Sunroom Desk added the Sierra Madre Tattler, Glendale News Press, Burbank Leader, Friends for Fullerton’s Future (this one won’t be obvious to most), City Watch, and several other links to its sidebar in 2010.
A few links focus on state and national politics, most report on local news and intrigue, and some explain intersections of the two (as this blog attempts to do with wireless broadband policies). The expanded list was put off for months as research on cell siting took priority.
Determined to cover other subjects toward the end of the year, I attended a meeting on California’s SB 375, along with an overflow crowd of SCAG members, local government staff, contractors, and consultants. The Liveable Communities Strategy sounds on paper like a positive change in direction for our “automobile-centric”, gridlocked region.
But Michael Antonovich made critical comments at the meeting, and follow-up research led me to the Sierra Madre Tattler, whose editor is a strong critic of the legislation. Sunroom Desk’s sidebar link expansion commenced, with an emphasis on more local voices.
SB 375 is an outgrowth of AB 32, which the Wall Street Journal just reported may be shelved if a November 2010 state proposition passes. Both laws aim to reduce greenhouse gases: AB 32 by switching to renewable energy sources, and SB 375 by dictating “smart growth” high-density development near transit centers.
Is high-density, transit-oriented housing the answer for every community? Antonovich expresses doubt, as his district is the largest but lowest-density portion of LA County, while the Tattler presents the legislation as a Sacramento plot to achieve central planning control over charming suburban communities like Sierra Madre and create business for high-rise developers throughout the state. In recent posts, the editor raps SCAG, questions its population growth projections (on which regional housing needs are based), and ridicules the assumptions of policymakers regarding the desirability of individual v. public transit for high-density housing occupants. Here is a sampling, from December 2009 through this Monday:
Mayor MacGillivray’s Message on the Recent SCAG (and GLUE?) Dog and Pony Show Excerpt: “To better help the public understand the intense pressures small cities like ours are under to accommodate Sacramento’s demands for extremely high levels of new and undesirable development…”
Will AB 32/SB 375 Even Happen?
Our Current RHNA Numbers Are Based on Criteria SCAG No Longer Supports? Excerpt: “the problem is California’s population is now actually declining…Since vast hordes of new residents are not on the way, the now operative message is we need to build large quantities of new housing here to stop – get this – Global Warming. You got it, big condo complexes are going to save humanity from extinction.”
Bart (Hearts) the Shenanigan Shuttle Excerpt: “As an aside, has it ever occurred to anyone that low income housing might actually cause more people to own automobiles rather than less? If people of a certain income bracket could pay less money for housing, wouldn’t that free up some of their income to get the one thing they’ve always wanted? That being a car?”
Laurie Barlow: Acronym Minefield Provides Cover for Sacramento’s Regional Control
An Outraged Environmentalist Writes In
Some People Have a Real Problem with Cars
California Planning & Development Report: The SB 375 Backlash Will Start to Hit (in 2010)