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Former Obama speechwriter Jon Lovett sparred with a Los Angeles city councilmember on Wednesday during a heated debate on California’s housing crisis.
California Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener and Los Angeles Councilmember Imelda Padilla debated on the “Pod Save America” podcast about how California should handle its ongoing housing crisis. Wiener’s Abundant & Affordable Homes Near Transit Act. SB 79, according to his press release, “tackles the root causes of California’s affordability crisis by allowing more homes to be built near major public transportation stops and on land owned by transit agencies, bolstering transit use, slashing climate emissions, and supporting public transportation in the process.”
Opponents of such legislation argue that introducing large amounts of affordable housing threatens to irreversibly change the character of their local neighborhoods. Padilla argued on the podcast that the number one responsibility of a councilmember are the land use decisions that greatly impact the lives of their constituents.
“People get elected for the conversations that they have with folks about what they’re going to do to keep their neighborhood looking and growing the way that they want it to be,” she said.
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She added, “So, for example, for the state to say, ‘Here’s your opportunity to build something that is potentially seven stories high when nothing around it is seven stories because the state allows it,’ It’s almost an insult to everyone who voted for the individual who they believe is going to help grow and clean and maintain their communities as they would like them to be.”
“But see, that to me gets to the core of the issue,” Lovett responded.
“I really want to be fair to your point of view,” he continued. “But what I hear there, is what you’re saying is, ‘Well, there weren’t seven-story buildings here in the past, so there can’t be seven-story buildings here in the future.” But that freezes California in a moment when there were far fewer people in this state. And my concern in what I’m hearing from you is there are legitimate issues that you’re raising about what locals feel about the character of their neighborhood. I’m not saying that those aren’t legitimate concerns, but it seems to lose the forest for the trees, which is we have an emergency.”
He noted the phenomenon of Californians fleeing to Texas as people criticize California’s lack of new housing for the rising population.
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Padilla noted that she has worked to negotiate a new building that would be three stories rather than six stories, one that would be a compromise between locals who want no development versus those who want more housing. She argued the compromise, made to look nice, would be preferable to a “big ugly cement box in the middle of the neighborhood” that would maximize density at all costs.
“Do you really think that all these young people that are seeking the Hollywood jobs that want to come to Los Angeles, want to live in a cement-looking building and find it to be dignified?” she asked. “I don’t think so. But SB79 creates a situation where the developer can actually do that.”
Lovett turned to Wiener and asked, “is there a part of this where people just need to accept that if we’re going to build the amount of housing we need in the speed that we need it, some of these concerns can’t be addressed? That we just got to move fast and not everybody’s going to like it?”
Scott acknowledged that no plan will equally satisfy everyone, but argued the bill will allow cities to preserve their own design standards.
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