Infill: A YIMBY Podcast

Can you effectively advance urbanist policy without doing "politics"? We discuss with our guest from Washington, DC, Alex Baca, who writes and works for the Coalition for Smarter Growth. Alex previously ran a bikeshare system in Cleveland, and before that worked for the Washington Area Bicyclist Association and Washington City Paper. Along the way, we get into DC's Congressionally set height limits, the 16th Street bus lanes, Virginia's weird rule for city incorporation, and the similarities of BART to DC's Metro. By partial coincidence, all of the people on this episode lived in both San Francisco and the DC area at some point. Coalition for Smarter Growth Alex on Twitter A selection of Alex's writing from 2018

We chat with outgoing Supervisor Katy Tang, of the Sunset District, about her work on the board, and particularly Home-SF, the local density bonus. Also the recently passed Central SoMa Plan. Home-SF Sunset YIMBYs should join Westside = best side!

Senator Scott Wiener's newly unveiled More HOMES Act, or Senate Bill 50, would unban apartments near transit and in high-opportunity areas. It's the new SB 827, but it's more ambitious, has clearer and stronger anti-displacement protections, and has racked up new supporters, including the building trade unions and many local officials. We invited Senator Wiener's policy lead on housing and transportation, Annie Fryman, to join us for a frank conversation about the bill, the public reaction so far, and its relationship to the Bay Area's regional housing compact, CASA. By the way, the name stands for More Housing, Opportunity, Mobility, Equity, and Stability. 1:02 What SB50 (More HOMES Act) is 4:04 Stronger public support vis-a-vis SB827 10:20 Sensitive communities carve-out 15:24 Minneapolis comprehensive plan vs SF Planning 17:23 Reactions to including job-rich areas 23:57 Preserving tenant-occupied housing 27:39 How Annie met Laura and got into housing politics 32:00 Demolition controls: SF compared to L.A. 37:47 Endorsements from big-city mayors and Building Trades 42:02 Affordable housing developer's take on More HOMES 45:33 Laura's Thanksgiving argument with her mom 51:25 CASA regional compact 1:02:47 Final thoughts Become a community supporter of the More HOMES Act!

Elections happened, and by now it's well known that the YIMBY supervisor candidates in San Francisco took a bruising. But there's good news from the East Bay, statewide, and elsewhere on the ballot. Darrell Owens from East Bay for Everyone joins Laura and Sam to talk about what just happened and what's next. Joe Eskenazi's article on YIMBYs and the election CASA: The Committee to House the Bay Area Interactive map of election results

Sonja made hand-drawn posters for an extremely niche issue in the Tenderloin. Meanwhile in the Sunset, the race is polling as a four-way tie. What?! And Laura gets phone-banked for a non-YIMBY-endorsed campaign that... can't think of any actual talking points. All this and more as we prepare for Election Day, with Laura Foote, Sam Moss, and special guest Ben Libbey, who's working as the volunteer coordinator for Sonja Trauss's campaign. Read the YIMBY Endorsements Share the YIMBY Endorsements on VoterCircle Sign up to get out the vote this last weekend!

Guests Michelle Parker and Victor Olivieri discuss San Francisco's transportation challenges getting kids to public schools and City College's plans for its land, including housing on Balboa Reservoir. Michelle and Victor have been endorsed by YIMBY Action in their campaigns for School Board and College Board respectively. Michelle Parker for School Board Victor Olivieri for City College Board Share the YIMBY endorsements on VoterCircle

California wants homelessness and transportation to get better, but isn't always willing to pay for it. That's why in San Francisco, we have our work cut out for us to pass local Prop C, which would tax businesses making over $50 million to provide a permanent funding source for supportive housing, mental health services and shelters. At the beginning of the program, Nick Kimura (Eviction Defense Collaborative/Yes on C) tells us about some of the unfunded programs Prop C could start back up, like the Moving On program, and Sam adds his take as an affordable housing developer. At 16:34, we talk to Adina Levin (Friends of Caltrain and a South Bay YIMBY) about No on 6, the fight to protect transportation funding against the Republicans' gas tax repeal measure. We go into what's at stake: important road repairs, Caltrain to downtown SF, longer BART trains, new AC Transit and Muni vehicles, bike/pedestrian improvements, and a regional means-based fare pilot. All these projects lose funding if Prop 6 passes, so find out what you can do! Lastly, at 27:27, YIMBY volunteer Scott Feeney introduces the nascent YIMBY Mobility, a caucus (or "club," we're not sure which) that recently mobilized for Janice Li/No on 6 on the west side and has a District 2 mobilization coming up. YIMBY endorsements for November 6th Share the YIMBY endorsements with your friends using VoterCircle! Prop C: Our City, Our Home No on Prop 6 statewide campaign In San Mateo County, Adina recommends Measure W Saturday's YIMBY Mobility action for Nick and Janice

On Oct 10th, Mission YIMBY held an event at the Brava Theater with Richard Rothstein, author of The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America. It was a powerful lecture on the racist history of housing in the United States, with opening remarks from organizer Steven Buss and Mission Housing's Sam Moss. The Color of Law documents how American cities, from San Francisco to Boston, became so racially divided, as federal, state, and local governments systematically imposed residential segregation. Pick up a copy at your local bookstore!

A chat with Sonja Trauss and Theo Ellington, candidates to represent SoMa, Dogpatch, Bayview and other east-side neighborhoods that together are building 80% of San Francisco's new housing. Sonja, who regular listeners know by now, catches us up on her campaign. She blows our minds with the stats on where new housing is concentrated, how she hopes to change that to allow Affordable Housing everywhere, and her plans to wage war on cars for safer District 6 streets. Then (starting at 23:44) Theo tells us about his experiences growing up in the Bayview, his plans to better connect District 10, build more housing and push for development equity citywide, as well as his lawsuit over the discovery of radium 50 yards from his Shipyard home. Sonja Trauss for Supervisor Theo Ellington for Supervisor Share the rest of the YIMBY endorsements!

"It allows this really radical thing of allowing homes near train stations." We're all happy the governor signed AB-2923, Assemblymember David Chiu's bill to help BART build more housing on its parking lots. To mark the occasion, we chat with YIMBY Action-endorsed candidate Nick Josefowitz (1:24), who helped shape the bill, about BART, housing, and his vision for District 2 (Russian Hill, Marina, Pacific Heights). Next, YIMBY Action-endorsed Janice Li (13:15) tells us about her run for BART board in a very oddly shaped district. If she prevails, Janice will be at the center of the next set of fights: using AB-2923 to actually implement BART's TOD policy. Finally at 32:45, we revel in the glow of BART housing and discuss other housing bills with Brian Hanlon, executive director of California YIMBY. AB-2923 article on KQED Nick Josefowitz for Supervisor Janice Li for BART Share all the YIMBY Action endorsements!