Focus
Los Angeles City Council approves moratorium on evictions ahead of January 1
Los Angeles Times – October 22
The Los Angeles City Council this Tuesday approved an emergency moratorium on evictions to stop landlords from quickly booting tenants before new statewide rental rules take effect in January. In a 14-0 vote, council members passed a ban on “no-fault” evictions. The ban would prevent property owners from removing residential tenants unless there is just cause, such as not paying rent or using a unit for criminal activity. Mayor Eric Garcetti signed the ordinance late Tuesday afternoon, and it is expected to take effect this week. The ordinance, proposed by City Council members Mitch O’Farrell and Curren Price, is meant to stop what tenants groups have called a wave of no-fault evictions undertaken since Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1482 into law October 8.
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News
Facebook pledges $1 billion to fight housing crisis in California and beyond
The Mercury News – October 22
Facebook this Tuesday committed $1 billion to tackle affordable housing shortages in the Bay Area and California. Over the next 10 years, the $1 billion — in both money and land — will help create up to 20,000 homes where teachers, nurses, and other essential workers can live closer to the communities they serve, according to Facebook. The Menlo Park-based company also unveiled a new partnership with Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration to build homes on excess state-owned land. The move comes four months after Google’s $1 billion pledge to bolster the Bay Area’s housing supply.
UC Irvine opens latest green student housing
Multi-Housing News - October 21
Student housing developer American Campus Communities and the University of California, Irvine have opened Plaza Verde, a 1,441-bed eco-friendly community designed to be LEED Platinum and zero-net energy. The opening comes on the heels of last month’s opening of two additional residential towers within the “Middle Earth” student housing community on the UCI campus. The LEED Platinum, energy-efficient properties tie into the university’s goal of having a carbon-neutral campus by 2025. Plaza Verde was built with an all-electric system that eliminates the need for natural gas, instead using heat pump water heaters and an electric outdoor grill system. Other sustainable design elements of the building include eco-friendly building materials and highly efficient ventilation.
Nationwide transit ridership is plummeting: Can San Diego’s high-speed rail proposal buck the trend?
The San Diego Union-Tribune - October 20
Elected officials are preparing to ask San Diegans to approve two tax increases to fund billions of dollars in bus and rail investments, including a San Diego Grand Central Station to connect riders to the airport. The ask comes at a time when many cities around the country, including Los Angeles, have invested heavily in public transit only to lose riders. Seattle is the only major metropolitan region in the U.S. that has seen ridership increase in recent years. San Diego faces some unique challenges when it comes to planning its multibillion-dollar 100-mph rail system. Most notably, the region’s employment centers are decentralized. Downtown San Diego, the densest and easiest location to serve with transit, has only 5 percent of the region’s employees. The San Diego Association of Governments’ ambitious rail plan includes laying hundreds of miles of track throughout the county to connect residential areas to these job centers.
S.F. ballot measure seeks to increase development of affordable housing for educators
San Francisco Chronicle – October 17
As San Francisco’s housing crisis threatens to exile all but the most affluent, officials and advocates are straining to find ways to create more affordable housing. Beyond the high construction costs in San Francisco, the city’s complex zoning laws and extremely slow approvals are routinely blamed for saddling developers with even more expenses and delays. Signed onto the ballot by four members of the Board of Supervisors — Sandra Lee Fewer, Matt Haney, Shamann Walton, and Aaron Peskin — the November measure Proposition E seeks to chip away at the barriers to building 100 percent affordable housing and homes reserved for teachers and other school employees. The result, supporters hope, will be more affordable homes delivered faster and cheaper. The city and state officials who support Proposition E hope to wed the measure to the $600 million affordable housing bond also on the November ballot.
California tribe regains island it calls center of universe
Associated Press – October 22
Indian Island off the coast of Northern California is the spiritual and physical “center of the universe” for the small Wiyot Tribe, and it now belongs to them almost entirely after the city of Eureka deeded all the land it owns on the island to the tribe on Monday. The tribe was decimated in 1860 during a raid by settlers. Since then, the now 600-member tribe has been making small strides toward regaining the land it lost. Tribes have lost millions of acres of land through treaties broken by the U.S. government, by force and in exchange for federal services such as health care and education. Rarely has it been restored, said Cris Stainbrook, president of the Indian Land Tenure Foundation. Most tribes resort to buying land as it comes up for sale.
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