In his veto message, Governor Brown thought back to his days as the mayor of Oakland, Calif., and worried that inclusionary zoning, despite its intent to bring affordable housing to under-served communities, in fact does the opposite:
"As Mayor of Oakland, I saw how difficult it can be to attract development to low and middle income communities. Requiring developers to include below-market units in their projects can exacerbate these challenges, even while not meaningfully increasing the amount of affordable housing in a given community."
Trouble is, rent control just doesn't work. The Governor in his veto of this bill demonstrated his understanding of how to discourage bad policy and encourage investment where it is needed most
The legendary five-term Congressman and Speaker of the House, Tip O'Neil, is remembered most perhaps for his saying that "all politics is local". Yesterday in California, the Governor took the best of his experience as a local elected official - big city mayor - and put a stop to bad policy. Sometimes, maybe, the best policy can be made when policymakers are closer to the communities where that policy will affect.
