What will Gov. Gavin Newsom’s legacy be?

September 10, 2021

OPINION by KEITH GURNEE

An open letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom

Just four days before the recall election, it’s looking like you will still be the governor of California keeping alive your dream of becoming president of the United States. But as we near the end of the worst legislative session in recent years that generated some of the most dystopian housing bills of all time, you have to be asking yourself, “What will my legacy be?”

If you let the bad housing bills like SB 9, SB 10, and SB 478 become law—with or without your signature–this is the sum total of what your legacy could be:

1. The governor who exposed far more people to wildfire danger. Contrary to the misleading report from the Berkeley-based Terner Center, SB 9 does nothing to prevent SB 9’s higher density housing in very high fire hazard zones.

With the Dixie and Caldor fires still raging and with more thunderstorms predicted for the Sierras, one would think that you would not be promoting increased densities for communities vulnerable to wildfires. Yet that’s precisely what you’d be doing by signing SB 9.

While the language of the bill gives the impression that its proposed density increases would not be allowed in very high fire danger areas, that’s not the case. SB 9 actually negates the exclusion of very high and high fire severity zones. Thus, by allowing SB 9 to become law, you would quadruple the allowable density in single-family neighborhoods in such locations as Paradise, South Lake Tahoe, Greenville, Santa Rosa, and other communities that have been recently ravaged or threatened by wildfires. Is that what you really want to do? Hope not!

2. The governor who destroyed the livability of established single-family neighborhoods. By calling for housing bills to unilaterally up-zone every single-family neighborhood in California, you’ve now been presented with SB 9 which would allow for a fourfold to eightfold increase in density where one home once existed. SB 10 would allow for a tenfold to a 14-fold increase in density where one home once existed.

What’s more, if that neighborhood is within a ½ mile walking distance of a bus stop, it would prohibit cities from requiring any parking whatsoever for these new housing units. I trust you know exactly what you’re doing, but do you really want to be the champion of destroying neighborhoods?

3. The governor who failed to produce affordable housing. We do not have a market rate housing crisis in California. We have a housing affordability crisis. Yet the incentives being granted under SB 9, SB 10, and SB 478 will not produce one single unit of affordable housing.

Do you really want to take credit for increasing housing production without issue addressing the dire need for truly affordable housing? That has a real hollow ring to it.

4. The governor who demonized California’s cities and counties. By declaring war on California’s cities and counties by blaming them for the housing crisis, these bills will nullify the ability of communities to plan their own destinies. These top-down, one-size-fits-all state mandates utterly ignore the unique characteristics and resources of every one of California’s 482 cities and 58 counties while refusing to help them with the infrastructure and natural resources they need to sustain them.

Instead of working with local governments, the state has chosen to alienate them. Do you really want to be known as the Governor who presided over the disenfranchisement and abuse of local government– that government which is closest to the people?

5. The governor who pushed the American dream of homeownership further away from younger Californians. Increasing the allowable density of every single-family home in California will only increase the soaring prices of housing.

These laws will spur rampant speculation, displacing existing affordable communities of color in favor of high-end market rate housing. That speculation will also serve to stifle the ability of younger Californians to achieve the American dream of homeownership. While surveys have shown that over 80% of Californians aspire to living in their own home, these laws would relegate more Californians to a renter generation.

Don’t be known as the governor who snuffed out the American dream.

Governor Newsom, if you don’t want to be known for these legacies, please have the courage to do the right thing and veto SB 9, SB 10, and SB 478 and resolve to work with (rather than against) local governments to get at real solutions that will work for all.

You may have prevailed over this recall, but you’ll have to run again in 2022. When voters like me cast their ballots then, we’ll never forget what you did with this dysfunctional legislation.