A Primer on Housing

See the supervisors posture. See them learn. See them approve housing.

Comments (0) By Matt Smith Wednesday, Feb 28 2001

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As odd as it seems, the supervisors' move last week to ban the construction of live-work lofts aimed at affluent owners and tenants may, indirectly, through the cascade effect, make it harder for even the poor to find housing.

Fred Harper

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Once the new, left-leaning supervisors come to understand the economic and political forces that drive a housing market such as ours, I believe they'll act in the public interest. They generally seem to be the type of people who were attracted to politics as a way of improving the commonweal. As they hold hearings exploring the suffering our housing shortage causes, as they learn that the solution is to build more housing, even though some neighborhood associations tell them not to, I believe -- or at least hope -- that the supes will do the right thing. They'll do the politicking necessary to build tens of thousands of new apartments in San Francisco.

People who share similar hopes might do well to watch Supervisor Aaron Peskin.

As president of the Telegraph Hill Dwellers, Peskin organized neighbors to block a Rite Aid drugstore proposed for North Beach. He personally sued City College to block it from demolishing a historic neighborhood building -- and won. I asked him what he planned to do now that he and his new colleagues have control over policies that will affect whether or not people can afford to live here. Although Peskin is part of the new left wave at City Hall, he is talking a very encouraging game when it comes to housing.

"I think, finally, there is across-the-board consensus, from the S.F. Chamber of Commerce to housing groups, small businesses, to common S.F. folks who perceive the effects of the lack of housing in San Francisco."

Perceive it we do. Now, perhaps, there's finally an opportunity to do something about it.