By Christopher LeGras :allaspectreport. – excerpt
The first in an occasional series about the erosion of local democracy in the Golden State
The American people have heard a lot over the last decade about tyranny and facism. Don’t look now, but the state of California, home of the alleged “resistance” to Trumpian fascism, has been practicing its own version of not-so-soft tyranny. Over the last six years — which not coincidentally coincide with the Gavin Newsom era — Sacramento increasingly has wrested control from cities over a range of issues, including education, environmental protections, and transportation. Most significantly, thanks to a tsunami of more than 400 new laws passed in just the last few years, the state has all but usurped authority over a foundational responsibility of local government: Where, how, and what kind of housing gets built in their communities.
The political cover is the so-called “YIMBY” movement, which stands for “yes in my back yard.” This is in contrast to their sworn enemies, people they disparage as “NIMBYs,” or “not in my back yard.” A NIMBY is basically anyone who likes their neighborhood and wants to preserve its character. To YIMBYs, this basic human impulse is beyond the pale. The notion that millions of Californians work hard to live in a neighborhood of their choosing is anathema. This is where we see the seeds of tyranny begin to sprout: Take something that is fundamental, even essential to human life, and warp it into something that must be exterminated.
The YIMBYs have gained enormous influence and power in Sacramento. When it comes to housing, they are the only game in town. Never mind that they are an astroturf movementfunded by some of the most powerful special interests in real estate, finance, and tech. They could not care less about housing affordability, much less quality of life. They have particular animosity for suburbs and single family homes. Again, they demonize. Single family homes, they say, are exclusionary and, of course, racist. In this way they are the biggest racists of all: They erase the three quarters of a million Black homeowners and and the seven million Latino homeowners in the state. Talk about “othering.”… (more)
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CALIFORNIA TYRANNY, PART 2 Lawmakers in Sacramento recently upped the ante in their ongoing assault on local democracy in the Golden State. Earlier this year State Senator Scott Wiener (D–San Francisco) introduced a bill called SB 79. If passed, it would all but eliminate local authority over zoning, land use, and development. It would place the fate of thousands of neighborhoods not in the hands of the people who live in them and want to live in them, but in the hands of for-profit real estate speculators and the financial class behind them. The bill is part of an assault on the foundations local democracy that, as I wrote two weeks ago, trace their origins back 800 years to Magna Carta itself….(more)