Coalition to Preserve LA kills SB 827 bill

 

SB 827, the Neighborhood-Killing Bill, is Dead.  Thank you! Coalition to Preserve LA and scores of other groups fighting for a clean environment, affordable housing and breathing space yesterday joined thousands of California residents in killing state Senate Bill 827, a bill that would raze neighborhoods to build apartment towers.    The most radical “housing” bill in years, SB 827 failed in its very first hearing before the California State Senate Transportation and Housing Committee, to whoops from the crowd.    Author Sen. Scott Wiener has a final chance Tuesday to revive his draconian law. We are asking Angelenos to email and call the senators on the committee (see below). Close on its heels is Wiener’s troubling Senate Bill 828, which orders cities to plan for 200% of the affordable housing needed. Because this can never be achieved, it is opposed by the American Planning Association as a FAIL.   The Coalition to Preserve LA is actively involved with groups from Northern and Southern California in fighting climate change, the displacement of our working-class areas by overbuilt luxury housing, the razing of open space, and our increasingly non-transparent government.    We agree with our allies at Housing Is a Human Right, that Scott Wiener’s SB 827 is a political giveaway to global investors who want to remake California cities in the image of Manhattan or Hong Kong — and make a killing in the process.   One state senator noted, before voting against SB 827 yesterday, that many small cities in California would be severely impacted if five-story buildings were imposed on them by Wiener, noting that “Even their tallest fire ladders are only three stories.”    That was a rare light moment in an ugly and divisive battle that Wiener, of San Francisco, seemed to relish. YIMBYs, his biggest backers, have taunted people of color who opposed SB 827, and insulted neighborhoods who opposed high-rises as “racist.”    In Los Angeles, one neighborhood watched the Tuesday afternoon Sacramento hearing on livestream, as children stood outside the homes with signs reading “Destroying Neighborhoods is Not the Answer.”    We urge you to call the senators below who abstained from voting to ask them to vote NO if SB 827 comes before them Tuesday, April 24. Also, please call all senators below to vote NO on Wiener’s SB 828. It requires cities to plan for 200% of the needed affordable housing, an impossibility that turns every local plan into FAIL, handing the state growing power. Below is the vote tally on SB 827 and the phone numbers for each senator: Senator Jim Beall, Chair NO 916/651-4015 senator.beall@senate.ca. gov Senator Anthony Cannella, Vice Chair NO 916/651-4012 senator.cannella@senate.ca.gov Senator Benjamin Allen NO 916/651-4026 senator.allen@senate.ca.gov Senator Bill Dodd NO 916/651-4003 senator.dodd@senate.ca.gov Senator Ted Gaines Yes 916/651-4001 senator.gaines@senate.ca.gov Senator Cathleen Galgiani Abstained 916/651-4005 senator.galgiani@senate.ca.gov Senator Mark McGuire NO 916/651-4002 senator.mcguire@senate.ca.gov Senator Mike Morrell Yes 916/651-4023 senator.morrell@senate.ca.gov Senator Richard D. Roth Abstained 916/651-4031 senator.roth@senate.ca.gov Senator Nancy Skinner Yes 916/651-4009 senator.skinner@senate.ca.gov Senator Andy Vidak Abstained 916/651-4014 senator.vidak@senate.ca.gov Senator Bob Wieckowski Abstained 916/651-4010 senator.wieckowski@senate.ca. gov Senator Scott Wiener Yes 916/651-4011 senator.wiener@senate.ca.gov   Share Tweet Forward