Support county’s Article 34 effort

The thing about a referendum is that it is an extra expensive hurdle. Even in the case that the voters want a thing to happen, the fact that you have to go back and ask them again puts a thumb on the scale for making sure nothing happens.

Imagine if literally every act of the elected body required a referendum. Want to install new fire hydrant? Referendum. How about rezoning one plot downtown by the train station to change from commercial-only to mixed-used? Referendum. Etc

Nothing would ever get done, because the marginal benefit of each individual choice is less than the cost required to approve it. This is why, as the saying goes, we have a republic, not a (direct) democracy. Direct democracy is not a functional system, for a polity larger than a few dozen people.

When you poll the voters, they consistently say they want more affordable housing, by _huge_ majorities. The California Association Realtors, which I think you might listen to, agrees that Article 34 was a mistake.

The will of the voters is still involved -- the voters elect County Supervisors and City Councilmembers, and those officials appoint various Planning Commissioners, as well as choosing and directing city staff. The voters do not need to be _directly_ involved in every niggling little detail, and trying to force them to be involved just results in paralysis -- which was the entire point of Article 34. "You can't ever do this thing, even if the voters want to, because it's too expensive and complicated" is _not_ local control.