Let's level set: California a basket case on housing. ❌ The median home costs nine times the median household income; most families have no path to homeownership. ❌Half of all renters spend more than a 1/3 of their income on rent; a third spend 1/2 of their income on rent.

❌ Approximately 200,000 Californians spend each night without access to stable shelter; the largest homeless population in the US. ❌ Many hundreds of thousands of working and middle class families are leaving as a result, turning California into an elite country club.

The failure of California and other blue states to build, by the way, is putting Democrats on track for a permeant and deepening electoral college disadvantage. https://t.co/mRQ3dKsh4W

Why are California's housing costs so high? It's not rocket science: we have the worst housing shortage in the continental US. After decades of underbuilding, we're millions of units short of where we need to be to maintain affordability.

But why is there such a shortage of housing in California? One reason is that zoning makes the most inherently affordable forms of housing illegal to build. In 75% of residential areas of Los Angeles, for example, it's illegal to build apartments.

These arbitrary constraints are most acute where demand for housing is highest, i.e. in high opportunity areas with good access to jobs. Take this West Los Angeles light rail stop, a billion dollar piece of infrastructure. It's illegal to build townhouses or apartments here.

Local leaders in cities like LA say they have a plan. But at current rates, it would take LA 46 years to end its housing shortage. To the extent they're building anything, it's state mandated ADUs. ED 1 and TOC leave 75% of the city untouched. https://t.co/1cwhaTnQ6O

SB 79 proposes a common sense fix: within a half mile of the busiest transit hubs (rail and BRT) in the state, cities should allow midrise, mixed-income multifamily housing. Based on the transit and proximity, buildings could be five to seven stories — Paris-scale midrise.

This isn't a crazy idea — the California cities that are making progress on affordability are building precisely this sort of housing. But far too many cities are doing nothing, such that housing costs continue to spiral upward.

The bill passed the legislature last month and is now sitting on the Governor's desk. And you can bet that the NIMBY forces behind California's stagnation and decline are mobilizing to kill it.

That's where you come in: Call Gov. Newsom and tell him to sign SB 79! Get five friends to do the same. Post about and tag him! This is all trivially easy, but it could make a big difference. 916-445-2841 https://t.co/Em9T38Q3Xu

I tend to think the political math for Gov. Newsom is fairly obvious: California is synonymous with unaffordability. By signing SB 79 and fixing CEQA, he would be able to enter the 2028 presidential election with the strongest pro-growth, pro-affordability record possible.

@mnolangray Question : People thought the same thing about SB 9 and SB 35. Both of those were easy for NIMBYs to sabotage, so why won't the same happen again?

@KartikGadaATOM SB 35 was inherently much more limited, and this bill has far stronger protections than SB 9. Why won't it work as well as ADU law?

@mnolangray Send a message and called his office today👍

@mnolangray Wife and I just called and left recorded messages!

@mnolangray Sign it @GavinNewsom

@mnolangray VETO. Keep @Scott_Wiener FAR FAR away from my home and neighborhood.

@mnolangray does this also prevent real estate firms and corporations from buying up the newly built housing? because if not then this bill is pointless

@mnolangray @mattyglesias I can’t begin to tell you how angry so many of my neighbors are in SoCal about this bill. This isn’t about building affordable housing — it’s a giveaway to developers who have been eyeing prime coastal real estate and are looking to cash in by eliminating any restrictions.

@mnolangray Nothing from Scott Weiner is a NO

@mnolangray It is all a scam and will not do anything but make friends of Newsom richer. NO ONE CAN BUILD IN CA unless you are politically connected. https://t.co/Cb7FveQFC4