Category: Civil Rights

By Lu Rehling

Question for our elected representatives US Congressman Scott Peters and CA Senator Akilah Weber: Who does this sound like to you when it comes to advocating for changes to housing policy?

• Bypass environmental and safety protections.
• Blame regulations [not developer/corporate greed].
• Apply trickle-down economics [newly applied to the housing market].
• Promote gentrification [driving mid- to lower-income resident out of their homes].
• Encourage short-term rentals [discouraging starter home ownership].
• Off-site affordable housing [so only the entitled enjoy exclusive perks and only with each other].
• Disenfranchise community groups [by waiving reviews and defunding appeals].
• Ignore the needs of disabled and families [prioritizing transport options for the fit and unencumbered].

If your answer is “progressives,” then read your Orwell, because progressive policy instead asks government to tackle inequality and promote social justice. And yet you align with so-called progressive YIMBY Dems.

In fact, Congressman Peters, you co-sponsored and continue to smugly tout the “Build More Housing Near Transit Act” legislation that would enable all of the policies stated above, allowing “by-right” density development: the “right” being to waive height, parking, and safety review requirements.

Of course, being a politician, you also say that you favor “community input,” but that’s NOT in the law that you’ve proposed. And its affordability and building reuse inclusions are minimalist-to-toothless: options, not mandates that developers, laser-focused as usual on their own self-interested goals, can freely ignore.

And, in fact, Senator Weber, you approved passage from committee of SB 79 (“Housing Development: Transit Oriented Development”) that would do the much of the same as Peters’ proposal, similarly without urgently needed and appropriate safeguards.

Over 100 San Diego residents from all over the city rallied in Clairemont on Saturday, August 23, against Senate Bill 79 – a bill sponsored by State Senator Scott Wiener that targets the state’s neighborhoods. Opponents claim that the bill is worse than SB 9 and SB 10.

Its sponsors claim the bill is aimed at increasing housing density near train and rapid bus lines across California by mandating up-zoning within a quarter to half-mile of transit hubs, and allow developers to build large-scale apartment complexes near these transit stops.

Yet opponents like Neighbors for a Better California, the prime sponsor of Saturday’s protest, argue that SB 79’s language is vague around bus stops, and that the lack of precision could allow developers to exploit ambiguities, undermining the bill’s intent.

Marcella Bothwell, the chair of the sponsoring group, clarified to the demonstrators, many of whom lined Genessee Boulevard with signs for passing motorists:

“And that bus stop can be anything from just 15-minute frequency in the height of morning and evening. That will qualify as a bus stop. That 500 homes or a half a mile around that area, the height now can go up to six, to eight, even nine stories. These homes, there’s no affordability requirement. They’re not concerned about fire safety.”

There were also other anti-SB79 rallies up and down the state.

By Steven Harper / Common Dreams / Aug 19, 2025

US President Donald Trump and Republicans face a daunting challenge: How to preserve power in the wake of their wildly unpopular policies?

Their strategy is to intensify the GOP’s decades-long quest to limit voter participation. Selecting the voters likely to cast ballots for them is far better than letting all voters select their leaders.

Trump has taken the strategy to a whole new level. And he’s doing it out of fear and desperation.

Fighting History

During midterm elections, the president’s party loses seats in Congress. In Trump’s first term, Republicans lost 40 seats in the House in 2018. In 2010, President Barack Obama’s Democrats lost 63.

The exceptions are few and far between. In the aftermath of 9/11, President George W. Bush’s GOP gained eight House seats in 2002, but then lost 30 in 2006. In 1998, President Bill Clinton’s Democrats gained five seats, but that didn’t offset the 52 seats that they had lost in 1994. In all but three midterm elections from 1934 to 1994—from Franklin Roosevelt to Bill Clinton—the president’s party lost House seats. It did a little better in the Senate, gaining seats in only 6 of 23 midterm elections since 1934.

By Aaron Pellish / Politico / August 20, 2025

Former President Barack Obama is supporting California’s mid-cycle redistricting effort as a “responsible approach” to Republicans drawing new maps in Texas.

Obama praised California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s ballot measure proposal to redraw congressional districts and tilt at least five congressional districts in the state towards Democrats at a fundraiser on Tuesday for the National Democratic Redistricting Committee.

“I believe that Governor Newsom’s approach is a responsible approach,” he said, according to excerpts obtained by POLITICO. “I think that approach is a smart, measured approach, designed to address a very particular problem in a very particular moment in time.”

By Sara Jacobs / Op-Ed San Diego Union-Tribune / August 20, 2025

Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom called for a special election this November in California. Our state isn’t supposed to have another statewide election until 2026, but Newsom recognizes the urgency of this moment.

Why? Because Donald Trump and Texas Republicans are making an unprecedented power grab to steal congressional seats and rig the 2026 election before a single vote is cast.

Trump knows that if the midterms are a fair fight, he and his friends in Congress will lose. The start of Trump’s second term has been an unmitigated disaster. He has imposed sweeping tariffs that have hurt California families and businesses, denied much-needed disaster aid to fire victims, and ordered inhumane immigration raids that have left families torn apart and businesses without a workforce. Across the board, his approval ratings are tanking. And he knows that if House Democrats retake the majority, we’ll put an end to his disastrous agenda.

by Noah Goldberg / LA Times / August 20, 2025 

After a tense and sharply divided debate Tuesday, the Los Angeles City Council voted to oppose a state bill that aims to vastly expand high-density housing near public transit hubs, arguing that the state should leave important planning decisions to local legislators.

The council voted 8 to 5 to oppose Senate Bill 79, which seeks to mitigate the state’s housing shortage by allowing buildings of up to nine stories near certain train stops and slightly smaller buildings near some bus stops throughout California.

“A one-size-fits-all mandate from Sacramento is not safe, and it’s not responsible,” said City Councilmember Traci Park at a news conference before the vote.

Park, who was joined at the news conference by Councilmembers Monica Rodriguez and John Lee, said the bill was an attempt by its sponsor, state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), and other state legislators to “hijack” local planning from the city.

Lee, who authored the resolution opposing the bill, called it “not planning” but “chaos.”

By Tanja Kropf / Explore Clairemont / August 19, 2025

If the City of San Diego has its way, the single-family home landscape that has been a part of the fabric of Clairemont for decades is about to dramatically change.

On August 4, city planners unveiled their proposed 30-year plan for Clairemont at the Clairemont Community Planning Group (CCPG) meeting. The 101-page document was released to the public less than two hours before the meeting.

The new Clairemont Community Plan proposes up to 17,100 additional residences and a more urbanized ‘City of Villages’ neighborhood design where commercial, retail, and residential units will share higher density spaces.

Additionally, the 30-foot height limit the City Council adopted in 1989 for most of Clairemont will go away. This will clear the way for, at a minimum, 65-foot height limits in certain areas.

The elimination of height limits aligns with California Senate Bill 79. SB 79 would override current single-family zoning restrictions in favor of multi-family residential developments (condos, apartments). The bill would allow buildings up to 95 feet high in areas with access to transit within a half mile (as the crow flies).

by Dave Schwab / Times of San Diego / Aug. 20, 2025

Some residents are pushing back at plans by AT&T to install a 30-foot “faux eucalyptus” cell tower with 12 antennas, 9 radio units and a large ground equipment box.

Those opposed to the proposal, at 2315 Soto St. on public land in Collier Park, have requested that the city deny a conditional use permit for it in its fenced-off area. They’re arguing that public land is inappropriate to build a new cell tower on, disguised or not, contending it should be used for another purpose.

Disguising cell towers as trees, often eucalyptus or other types, helps them blend into the landscape, making them less noticeable and reducing the feeling of visual clutter. Faux trees are primarily used to address public concerns about visual pollution and to make towers more acceptable in residential areas.

These disguises help mitigate the aesthetic impact of cell towers, which can be perceived as eyesores, especially in areas where they might clash with the surrounding environment.

Eric Law, chair of the Peninsula Community Planning Board, speaking for himself, said residents oppose the cell tower project for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that some view Collier Park as a sacrosanct recreational community resource.

Law noted AT&T, a publicly traded company, not a public utility, is seeking to upgrade its 5G telecommunications system in the area.

Washington DC, America’s bluest city, is building more homes per capita than Houston—not with bottom-up zoning reform but with top-down government action.

by Brian Shearer / Washington Monthly / August 14, 2025

Since Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson’s book Abundance was published, the policy world has debated the causes of our current housing supply drought. Abundance argued that zoning laws are the culprit, as part of its broader thesis calling for liberals to embrace a policy vision oriented around building more of what we need (i.e., “abundance”) primarily through targeted deregulation of private industry and de-proceduralization of government.

Other analysts believe that it is consolidation in the housing market that slows development. But both camps aim to expand housing supply, and solutions are not always derived from the causes of the problem. Cancer isn’t caused by the absence of chemo drugs or radiation, but that is often the treatment. Instead of debating causes, focusing on what policy solutions work best might be a better approach.

If Trump is taking tactical advice from Putin about how to hold an election, that doesn’t bode well for the future of American democracy.

This is an adapted excerpt from the Aug. 18 episode of “The Rachel Maddow Show.”

By Rachel Maddow / MSNBC / Aug. 19, 2025

On Monday, dozens of people turned up in Austin, Texas, to cheer on Democrats as they returned to the state amid a huge national fight over redistricting.
Texas has been at the center of an extraordinary demand by Donald Trump that Republican-controlled states, like Texas, draw new congressional maps and effectively guarantee GOP control of Congress for years to come.

It’s not just Texas. Vice President JD Vance flew to Indiana earlier this month to put pressure on the Republican governor there to alter that state’s maps for the Republicans. Politico reported that the White House has been in talks with Republicans in Missouri, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida to change their congressional maps as well.

That’s one way Trump’s trying to rig the midterms – by demanding changes to congressional district maps to make it structurally impossible for Democrats to control Congress again.

By Neighbors for a Better California Board

Sacramento, CA – Senate Bill 79, a contentious piece of legislation aimed at increasing housing density near transit stops across California, has ignited fierce debate among lawmakers, local governments, and community advocates. While the bill seeks to address the state’s housing crisis by mandating up-zoning within a quarter to half-mile of transit hubs, critics argue it undermines local governance, threatens affordable housing, and risks displacing vulnerable communities.

Introduced to boost housing supply near transit corridors, SB 79 categorizes areas into tiers, allowing building heights of 45 to 75 feet, and a 20-foot bonus when immediately adjacent to a transit stop. Moreover, additional density bonuses already in state law can be stacked and allow the developer to double these heights and density. Neighbors For A Better California (NFABC) analysis of the bill’s amendments reveal significant concerns about its clarity, affordability mandates, and impact on lower-income neighborhoods.

One major criticism is the bill’s vague language regarding bus routes, which critics describe as “convoluted” and prone to loopholes. This lack of precision could allow developers to exploit ambiguities, undermining the bill’s intent.

By Francine Maxwell

San Diego’s push to add density through ADU incentives has landed hardest in Encanto — and the consequences are becoming concrete. A private developer-driven proposal to place 24 ADUs on the basketball court site in front of the Boys & Girls Club on Imperial Avenue (branded online as “Lisbon Vista Village”) is the latest example. That proposal arrives in a neighborhood already reporting serious infrastructure and parking stress, and without a public plan to add basic retail like a grocery store to serve new residents.

Facts on the table:

• Multiple news reports and community meetings show that Encanto has become a focal point for large bonus-ADU projects — scores of units proposed on a small number of parcels across the neighborhood.
• The City has been actively reconsidering the ADU Bonus Program and “Footnote 7” (the code provision that changed lot-size rules for southeastern neighborhoods), with council action and planning reports in 2025.
• Local residents have raised consistent concerns about traffic, parking capacity, stormwater/ infrastructure impacts, and loss of open recreational space — including the potential loss of the basketball court used by youth at the Boys & Girls Club.