by 
Lawmakers
in
Sacramento
recently
upped
the
ante
in
their
ongoing
assault
on
local
democracy
in
the
Golden
State.
Earlier
this
year
State
Senator
Scott
Wiener
(D–San
Francisco)
introduced
a
bill
called
SB
79.
If
passed,
it
would
all
but
eliminate
local
authority
over
zoning,
land
use,
and
development.
It
would
place
the
fate
of
thousands
of
neighborhoods
not
in
the
hands
of
the
people
who
live
in
them
and
want
to
live
in
them,
but
in
the
hands
of
for-profit
real
estate
speculators
and
the
financial
class
behind
them.
The
bill
is
part
of
an
assault
on
the
foundations
local
democracy
that,
as
I
wrote
two
weeks
ago,
trace
their
origins
back
800
years
to
Magna
Carta
itself.
SB
79
would
allow
real
estate
speculators
to
cram
five,
six,
and
seven
story
luxury
apartment
and
condo
buildings
into
single-family
neighborhoods
and
neighborhoods
currently
characterized
by
small
multifamily
buildings
(duplexes,
fourplexes,
and
smaller
apartments
and
condos).
If
a
speculator
takes
advantage
of
other
recent
laws,
including
so-called
“density
bonus,”
they
could
build
10
or
even
20
stories
in
a
single
family
neighborhood.
The
only
requirement
is
that
the
new
structures
be
within
one
half
mile,
and
in
some
cases
a
quarter
mile,
of
a
bus
stop.
That’s
it.
Doesn’t
matter
where
the
bus
goes.
Doesn’t
matter
if
that
bus
doesn’t
go
anywhere
near
your
workplace,
your
kids’
schools,
your
local
grocery
store,
and
so
forth.
Just
has
to
be
a
bus.
What’s
more,
some
city
officials
are
on
the
same
page,
hell
bent
on
self-immolation.
For
example,
multiple
sources
have
told
me
that
officials
at
the
Los
Angeles
Metropolitan
Transportation
Authority
(LA
Metro)
have
rerouted
segments
of
bus
routes
and
changed
the
locations
of
bus
stops
in
order
to
make
existing
“transit
oriented
development”
incentives
applicable
to
specific
parcels.
Some
California
transit
agencies
aren’t
serving
the
people,
they’re
bowing
to
the
whims
of
for-profit
real
estate
speculators,
many
of
whom
aren’t
based
in
California
and
could
care
less
about
neighborhood
character
or
quality
of
life.
This
is
how
local
democracy
dies
It’s
madness.
This
is
how
local
democracy
dies.
Agencies
like
LA
Metro
increasingly
are
in
the
land
use
business.
This
is
how
mass
transit
functioned
in
the
Soviet
Union,
in
which
housing
and
mass
transit
were
inextricably
linked
(because,
of
course,
none
but
the
most
privileged
and
powerful
owned
their
own
cars).
It’s
almost
impossible
to
overstate
the
threat
SB
79
poses
to
neighborhoods.
It
would
all
but
eliminate
local
governments’
power
to
control
their
own
communities’
destinies.
City
councils
and
boards
of
supervisors,
the
members
of
which
most
closely
reflect
the
people
they
represent,
would
be
reduced
to
bystanders
as
rapacious
developers
—
many
of
whom
in
this
context
are
less
than
scrupulous
—
literally
bulldoze
hundreds
of
thousands
of
homes,
irreversibly
transforming
and
destroying
countless
neighborhoods.
It’s
the
state
dictating
where
and
how
39.8
million
will
live.
The
state
dictating
to
cities
what
kind
of
housing
they
must
approve,
under
penalty
of
crippling
fines,
legal
action,
even
a
complete
state
takeover
of
local
zoning,
land
use,
and
construction
decisions.
Sounds
an
awful
lot
like
tyranny.
Read
the
rest
of
this
piece
at
The
All
Aspect
Report.
Chistopher
LeGras
is
an
attorney,
journalist,
muckraker,
and
Californian.
Photo:
California
State
Senator
Scott
Wiener
(D-San
Francisco),
in
an
unintentionally
perfect
picture.
Courtesy
The
All
Aspect
Report.
Go to Source
Author: Christopher LeGras
