Ben Christopher

Gavin Newsom signs law overhauling local zoning to build more housing After weeks of waiting, California’s governor signed a bill that will allow mid-rise apartment buildings near major transit stops in California’s biggest metro areas.

Ben Metcalf @ternerhousing.bsky.social: "If costs come down and interest rates drop, you can imagine we’ve set the table for a building boom."

calmatters.org/housing/2025...

Passengers look on as a BART train didn’t stop at the Rockridge BART station due to a systemwide closure that affected all BART stations, in Oakland on March 9, 2025. Photo by Ray Chavez, Bay Area News Group Hed: Breaking: Gov. Newsom signs massive California housing overhaul

After weeks of waiting, California's governor signed a bill that will allow mid-rise apartment buildings near major transit stops in California's biggest metro areas. https://cal.news/4n3hzge

📝 @frombenc.bsky.social
📸 Ray Chavez

Newsom signs massive California housing overhaul After weeks of waiting, California’s governor signed a bill that will allow mid-rise apartment buildings near major transit stops in California’s biggest metro areas.

Newsom signed SB79.

calmatters.org/housing/2025...

Press release from Governor Gavin Newsom: A hiss-torical day: Governor Newsom signs bills establishing state snake, state shrub

Every single person in my feed:

What's the deal with SB 79? Has Newsom signed SB 79? What is Newsom waiting for on SB 79? Newsom better veto SB 79! If Newsom doesn't sign SB 79 tonight I'm going to move to Canada. I'm launching a SB 79 shot clock widget SB 79 S!B 79 SB 79

Newsom:

Why this wealthy Bay Area suburb is at the center of the next big fight over California housing Los Altos Hills agreed to legalize some apartment buildings. Now it wants a do-over.

In 2023, Los Altos Hills, a mansion-studded bedroom community above Silicon Valley, vowed to legalize some apartments at the north end of town.

Now, facing a project that would include the town’s first-ever affordable housing, the town is having second thoughts.

calmatters.org/housing/2025...

Why this wealthy Bay Area suburb is at the center of the next big fight over California housing Los Altos Hills agreed to legalize some apartment buildings. Now it wants a do-over.

Los Altos Hills agreed to legalize some apartment buildings. Now, with a project proposed at Twin Oaks that would include the town’s first-ever affordable housing units, the wealthy Bay Area suburb is having second thoughts. https://cal.news/47hCdV6

📝 @frombenc.bsky.social

California is about to have a massive fight over taxes. Here’s why Los Angeles is the frontline A low-tax advocacy group seems intent on making the Los Angeles “mansion tax” the face of their statewide tax-capping ballot measure campaign.

Here's why the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, a low-tax advocacy group, seems intent on making Los Angeles' “mansion tax” the face of their statewide tax-capping ballot measure campaign.

calmatters.org/housing/2025...

BREAKING: Immergut has *granted* Oregon and California's motion to block the new call-up of Guard troops to Portland. She says this effort to bring CA and TX troops to Oregon is in "direct contravention" of her oroginal order.

I spoke to a Venezuelan woman who was arrested in this raid and later released with her 4yo son. She said agents broke down their door, pointed guns at them and made sexualized remarks about Venezuelan women. When she returned to her apartment it was boarded up and all her possessions were gone.

One of my favorite anecdotes from THE PREHISTORY OF THE FAR SIDE: "That doesn't sound like the Jane Goodall we know."

POLITICO Expands California Coverage with New Housing Beat, Welcomes Veteran Reporter Liam Dillon

So very excited to share that I’ll be writing about housing in Los Angeles and across California for Politico www.politico.com/blogs/politi...

Millions Could Lose Housing Aid Under Trump Plan Drafts of unpublished rules obtained by ProPublica detail plans that would open the door to full-time work requirements, two-year limits on living in federally supported housing and stripping aid from...

The rules from the Department of Housing and Urban Development would allow major changes to public housing and Section 8 vouchers:

- full-time work requirements
- 2-year time limits
- stripping aid from whole families if one member is in the country illegally

www.propublica.org/article/trum...

Why figuring out how many homes California needs is more art than science 56,000. 2.7 million. 840,000. Why is one of California’s most pressing policy problems so hard to measure?

Bit of a deep cut this Friday morning.

How big is California‘s housing shortage anyway?

calmatters.org/housing/2025...

Gotta appreciate the technological marvel of my phone robotically screaming that an earthquake is happening five seconds after I’ve woken up to my entire house shaking as a result of the earthquake that was very obviously happening

Damn! Only a 4.8 but basically at the Claremont Hotel

Felt big!

earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/...

Los Angeles' A line is now the longest light rail line in the world, if the Bay Area had something this long, it would run all the way from San Jose to San Francisco.

My editor's comments when I turn in 3k words on a story that's supposed to max out at 800.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

The end of an era for California reporting. Liam was doing this work before CalMatters even had a housing reporter. (In fact, it's possible CalMatters wouldn't even HAVE a housing reporter without Liam.)

A sad day for the LA Times, but glad he's still in the game! We're all better off for his work.

September 17, 2025 The Honorable Gavin Newsom Governor, State of California 1021 O Street, Suite 9000 Sacramento, CA 95814 RE: SB 79 (Wiener) - Housing development: transit-oriented development Los Angeles Mayor Bass - REQUEST FOR VETO Dear Governor Newsom, I write to respectfully request your veto on Senate Bill 79 (Wiener). While I support the intent to accelerate housing development statewide, as written, Senate Bill 79 (SB 79) risks significant unintended consequences for many of Los Angeles' diverse communities. As Mayor, creating more affordable housing remains a top priority, and I have cut red tape and spearheaded local initiatives, such as the Citywide Housing Incentive Program, to accelerate housing development. We must create more housing near transit hubs and areas with access to jobs, education, and amenities. We must streamline the production of housing for all Angelenos. However, we must do so in a way that does not erode local control, diminish community input on planning and zoning, and disproportionately impact low-resource neighborhoods. The City of Los Angeles has already made substantial efforts to align with state housing goals and increase housing development citywide and will continue to do so. While SB 79 allows for local ordinances as an alternative compliance, it does not provide a viable path for a pro-housing city like Los Angeles. For these reasons, I respectfully request your veto on SB 79. Sincerely, Kaven Bass KAREN BASS Mayor

LA Mayor Karen Bass is requesting a veto on transit-oriented development bill SB 79, which is headed to Gavin Newsom's desk: "While SB 79 allows for local ordinances as an alternative compliance, it does not provide a viable path for a pro-housing city like Los Angeles"

Update:

The Assembly passed this last night and the Senate sent it to the governor in the wee hours of the morning.

I, mercifully, was asleep. This news comes courtesy of my sleepless, ever-diligent colleague @jeannereporter.bsky.social

Your neighborhood could get seven-story buildings if it's near a train station A bill California lawmakers approved allows dense apartments near transit stations, overriding local zoning to address the housing crisis.

ICYMI

Yesterday the California legislature passed a bill that paves the way for a highly targeted building boom around major urban public transit stops.

calmatters.org/housing/2025...

Your neighborhood could get seven-story buildings if it's near a train station A bill California lawmakers approved allows dense apartments near transit stations, overriding local zoning to address the housing crisis.

The passage of this bill, nearly a decade in the making, slaps a symbolic bow on what has already been a banger of a year for controversial and ambitious housing production legislation in California.

calmatters.org/housing/2025...

Is this an historic first instance of "poopy" being spoken in this august body, @alexvassar.bsky.social?

Oh, so that's why @asmlowenthal.bsky.social said "poopy" on the floor yesterday. I was so confused.

www.politico.com/newsletters/...

Well that fizzled fast...

State lawmakers have now shelved their efforts to reform L.A.'s "mansion tax." Mayor Bass said she asked State Senators to hold off and introduce an amended version of the bill next year.

Details in my @laist.com story:

‘Disgusting, vile, and reprehensible’

And if none of those words make any sense to you, good summary in Politico's newsletter yesterday evening:

www.politico.com/newsletters/...

A deal that would have capped Los Angeles' ULA transfer tax under the condition that @prop13.bsky.social remove a proposed ballot measure aimed at making it harder for local govs to raise taxes is dead for the year.

Statement from @senatorgonzalez.bsky.social and @asmtinamckinnor.bsky.social:

Deleted my earlier post that misstated the status of this bill.

The Senate budget committee did kill it (for reasons totally unrelated to the story below, it seems), but I’m told the Assembly could still move with its version. Senate would then have to concur.

So, in theory, still alive!

Now that the state's 800,000 drivers have gained those rights, they will need to choose a union to represent them.  The SEIU, which sponsored the legislation, will likely become the drivers' representative, thanks to late amendments to the bill. They include new requirements that make it tough for fledgling drivers unions to qualify to represent drivers. One of those requirements is experience negotiating union contracts.  "This is so outrageous," said Nicole Moore, president of Los Angeles-based Rideshare Drivers United, adding that because the ride-hailing industry is fairly new, even a group like hers, which has been organizing drivers since 2018, does not have that experience. Moore said her group had supported the bill and been engaging with lawmakers as well. "They pulled the rug out from under us," she said.

An eyebrow raising detail in this story by @levisu.bsky.social about rideshare drivers winning the right to unionize in California