Editor,
At the May 17 Burlingame City Council meeting, an unprecedented number of recent Burlingame high school grads and young women of color showed up to support Senate Bill 9, but the council decided to send a letter opposing the bill. Not a single councilmember directly addressed the young people’s concerns that exclusionary zoning has exacerbated economic and racial segregation in Burlingame.
I listened in earnest as each young woman spoke to their personal stories about how the housing crisis has impacted their life and how the exclusive nature of Burlingame does not reflect the diversity of California and greater United States.
The Burlingame City Council holds steadfast in its mission to protect exclusionary zoning, but a new generation is making their case: A future without zoning reform is not a bright one. High school and college students in the Bay Area are the latest generation feeling the consequences unfettered local control has had on the housing crisis. They know their ability to continue living here will come with great insecurity, while inequities across race and class fueled by exclusionary land use policies compound. For them, land use is on the menu and they’ll be voting in the next election for seats in every level of government.
I hope state Sen. Josh Becker tunes into the local discourse like the one we just had in Burlingame to understand whose concerns are being represented by local city councils and whose needs are being ignored.
Madeline Frechette
Burlingame
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(2) comments
An important and invaluable lesson for the students and women of color about the nature of the Burlingame City Council. I hope they will continue to shout from the rooftops about the need for real change. Lip service is no longer going to be acceptable.
Hello, Cindy
Policy and programs should not be implemented based on who is the loudest in the room.
That being said... yes, we need to bring affordable housing to the peninsula. Too often, the line of demarcation re: this issue is politicized. Thomas Sowell said, "The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics."
I'm sure we can agree that affordable housing is a scarce commodity in our county. How can we make it more affordable while acknowledging that there will never be enough to satisfy all those who want it?
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