obligations.
I wonder how many of those enraged Pleasant Hill residents voted for Tim Grayson, who has sponsored bills establishing housing mandates in the California Assembly.
Everyone in this state should be enraged! We as a state have voted in some of worst politicians in the history of this state. There is plenty of land to build state owned and run housing in outlying areas in this state. If the homeless don’t like it tough shit! A governor that has higher aspirations to become our next president. I hope the rest of this country sees how bad the state of California has become.
John, the next time you're in line at Starbucks, picking up your kids from school (assuming you have children), or allowing that courtesy clerk to bag your groceries, let them know how you feel about their housing needs. Affordable or Low Income, particularly in the Bay Area, does not only mean homeless shelters. People who work in retail, casual dining, service industries all live at or slightly above the poverty line because the cost of living has become ridiculous. Should they all move out to nowhere's ville? Fine, then forego all your creature comforts and necessities because the people who make those things possible can't afford to live where they work.
And it goes even further. We’re facing crisis shortages of teachers and police officers. How are we supposed to stay safe and make sure our kids get a quality education if the people we count on to do those jobs can’t afford to live here? We are losing residents every year, and those are residents who do the jobs we expect and need to get done.
It should be pointed out that California has Article 34 of the CA Constitution that makes public housing impossible because it has to be voted on. It was passed along with other segregationists legislation during the Civil Rights era.
With the number of people fleeing California the last several years (I've seen it estimated at 500,000) over our horrendous taxes, woke politicians, crime, and homelessness, do we really even have a housing crisis? The majority of homeless are drug addicts or mentally ill who don't want to follow any rules to even live in shelters or temporary housing. If the state is so concerned about affordable housing they should buy up the Concord Naval Weapon station land from the City of Concord and build their own utopiaville of high density low income homes.
Yes, we do have a housing crisis by any objective measurement (supply and demand, sky-high home prices and rents), which is why many of these people are leaving the state, and lots of homeless are not drug addicts or mentally ill. They are also hardworking parents of children forced to live out of cars because our state hasn't afforded them the same opportunity to make a living for themselves that was afforded to the rest of us. Besides, it would seem that a first step toward treating drug addition or mental illness would be to provide a place for these people to live; not easy to treat these things when people are living on streets.