The Henry George Program

It's been about a year since the Stanford land-use/housing justice activism group SCoPE 2035 (Stanford Coalition for Planning an Equitable 2035) has been on, and there's a lot to catch up on: campus protests against university lawsuits, more challenges for housing Stanford employees, university dealings with Palo Alto, and more; we hear all about the challenges and advantages of being a group made out of current (overworked) Stanford students.

Holly Balcom tells us how, compared to the Bay Area, Portland, Oregon does so many things better: better cooperation between land-use groups and tenant groups, coherent regional government, an anti-sprawl Urban Growth Boundary, and even the exploration of land taxes. However, pushing back against suburban conformity and exclusion, NIMBYism, and unaffordability is very much an active challenge, and Holly lets us know about what's been going well, and what still needs attention in Portland.

Chris Beiser runs the facebook meme group "Georgist Memes for Land Value Taxation Teens", and comments both upon the modern phenomenon of Image Macros as a way to spread ideas, as well as the functional value of ideology, the implications of modern technology with the evolution of ideology, and the special role of Georgism to navigate ideological rifts in the modern landscape.

We continue the CASA talk by talking about the infighting, the disappointments, and most importantly, the cartoonish villainry we've seen. Rants about the CAA, Realtors, ranking NIMBY cities into a hierarchy of awfulness, and picking apart why some YIMBYs can't figure out how to get onboard with tenants rights.

The CASA Compact is the "grand bargain" that could transform housing and tenant protections throughout the Bay Area. But what are the details? We pick apart the ten pillars and anticipate some of what we'll see in Part II of this series: CASA, the Drama.

We've talked Cupertino on the program before, but never with a native.... until now (!) JR Fruen talks about the relationship between council and Better Cupertino, Mayor Scharf's comments on "building a wall around Cupertino", irregularities around commission appointments, and what all those lawsuits are all about.

Alex Baca has plenty to say about the shortcomings of the Green New Deal platform, with respect to the waste that comes from our land use decisions. We're also joined by Ollie Zhu, as we probe key questions about equity (for whomst?), chat about rust belt urbanism, and talk about the challenges of grow-the-pie solutions being balanced against zero-sum battles.

Quakers (The Religious Society of Friends) have for centuries combined a radical commitment to personality morality with works in the world, including reforming economic life. This continues today, as we talk to Olivia Hanks, program manager for the Quaker Peace & Social Witness "New Economy" project, looking at overturning the inequities of modern economic life, looking to bring natural resources in common and create a sustainable world for future generations.

Vancouver is a city with housing policies that are the dream of the Bay Area, with an recent end to single-family zoning as well as stronger tenant protections, but yet exclusion and tenant instability still persist. What more could Vancouver do to address this, and could a move by City Council to introduce a Land Value Tax help? Jennifer Bradshaw talks about this, her work in housing activism, why housing opportunity matters to those who desperately need it, and why high vacancy rates are good for renters.

Alex Schafran discusses his new book, which is about the new style of segregation we see throughout the greater Bay Area (even beyond the Altamont Pass), how even well-meaning people helped create it, and what changes to our politics we need to find our way out.