As a Councilmember-elect in Pasadena (and former Mayor), I'm deeply grateful for your Council's courageous initiative to address the racist origins of single-family zoning with a well-crafted zoning code that is respectful of neighborhood character while making room for a more diverse set of housing options. "Missing middle" should never have been taken off the table -- and restoring it will make Berkeley a national model for reconciling neighborhood quality of life and the need to affirmatively further fair housing.
Chief Deputy Controller, City of Los Angeles (for identification purposes only)
Planning Commissioner and Councilmember-Elect, City of Pasadena
I moved to California to attend UC Berkeley in 1999, and have lived in the Bay Area ever since. I was a renter for nearly twenty years, and am now a homeowner and Planning Commissioner across the Bay in San Bruno. I still feel some sentimental attachment to Berkeley -- it is a beautiful city full of amazing people who have had an impact on art, science, and culture throughout the region and beyond.
Berkeley is wonderful; you should make more of it. Re-legalizing the incrementally-growing neighborhoods of the past ( https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2019/7/3/making-normal-neighborhoods-legal-again ) will change neighborhood character, it's true. But gradually, and for the better. Trying to preserve neighborhoods in amber only leads to gentrification, as families make rational economic choices -- people inevitably move, and they sell for whatever the market will bear. With no nice new buildings getting built, folks at the high end of the income scale end up competing for old buildings, and they can outbid working class families. If you want to save your neighborhood characters -- the people who make Berkeley great -- you need to allow the character of architecture to change.
Good luck to everyone in Berkeley. This would be a huge leap forward for a great city and the country.
Also, what a great use of the Census microdata. This is a great way to show who benefits the most from single family housing. I was trying to replicate these tables so I could apply it to PUMAs in my own state -- but was having trouble.
Did you use an IPUMs extract? I attempted your analysis with that as well as the R package tidycensus and could not get the same numbers.
Just sent:
As a Councilmember-elect in Pasadena (and former Mayor), I'm deeply grateful for your Council's courageous initiative to address the racist origins of single-family zoning with a well-crafted zoning code that is respectful of neighborhood character while making room for a more diverse set of housing options. "Missing middle" should never have been taken off the table -- and restoring it will make Berkeley a national model for reconciling neighborhood quality of life and the need to affirmatively further fair housing.
Chief Deputy Controller, City of Los Angeles (for identification purposes only)
Planning Commissioner and Councilmember-Elect, City of Pasadena
Thank you! Please note its council@cityofberkeley.info and not .org
Sending now:
Esteemed Berkeley Councilmembers,
I moved to California to attend UC Berkeley in 1999, and have lived in the Bay Area ever since. I was a renter for nearly twenty years, and am now a homeowner and Planning Commissioner across the Bay in San Bruno. I still feel some sentimental attachment to Berkeley -- it is a beautiful city full of amazing people who have had an impact on art, science, and culture throughout the region and beyond.
Berkeley is wonderful; you should make more of it. Re-legalizing the incrementally-growing neighborhoods of the past ( https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2019/7/3/making-normal-neighborhoods-legal-again ) will change neighborhood character, it's true. But gradually, and for the better. Trying to preserve neighborhoods in amber only leads to gentrification, as families make rational economic choices -- people inevitably move, and they sell for whatever the market will bear. With no nice new buildings getting built, folks at the high end of the income scale end up competing for old buildings, and they can outbid working class families. If you want to save your neighborhood characters -- the people who make Berkeley great -- you need to allow the character of architecture to change.
Legalize missing middle housing now.
Regards,
Auros Harman
San Bruno, CA
Berkeley resident 1999-2003
I made an error in the initial email its council@cityofberkeley.info!
OK, re-sent.
Sent!
Correction its council@cityofberkeley.info
Darrell,
Good luck to everyone in Berkeley. This would be a huge leap forward for a great city and the country.
Also, what a great use of the Census microdata. This is a great way to show who benefits the most from single family housing. I was trying to replicate these tables so I could apply it to PUMAs in my own state -- but was having trouble.
Did you use an IPUMs extract? I attempted your analysis with that as well as the R package tidycensus and could not get the same numbers.