Editor,
The recent guest perspective opposing SB 50 (“The Senate Bill 50 disaster” from the Jan. 15 edition of the Daily Journal) by former Belmont mayor Coralin Feierbach illustrates exactly why state intervention into the housing crisis is necessary.
When Feierbach began her second stint on the Belmont City Council in 2003, the median-priced home in Belmont cost 7.6 times the median income of a family of four in San Mateo County. By the time she left the council in 2013, that ratio had increased to 10.4, and in the half-decade since, it has skyrocketed to 15.
In other words, the generation of local leaders who steadfastly opposed residential development in their communities while the regional and local economy zoomed upwards created a situation where homeownership became out of reach of the middle class. Ironically, while many folks like former mayor Feierbach claimed to be defenders of open space, their opposition to infill housing on already-developed lots near jobs on the Peninsula has led to further sprawl that destroys open space elsewhere.
Although the current generation of leadership in Peninsula cities is much more attuned to reality than those of Feierbach’s time, the sad fact is that we are still a long way from solving the housing crisis here. Indeed, the number of residential building permits issued in San Mateo County, already anemic, was 49% lower in 2019 than it was in 2018. As our legislators consider housing bills this cycle, I hope they vote for the Peninsula’s future, not its past.
Mike Dunham
Burlingame
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(3) comments
Though I find it condescending to describe a person from being from a different time, it doesn't surprise me coming from those who our relatively new to the area and think they no better that those of us who have lived here for generations. If you want to have a discussion with those of us who desire local control that is one thing, if you want to take cheap shots about someone's age and length of time in our community that is clearly another. I am in complete agreement with Ms. Feierbach's position on AB50 and her right to have it.
This is very important information. Article was picked up and republished by "Digital Clipping Service." Thanks to Coralin, a wise, caring community leader with wide and encompassing knowledge and forethought for the best future of the Peninsula.
Agree and add that I am a Boomer at 71 going on 72. Have children who are Gen X and Millennial, with grandchild under 10.
Retired, but consulting in the area of my last job, M&A, in a $17B/year corporation. That is near 100% oblique questions after they acquire whatever…’my new employees spend too much time commuting and are less than fully functional at work’…which bears directly to this topic. OBTW, we live in a holistic system/society. Meaning EVERYTHING is interwoven together with causes and effects
Generational in respect to transportation. Taking public transit to work here in the BayArea was frowned on: “oh you take public transit”…as if low on the cast system (social/economic). Maybe a bit of tolerance if you bicycled to work, but it had to be a bike of significance…
The 20th Century had the population transition from a renters society, into a home owner society…for most. WWII was the catalyst with the GI Bills and fresh expectations of life
Suburban living and R1 ownership was the goal and attained by the majority of the population. That demanded cars in order to do most anything. As everything was outside of our bedroom communities, with strip malls (small to large…till shopping malls became the fad), to entertainment, etc. Basically architected (planning) on a LOS metric. Of which most of our ordinances are based on LOS metrics
We are returning to become, if not already, a renters society again.
TOD and Designated High Density are hated terms by too many and many do not know what it is, really. Just a bad thing…but TOD existed before the invention of automotive transportation. Most all old world cities that many refer to as wonderful cities were architected BEFORE the invention of autos and they were TOD by design. As folks walked, rode a horse, etc. Downtowns or the center of their areas had bedrooms above the ground floor retail shops, where workers (service sector) lived and ‘commuted’ to work by walking or taking public transit
We need to move away from a 20th Century mentality (LOS) and into the 21st Century VMT metric and that required planning ordinance’s to likewise move into the 21st Century’s Form Based Code planning
Our BayArea is skewed by the above ‘stuck in the 20th Century’ mentality who complain about cars, cars and the commuters driving them from their affordable bedroom communities on the East Bay to their jobs here on the West Bay. Over 200,000 new jobs (that never existed before) were generated here on the Peninsula over the last decade…how many new bedrooms has been generated here on the Peninsula ?
San Mateo’s “Taste and Talk” series had a wonderful “Sex, Neuroscience and Walkable Communities” sessoion captured on this YouTube that hopefully will help understand the need to move away from an LOS to a VMT/Form Baded Code based society
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q949Iefg-8I
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