A roundup of news and multimedia from the Unfamiliar Terrain team:
San Francisco
Ultra Wealthy Are Putting Money Behind Bets on San Francisco’s Comeback (Bloomberg): Big investments in City businesses and real estate assets continue.
New data reveals what’s really fueling downtown San Francisco’s recovery (Business Times): New data suggests nightlife and after-hours activity may be a bigger driver of the recovery than what’s happening during the workday.
S.F. nonprofits secure $100 million gift for affordable artist housing on Market Street (SF Chronicle): Artists Hub on Market and Mercy Housing of California are collaborating to redevelop the Market Street site with approximately 100 affordable housing units.
Rethinking Revenue: Business Tax Reform in San Francisco in the Era of Remote Work (SPUR): The Office of the Controller and the Office of the Treasurer and Tax Collector have proposed final tax reform recommendations aiming to increase the City’s economic resilience, create more transparency for taxpayers, and help struggling small businesses.
California and Beyond
Bay Area could add 41,000 affordable homes. This map shows where they’d be located (SF Chronicle): A $20 billion housing bond likely headed to Bay Area ballots in November could “unlock” a pipeline of nearly 41,000 units across the nine-county region.
California will force Malibu and other towns to add housing. Here’s why that’s not nearly enough (LA Times): Exploring why the state government must expand the scope and speed of land-use reforms, with all cities, including wealthy and recalcitrant enclaves, doing their part.
Newsom promised 1,200 tiny homes for homeless Californians. A year later, none have opened (CalMatters): The Governor said he’d send tiny homes to San Jose, Los Angeles, Sacramento, and San Diego County. Why haven’t any materialized yet?
Why a California Plan to Build More Homes Is Failing (Wall Street Journal): Only a few dozen people have built housing under a law allowing them to construct duplexes alongside single-family houses.
One of every five new homes built in California last year was an ADU (Mercury News): In recent years, California has seen an explosion in ADU construction.
New battlegrounds emerge in California’s endless housing conflict (CalMatters): Exploring housing clashes emerging in recent weeks, including one in Portola Valley and the other a coalition of cities governed by their own charters, rather than state law.
7 Creative Solutions to Affordable Housing in California (Chan Zuckerberg Initiative): Ideas about how to solve California’s housing crisis, and proof that it can happen.
How an American Dream of Housing Became a Reality in Sweden (NY Times): Sweden picked up on the idea of modular construction and put it into practice.
