News & Notes - THE LATEST FROM UNITED NEIGHBORS...

It never ceases to amaze us how little it takes to get people to support a bill that is incredibly stupid. SB79 has been amended and amended and further amended getting Scott Wiener closer to his wish of opening up single-family neighborhoods.

Friday the trade unions came out in support of SB 79 because the bill will now require union labor on SB 79 projects higher than 85 ft. But most SB 79 projects will be 75ft or lower! That's quite a win for labor? Labor support wins over Democratic lawmakers. That's the win for Scott Wiener. He gave up very little to get a lot back in support.

We are told that many of our LA representatives don't believe the bill will be that bad and may not really harm neighborhoods, which makes us believe they have no idea what the bill says and what it will allow if it becomes law.

We sense LA delegation assemblymembers like Jessica Caloza, Mark Gonzalez, John Harabedian, Issac Bryan and even Nick Schultz and Senator Laura Richardson are conflicted.

We feel that pressure from lobbyists like Streets for All creates this conflict. Our voices and that of many of our City leaders seem to be less impactful in convincing them this bill is unnecessary and unhelpful to getting affordable housing and frankly harmful to so many existing neighborhoods.

We hope that you all continue to send letters or leave voicemail messages this weekend to your Assemblymember and to your Senator. This will go back to the Senate for a final vote if the Assembly votes in favor of SB 79 ( perhaps now on Monday).

We are all pushing hard up and down the state to make our lawmakers understand clearly what is at stake.

Thank you all for fighting the good fight with us. We hope good urban planning prevails.

A picture is worth 1000 words...