Focus
Is government-run 'social housing' the solution to the Bay Area's affordability crisis?
San Francisco Chronicle – March 15
Two Bay Area lawmakers, Assembly members Alex Lee of San Jose and Buffy Wicks of Berkeley, have introduced the Social Housing Act of 2021. The law would create a California Housing Authority, which would develop residential buildings to house low-income as well as middle-income households whose rent payments would help subsidize their neighbors. Social housing is also gaining traction on the local level. Berkeley City Council member Terry Taplin has asked staff to study the feasibility of social housing. In San Francisco Supervisor Dean Preston has introduced a ballot measure that would authorize 10,000 units of social housing.
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News
Transit receives $30B in stimulus aid. What does that mean for riders?
The New York Times – March 15
For nearly a year, public transportation systems across the country have teetered on the edge of a financial cliff as the pandemic starved transit agencies of riders and revenues and threatened to decimate service. But those systems, and the people who rely on them, have been pulled from their worst crisis in decades by President Biden’s sweeping $1.9 trillion stimulus package, which includes $30.5 billion for transit agencies — the largest single infusion of federal aid public transportation has ever received.
Nuveen pledges net-zero emissions for entire $133B portfolio by 2040
Bisnow – March 16
One of the world's biggest real estate owners has pledged to dramatically reduce the environmental impact of its portfolio. Nuveen, which has $133 billion worth of real estate assets under management across the Americas, Europe, and Asia, has pledged to make all of its properties carbon neutral by 2040. The target represents a 10-year acceleration from the 2050 pledge it signed in response to the youth-led climate strike of 2019 and matches the target CBRE Global Investors recently pledged to meet for its directly managed properties.
State attorneys general challenge Trump-era rollback of energy efficiency standards
The Hill – March 16
Twelve state attorneys general, led by New York Attorney General Letitia James (D), on Tuesday filed a petition for review to eliminate a provision in Energy Department efficiency standards they say allows for inefficient residential furnaces and commercial water heaters. The provision treats heaters that use less efficient, noncondensing venting as a separate class of products requiring separate regulations. The Energy Department has already identified both rules as contradicting environmental executive orders signed by the president, according to James’ office.
Long Beach hotels and union lobby to curb unregulated short-term rentals
The Orange County Register – March 15
A coalition of hotels and community advocates, as well as a hospitality workers’ union, argues that unregulated short-term rentals are undermining the recovery of tourism in Long Beach while also endangering public health. The city’s hotel industry and Unite Here Local 11, which represents 32,000 workers in hotels, restaurants, airports, sports arenas, and convention centers in Southern California and Arizona, are requesting an immediate stay on additional short-term rentals until there is a public need for the units.
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