{"id":274504,"date":"2025-10-03T12:13:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T12:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/274504\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T12:13:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T12:13:09","slug":"how-to-add-housing-l-a-pols-think-the-answer-is-making-it-more-costly-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/274504\/","title":{"rendered":"How to add housing? L.A. pols think the answer is making it more costly \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the decade since Gov. Jerry Brown starkly described many state housing laws and policies as hostile<\/a> to the best interests of Californians, there\u2019s been progress in reducing some construction red tape by limiting the scope of state environmental laws \u2014 as well as a welcome willingness to allow far more unconventional granny flat-type units. But has there been progress in getting elected leaders to grasp the basics of economics? Don\u2019t get your hopes up.<\/p>\n

This was illustrated by two dismaying reports Tuesday in the Los Angeles Times. The first was an analysis<\/a> of efforts to rebuild the 22,500 homes destroyed by state wildfires from 2017 to 2020. It found that 38%, or about 8,400, had been rebuilt. While building was significant in some areas \u2014 in particular, affluent communities in flatter areas \u2014 many others were doing far worse. From \u201cwine country to foothills below the Sierra Nevada to canyons overlooking the Pacific Ocean, the wreckage stubbornly resists recovery,\u201d the piece noted. In some communities, fire victims were devastated by how early progress was followed by steep slowdowns, leading them to give up on rebuilding. While there were many factors, the primary obstacles to construction were the same as always in the Golden State: high costs and heavy regulations.<\/p>\n

Then a second Times article further underscored the mindset driving the state\u2019s housing sclerosis. It detailed how eight Los Angeles City Council members wanted to respond<\/a> to the lack of progress in rebuilding Pacific Palisades after January\u2019s catastrophic blazes there. They backed taking initial steps to mandate a $32.35 minimum wage for all construction projects in the city with 10 or more residential units that were under 85 feet in height, as well as requiring employers to provide \u201can additional health care credit of $7.65 per hour.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now there\u2019s no doubt that construction worker shortages are an issue. But there is no reason to expect that mandating minimum compensation of $40 an hour for such workers is likely to speed up housing construction when it would greatly (and, apparently, permanently) add to the already-huge burdens placed on builders. That\u2019s why Stuart Waldman, president of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, blasted the proposal as \u201cabsolute insanity\u201d that \u201cwill drive what little construction we have out of L.A.\u201d<\/p>\n

Does L.A. Mayor Karen Bass think this makes sense? Does Gov. Gavin Newsom? Or \u2014 despite years of pro-housing rhetoric from our leaders \u2014 does the anti-Californian status quo ripped by Brown in 2015 endure? If Pacific Palisades remains a ghost town in 2035, we\u2019ll have our answers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the decade since Gov. Jerry Brown starkly described many state housing laws and policies as hostile to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":274505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,6083,2961,224,5337,1269],"class_list":{"0":"post-274504","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-editorials","11":"tag-la","12":"tag-los-angeles","13":"tag-losangeles","14":"tag-opinion"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115310179406794586","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}