Los Angeles, Beverly Hills city councils opposing SB 50
Channel: Luke Harold
Date: 2019-06-02

Beverly Hills Mayor John Mirisch and Los Angeles City Councilman Paul Koretz have been two of the most outspoken critics of SB 50, a bill that would change local zoning to allow for more density.

Not included in the video: Mirisch has falsely claimed that California State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), the author of SB 50, thinks single-family housing is racist and immoral. Koretz has also repeatedly said, without evidence, that Wiener thinks single-family housing is immoral.

Wiener has repeatedly denied those claims. He says SB 50 is about rectifying the statewide housing crisis, which has caused high rents and a rapidly increasing homeless population.

Here's a statement from Wiener in response to their opposition and false claims:

“The Coalition to Preserve LA, Mayor Mirisch, and Councilman Koretz are opposing - and misrepresenting - an actual solution to California’s housing crisis. At the same time, they offer no actual solutions to the problem. To be honest, they are pure negative energy, which isn’t helpful as we try to tackle the top problem facing our state. California’s housing shortage is 3.5 million homes - equal to the housing shortage of the other 49 states combined. Moreover, California ranks 49 out of 50 states in homes per capita. Since the early 1960s, California’s population has nearly tripled, while our housing production has declined by about 2/3. This deep shortage is damaging California’s economy, environment, and quality of life. It’s pushing people into poverty and homelessness, making it hard for working families to gain a foothold, preventing young people who grew up in a community from coming back to live there, and creating a new class of super-commuters. California’s housing situation isn’t sustainable.

SB 50 is a good faith effort to address a very real cause of our housing shortage: the fact that in 80% of California (and 70% of Los Angeles), it’s illegal to build any form of housing other than single family homes. This hyper-restrictive zoning makes it illegal to build enough housing, particularly in our job centers and near transit. When we don’t allow enough housing where the jobs are, we end up building more and more sprawl housing, which is a huge environmental problem. SB 50, by legalizing more housing near where people work and near transit, will lead to more housing exactly where we should be putting that housing.

Instead of engaging in a meaningful dialogue about SB 50, the Coalition to Preserve LA, Mayor Mirisch, and Councilman Koretz  are engaging in fear-mongering and spreading false information about the bill. SB 50 contains the strongest tenant protections in existence under California law. Moreover, the root cause of displacement and evictions is California’s failure to build enough housing, leading to surging rents. Councilman Koretz also continues to falsely state that I find single family homes “immoral.” I grew up in a single-family home, and I have nothing against them. Quite the opposite. SB 50 does not ban single family homes. Instead, SB 50 is about choice: it allows people to choose whether to live in a single family home or a multi-unit building. SB 50 creates more housing choices instead of our current practice of forcing people to choose between a single family home or having to leave a community if they can’t afford a single family home.

When a city bans or restricts multi-unit buildings, that city is banning affordable housing. Affordable housing is always multi-unit. So when the Coalition to Preserve LA, Mayor Mirisch, and Councilman Koretz advocate to continue to ban apartment buildings, they’re also advocating to ban affordable housing. I hope these opponents will begin to engage constructively, instead of their current approach of fear-mongering and misrepresenting SB 50.”