Erin Baldassari

Senior Editor, Housing Affordability @KQED. SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America. Listen: | Past life = print reporter.

[Erin Baldassari @e_baldi]

In 2021, while California was still reeling from years of bad fires, the housing + science teams @KQEDnews started thinking about how to explore the intersection of #climate & #housing - 2 of the most pressing issues facing the state.

Last month, we dropped the 1st episode...🧵

[Erin Baldassari @e_baldi]

I’ve seen a number of hotly contested homeless encampments sweeps but smoke grenades & threatening residents w/ rubber bullets? That’s pretty rare (imo, tho I’m sure other examples exist; just don’t see it often).

Reporting by @vanessarancano @KQEDnews

https://t.co/u56wjNkaZt

[Erin Baldassari @e_baldi]

A week from today, I'll be talking w/ @KevinChron about his new book, The Lost & the Found, & how California's response to homelessness has - or hasn't - changed in the 2+ decades he's spent covering it. Got questions for him? Let me know! Details here: https://t.co/ISPD1aF6JG

[Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez @FitzTheReporter]

Surprise, surprise -- one of the first major donors to Mayor @DanielLurie's 1,500 shelter bed plan are ... drum roll please ...

Tipping Point Community.

Shocking, I know.

But there are more:
https://t.co/7bp70A8SPG

[Ezra David Romero @climatedaddy_]

As storms continue to pummel NorCal, unhoused San Franciscans and their advocates fear the city’s aggressive removal of tents and structures in recent months leaves people especially vulnerable to the elements.

@vanessarancano reports for @KQEDnews

https://t.co/CuuHw9Z09k

[Erin Baldassari @e_baldi]

To clarify: Council is expected to give direction to staff for a 1st reading, again likely in Oct. City hall sources say council is then expected to vote on any subst’ve changes. So, while it’s not a done deal, the meat of the debate *should* be settled tmrw ahead of the Oct vote

[Erin Baldassari @e_baldi]

UPDATE: Looks like the council will gather more community feedback on this👇proposal tmrw. It's likely we'll see some amendments & it will (maybe) come back to the council for a vote in Oct. My guess is timing will depend on what kind of additional studies will be requested.

[Erin Baldassari @e_baldi]

In what the mayor called "one of the largest up-zonings in California," Berkeley -- yes, Berkeley -- will consider allowing small apartments in single-family neighborhoods throughout most of the city. The city council will take up the proposal on Tues for a possible vote.🧵

[East Bay for Everyone @eb4everyone]

We can evaluate this argument because people made similar claims about SB 9. In fact, SB 9 has been used much more often in wealthy areas with larger lots. Danville has had 4x as many SB 9 applications as Oakland https://t.co/FxhrBbDJW3

[Dov Kadin @DovKadin]

One of…💅

[Erin Baldassari @e_baldi]

@IDoTheThinking Thanks, Darrell!

[🏳️‍🌈 Lori Droste @loridroste]

Five years after I first introduced it and three years after City Council’s historic unanimous COMMITMENT to end exclusionary zoning by December 2022, Berkeley is on the cusp of making history. On Tues, July 23rd, the Council will vote to end exclusionary zoning once and for all

[Erin Baldassari @e_baldi]

2) no apartments will actually get built because none of this is even financially feasible.
so...🤷‍♀️

If you want to read more, here's the story: https://t.co/ifTm0YCUWK

[Erin Baldassari @e_baldi]

After George Floyd's murder, the council decided to do something about the city's own role in furthering systemic racism. So, it adopted a resolution by @loridroste to end exclusionary zoning. That was the symbolic part. Replacing it with something else was what came next.

[Erin Baldassari @e_baldi]

That part of town could get pulled from the proposal Tues night. But it's currently in there now.

Other concerns I heard are somewhat opposing:
1) development would 1st focus in neighborhoods w/ lower property values thereby accelerating already advanced gentrification, and...

[Erin Baldassari @e_baldi]

Berkeley was the first city in the country to adopt single family zoning (four months ahead of New York). @solomonout and I produced a podcast episode in 2020 about that and how it impacts housing prices and residential segregation today:
https://t.co/wFrt9NCvUp

[Erin Baldassari @e_baldi]

Let's take a moment to pause on this: It wasn't that long ago when seeing a Berkeleyan wield a piece of backyard produce to protest new housing wasn't all that surprising (zucchini-gate anyone? Haskell St tomatoes?). So how did we get here?

[Erin Baldassari @e_baldi]

In what the mayor called "one of the largest up-zonings in California," Berkeley -- yes, Berkeley -- will consider allowing small apartments in single-family neighborhoods throughout most of the city. The city council will take up the proposal on Tues for a possible vote.🧵