By Calvin Welch, HANC Board Member

HANC's monthly (except August) general membership meeting is usually held downstairs at the Park Branch Library, 1833 Page Street (between Cole and Shrader) on the second Thursday of the month, beginning at 7 pm.  Our meetinngs are open to the public and free to attend.

Senator Scott Wiener’s wildly controversial SB 50 is currently in political limbo but the assumption is that it is not dead. Indeed, SB50 is only one of several "market-based solutions" now being considered by the California State Legislature (dominated by the Democratic Party) and strongly supported by Mayor Breed, Governor Newsom and the entire Sacramento delegation of San Francisco elected officials: all Democrats.

"Magic of the Marketplace"

The essence of this approach, universally favored by the "corporate wing" of the Democratic Party, is based on an assumption that the proper role of government is to foster the free operation of the "private market" by  the removal of government regulations and direct and indirect subsidies to "entrepreneurs" who will, through "innovation" and  the "magic of the marketplace," solve all manners of current problems from transit (Uber and Lyft) to housing (unlimited Airbnb conversions, density bonus and removing local control)  and from climate change (pollution credits)  to health care (subsidizing insurance companies and "big pharma"). 

This is basically the approach taken over the last ten years here in San Francisco, first with the tech industry and then with policies supposedly addressing our "housing crisis".  

At the end of last year alone, progressives led by Jane Kim joined with conservatives led by Julie Tang to pass four "market based solutions" to the "housing crisis":

• Removing local regulations requiring one to one parking for residential development unless requested by the developer with no requirement that any of the savings in development costs be passed on to residents in the new projects or with new payments made to MUNI to address assumed increase in ridership;
• A "density bonus" program allowing for up to seven stories in certain neighborhoods with no requirement that the developers pay for new transit serving these neighborhoods; 
• Expanding the Accessory Dwelling Unit program allowing new units to be added to single-family zoned areas without a requirement for permanent affordability or rent control, with vacant units being allowed to be rented at market rates and no moratorium on re-assessments of the property once the ADU was added, increasing the allowable "pass through" to the tenant for property taxes;
• Passage of the massive Central SOMA Plan which allowed office space for 33,000 jobs and required only 8,300 housing units, in effect "capturing" the entire housing  production done in San Francisco since 2009 to cover the 24.700 unit  "housing deficiency" built into the plan!

Who Benefits?

There is no question that such market based solutions work for billionaires. A recent survey indicated that San Francisco had the highest density of billionaires in the world, one for every 11,600 residents (SF Comical, May 9, 2019).  

All of these "market-based solutions" resulted in massive increases in value to developers but minimal public benefits.  Most neglected was the transit and traffic impacts of these "neo-liberal solutions": approving tens of thousands of new residents and workers, charging developers not an additional cent for transit and creating a new urban  "crisis" (which may be our last)-- the dramatic increase in greenhouse gases as private cars are expected to increase daily trips by 24% over the next 30 years because of our failure to expand transit capacity while approving massive growth (see https://connectsf.org/transportation-needs/) .

What alternatives exist to these neoliberal policies?

Joseph Smooke, Co-Founder of People Power Media (https://www.peoplepowermedia.org/) will discuss such alternatives at HANC's June membership meeting. Joseph is the current President of the Board of South of Market Community Action Network (SOMCAN), past Executive Director of Bernal Heights Community Foundation, and past Westside Director of the Housing Rights Committee.  His background is uniquely suited to address the topic.

We will also be joined by Theresa Flandrich, Housing Organizer for Senior and Disability Action and cofounder of the North Beach Tenants Committee, and by Shanti Singh, co-founder of the DSA-San Francisco Housing Committee and Communications and Development Coordinator for Tenants Together.

Join us Thursday, June 13th at 7 PM at the Park Branch Library, 1833 Page St. for an evening of rare insight and thoughtful discussion.  Bring a friend.