Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
san francisco mayor Daniel Lurie is trying to build more homes for people like Liam Murphy: a fifth-generation city kid who bid repeatedly on a two-bedroom tiny house that sold for $1.6 million.
Murphy, 39, now lives about an hour from his job as a San Francisco firefighter. He says it’s too late for his family to go back, but he hopes others can afford to live in a city where the average monthly rent for a one-bedroom is $3,500.
Murphy said, “It will make for a better city overall, and the reason is that kids growing up in the city are exposed to more. They are exposed to all the cultures of San Francisco, which makes for a more well-rounded individual.”
Small, colorful San Francisco – just seven miles in area – maintains its image as a city that welcomes all. But its inability to build more housing has made it one of the hardest places in the world to find homes, endangering the diversity it prides itself on.
The mayor is bestowed with epithets
Lurie hopes to change that, with a plan to allow denser and taller buildings in much of the city, including the West Sunset neighborhood of single-family homes and tourist-friendly Haight-Ashbury, which is lined with classic Victorian and Edwardian homes.
The issue has rocked the city, and the San Francisco supervisors who sided with Lurie are at risk of recall. At a recent housing rally, the mayor who got a rare reprieve from the President donald trumpThreats to send federal forces were met with “Shame!” Had to struggle to be heard over angry slogans. And “liar.”
Protesters demanded that the city invest 100% in below-market housing and accused him of being a gentrifier and a Republican.
“I truly believe this has the best interests of San Franciscans at heart. Will some people be horrified? Absolutely. I get it. Change It’s scary,” said Lurie, a centrist Democrat. “But the status quo is not working. Right now there is a crisis of capacity.”
democrat vs democrat
The city’s estimated 830,000 residents are passionate about both land use and equity. Pressure to build more affordable units has caused housing projects to collapse, making potential development uneconomic. Residents also love their stunning views.
But San Francisco is under pressure from the state to adopt a new zoning plan allowing 36,000 more homes by 2031 — otherwise the state would decide what gets built where — and the mayor potentially has the votes to pass his “family zoning plan.”
Proponents say it’s a matter of supply and demand, and more homes will reduce the overall cost of housing.
Critics say this kind of trickle-down economy won’t work in a city like San Francisco, which has such global demand that some foreign investors buy properties invisible. He says developers will only build luxury housing that is too expensive for most workers, while displacing tenants and destroying the character of entire neighborhoods.
“There’s a bunch of elephants in the room that no one will address,” says Eric Jay, a Democratic political consultant who opposes the plan.
A city ‘for people who don’t love cities’
Much of the housing push has come from Democrats, including the city’s former mayor, Gov. Gavin NewsomWho signed San Francisco State Senator Scott Wiener’s proposal to build more homes near transit.
Board of Supervisors Chairman Rafael Mandelman says the city has made great progress in recent years, with high-rise condo buildings rising around the city. But he acknowledges that people come to San Francisco for its more close-knit neighborhoods and access to green space.
“San Francisco, historically, was a city for people who didn’t love cities,” Mandelman said.
Katherine Roberts, 72, initially welcomed the construction of an affordable housing complex near the three-story Edwardian she worked hard to buy in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood two decades ago.
But the huge building with 160 units and eight floors high has disturbed her peace of mind and dominates her view.
“I’m looking out and it looks like I’m living in East Germany. How can you build something so inappropriate in a historic neighborhood like Haight-Ashbury?” Roberts said. “What about all the people who already live here? What should we do?”
The proposal calls for denser housing.
For the most part, the new zoning plan allows more housing to be packed into the space of a single-family home — say a duplex with a studio — without exceeding the city’s height limit of about four stories for such properties. At least 15% of new housing must be below market rate.
Buildings in neighboring commercial corridors could double to eight storeys. Buildings 10 stories or more tall can be seen on the busiest thoroughfares, and in some places, including on Van Ness Avenue, heights can reach 650 feet (200 m), rivaling some of the city’s skyscrapers.
Passage of Lurie’s proposal would not necessarily lead to more homes being built in a city with high labor and construction costs and “notoriously complex and burdensome” approval processes, the state said in a scathing 2023 review.
And so city dwellers have to make do with crowded – and sometimes awkward – living conditions.
Laura Foote, executive director of “Yes in My Backyard” YIMBY Action, ended up living in a one-bedroom apartment for nearly six months with the man who is now her husband — and the woman he was divorcing, until his ex-wife found another rental.
“We didn’t kill each other,” Foote said, “but it lasted longer than it would have in a well-functioning housing market.”
Mayor’s plan likely to pass
Supervisors are still negotiating amendments to the zoning plan, which could be voted on out of committee Monday for consideration by the full board. Some observers want to exempt historic properties, or all buildings currently used for housing. The mayor agreed to exempt buildings with at least three rent-controlled units.
The settlement was a big relief to Phyllis Nabhan, 78, who lives in the Richmond neighborhood between the Golden Gate Bridge and Golden Gate Park. She fears becoming homeless if a developer takes over the property she has called home for 47 years, starting with a rent of just $350 a month.
But Nabhan still has objections to the proposal. She says it would ruin the “relaxing and wonderful” feel of her neighborhood, and blames the state for forcing the city to change.
“I think this is what the mayor is trying to do,” she said. “It’s a terrible job, I wouldn’t want to be mayor.”