If you had done some research, here are some things that might help launch this new alliance:

Brisbane Baylands

We’ve organized caravans down to Brisbane repeatedly to yell at their city council about the potential Brisbane Baylands project. This would be a perfect opportunity for Progressives to join us in yelling at a suburb that is ignoring it’s regional housing obligations. It’s still going on, and the opponents are generally rich white homeowners. White wealthy neighbors have even said things like “I don’t want to be a minority in my own neighborhood” in public hearings. Totally horrific!

Do you know anyone who will help?

SB35

Have you been following this housing streamlining legislation from Senator Wiener? There’ve been a LOT of lies thrown around, which has been very disappointing.

It’s basically a streamlining bill that really targets wealthy suburbs who have chronically under-build housing. Because it’s broken up by the Regional Housing Needs Allocation numbers (RHNA), cities that haven’t built enough Market Rate will see those permits sped up, while cities that haven’t built enough subsidized Affordable Housing will see those permits sped up!

In San Francisco, because we’ve underproduced subsidized Affordable Housing, only our Affordable Housing would be built faster!

This seems like a win-win to me: yelling at rich suburbs and getting more Affordable Housing in San Francisco! But I’ve been surprised at the reaction from Progressives who seem to hate Scott Wiener more than they like Affordable Housing…

AB 71 / SB 2 / SB 3

All three of these are bills to increase funding for Affordable Housing. (Our Assemblymember Chiu introduced AB71, which looks the most dead, sadly enough.)

We have been in strong support of all of these state funding measures, and will be rallying YIMBYs across the state over the next few weeks to contact their reps.

I’m really concerned about the package of funding for Affordable Housing. It was supposed to get passed before the August recess, but they couldn’t quite do it. While some are confident that it will pass when they return on August 20th, I think we shouldn’t count our chickens.

Do you think any local Progressives could help push this over the finish line? We’ll be organizing a postcard campaign and other efforts to get loud about a package of bills.

Home-SF

Some of our largest mobilizations recently were around HomeSF, which amounts to the first up-zoning of the outlying neighborhoods — exactly where it seems you want our guns to be pointed!

In fact, it doesn’t even really apply in places that have an Area Plan (ie Eastern Neighborhoods Plan) etc. This up-zoning also offered increased low income BMR housing and will build market rate housing in wealthier neighborhoods. We were in strong support!

I was baffled by the (capital P) Progressives initial opposition to the proposal. We worked very hard to get those 11 votes, but still suffered from lack of Progressive leadership on that one. There will be more proposals like this in the future — maybe you’ve got some ideas! If you know of folks who might be able to help on policies similar to this one, I would love to chat with anyone.

Accessory Dwelling Units (Granny Flats)

We’ve been coming out a lot for Accessory Dwelling Units, which is currently the only way to do infill in many low-density neighborhoods. (We are also big supporters of up-zoning them!)

Here is a clip from that hearing that you might find illuminating: https://twitter.com/ChadPi/status/860265040745701376

We are asking SF to have a truly ministerial process so that more of those can be built. I’m happy to dive into the strategy here, if anyone you know wants to chat!

I think Supervisor Peskin has done alright on this, though not perfect. I’m glad the cap on the number of ADUs on seismic retrofits was removed, and I would love to nerd out with anyone who knows what that means.

I think the next step to speed up the production of ADUs is to force the city to create a genuinely ministerial process. Reach out if you’d like to chat more about this!

Also, we need to get outside the envelope backyard cottages going. The opposition to this is just silly, IMO. Backyard cottages are super cute, so the aesthetic argument is bunk. Let’s chat!

Navigation Centers / Homeless issues

We’re currently working with Amy Farah Weiss on a plan for folks exiting navigation centers, but still have nowhere to go. That coalition has a lot of promise in my opinion. Anyone you know who might want to join that effort? Amy is probably the nicest person in San Francisco, and she’s the lead on this.

We’ve also been pretty public that there should be a Navigation Center in every district, no excuses. If you know of anyone working on a campaign about this, we would love to join in on those efforts. If not, we can start something and would welcome all allies.

Balboa Park Reservoir Project

There is a giant (17 acre) lot right near CCSF that is going to become a wonderful huge new housing complex with lots of different income levels.

Nearby homeowners have been putting up barriers left and right. There is a lot of momentum built up in support of the project, but every day people are trying to scale it back and prioritize parking over people.

YIMBYs have mobilized several times to support getting as much housing and as much subsidized housing as possible on that site. Do you know anyone who would like to join that coalition to push for more housing on that site?

Forest Hills Formerly Homeless Senior Housing Project

We’ve been gathering petitions and sending folks to those hearings. Meanwhile Supervisor Yee has been doing everything he can behind the scenes to slow-walk that project. It’s really sad. Would love any and all help on that! This is a backburner issue that I would love to move back to the front burner with any and all help.

Marin

We were the only folks mobilizing to give them shit about using the gas tax negotiations to avoid building affordable and market rate housing. That was some fucked up bullshit. I could go on and on about this one…

Anyone you know want to go do a flyering campaign in Marin? I’ve got it all drafted and ready to go!

Prop 13

We aren’t big enough to repeal Prop 13 …yet. We do point at Evolve, though I have some concerns about the split roll as a political strategy that means we might never repeal it for homeowners. (Happy to talk more about this with anyone. Also, would love to have someone from Evolve present at a YIMBY meeting soon. I should follow up on this…)

Right now, our activism around Prop 13 is to talk about it all the time and make sure our growing membership understands the full impact it has. Every monthly Intro to YIMBY features Prop 13 heavily. I would love it if you attended one!

But spending all our political capital on fighting Prop 13 doesn’t make sense for where we are in the growth of the movement. We just barely have started having an impact on state legislation. I totally agree with you and wish we had the muscle to do this!

If there are ways you think we can better plug in to fight Prop 13, I’m all ears. I HATE Prop 13.

Affordable Housing Projects

I think it’s a bit silly that you would say we don’t seek coalition around promoting anything but market rate housing. That is demonstrably false. We even have shown up to support Affordable Housing built by MEDA, even though they fucking hate us!

We show up for Affordable Housing projects, shelters, Nav centers, etc. And would love to do more! Please rope me in whenever you hear about a mobilization for something like this.

I have repeatedly asked “opposition” people to loop us in to their mobilizations for subsidized housing/shelters of any kind. And I’ve been rebuffed. Many times we just come anyway, but I would love your help encouraging those folks to invite us along and make it easier for us to mobilize to help. Organizing is a lot of work, and anything we can do to help each other plug into existing efforts seems like a good thing to me.

I have tried many times to make our volunteers available to those that say they support Affordable Housing. Many times the response I got was along the lines of “Fuck Off.” When they use more words, it’s often boils down to saying that until we support the politicians they support, Progressives won’t work with us on anything.

That seems shortsighted to me, but what can I do? Really. What can I do about this?

Tenants Union

You say that our denunciation of the TU negates our sometimes allies / sometimes opponents stance. I really don’t follow you here. We denounced Supervisor Farrell, who is often an ally, around Prop Q. We denounce the TU when they say Market Rate Housing causes displacement. That seems consistent to me. Is it not to you?

Unfortunately, the Tenants Union in San Francisco has staked out a strong position that they believe in what’s called “Induced Demand.” That doesn’t give us a lot of wiggle room to work together, though I would love to work with them on getting more subsidized housing built.

We have never done anything to fight against any expansion of Tenants Protections. In the recent debate around OMIs, I asked if someone could bring me up to speed so YIMBY might support. I was rebuffed.

Deepa Varma did ask me to sign on to some Tenants issues at the recent California Democratic Party Convention, and I happily did! While there were some sniping emails, we managed to work together on something the Tenants Union was advocating for.

YIMBYs from across the state also came out to the Tenants Caucus at the same convention. I would love to continue working with her. Frankly, Jennifer Fieber is a roadblock in these issues, but I don’t mind. I don’t take the fact that she hates us personally. I am confident that we’ll work through it eventually, because I do believe that we want the same things — even if she doesn’t. I’m getting pretty good at gritting my teeth when being publicly insulted!

Up Zoning Wealthy Neighborhoods

I would love if anyone you know would join us in exactly the kind of activism you call for: increasing the allowable density in exclusive neighborhoods. Here is a link to the working group we’ve started. Even if someone has qualms, if they agree with the gist, we’re just starting and I would love anyone who might help!

Vacancy Tax

YIMBYs are generally pretty excited about this. It seems that the state-level laws may create some headaches, but maybe that means we should get a bigger coalition together to try to fix those!

I’m having Christine Johnson from SPUR, who is a big Vacancy Tax Fan Girl to present to the membership. I’ve also invited Supervisor Peskin to speak with us. I hope he comes!