Editorial: Californians say ‘yes’ to housing measures. Mostly.
For better or worse, Californians are taking on their neighbors. They are getting out of their cars — or in some cases, out of their cars. But at least for now, they’re taking action with their feet — if it’s available to them.
In recent years, voters across the state, including in the historically expensive San Francisco Bay Area, approved increases to housing costs that were intended to help keep prices artificially high and allow more people to live in the state.
In the past few days, they got the chance to do so once more — in the form of two ballot measures.
Both measures — one for a statewide cap on new housing construction and another to require that building plans for new housing include solar panels and other incentives — passed by wide margins. They will be on the statewide ballot in June, and if things don’t turn around, they’ll force the governor to do something about the crisis.
It might not be what the people want. But it’s the right thing to do. The new houses will be built, perhaps, but not too many in the foreseeable future. And those who live in the proposed new developments will get the solar panels, energy-efficient appliances and other high-tech perks they deserve.
The two ballot measures also passed because Californians don’t want to live in a future built out to serve the needs of the rich and their lobbyists.
The state already has a housing crisis — both because it has a dysfunctional housing construction system and because it doesn’t have enough affordable housing, which means that many people — including some who can easily afford it — simply can’t afford the state’s current housing stock, or cannot move there because of job and school and family obligations.
The housing shortage is also one of the reasons why so many people get behind Proposition 10 — which would restore the statewide cap on new housing construction that went into effect in 2013 — and would be more than enough, in fact, to keep up with California’s growing population.
“Californians have spoken, loud
