Bay Area Land News - November 8, 2018
US / California / Bay Area News
Opinion: Housing wealth sapping California’s vitality
San Francisco Chronicle
California faces a peculiar peril: Our state is becoming too rich for its own good.
Bay Area startup sees a rent-to-own housing solution — just not here
The Mercury News
Jeanine Smith wanted to buy a house for her family in Ohio, but a spotty credit record and modest savings put a mortgage just out of reach.
What explains the rent affordability gap between Los Angeles and San Francisco?
The Mercury News
How could San Francisco’s rental market be “affordable” in a national study that scores Los Angeles rather poorly?
California lost more residents to other states than it got last year
The Mercury News
About 130,000 more residents left California for other states last year than came here from them, as high costs left many residents without a college degree looking for an exit, according to a Sacramento Bee review of the latest census estimates.
Californians reject rent control expansion, gas tax repeal and Prop 13 portability
Silicon Valley Business Journal
While California voters appeared to reject several high-profile initiatives, they were in favor of spending more money on housing programs as they voted for Democrat Gavin Newsom to be their next governor.
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Can modular highrises help solve the Bay Area's housing crunch? Developers turn to Oakland to find out
Silicon Valley Business Journal
One housing developer has been working for five years toward a new generation of modular highrises that cost less and can be built faster. Next year, its first two towers will start to rise in Oakland.
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A Warning From Seattle to Amazon’s HQ2
New York Times
Tech companies and their employees love big cities, but Amazon needs to do better for people who live in any city chosen for its second headquarters.
The biggest Bay Area construction projects cost more than the GDP of 80 countries
San Francisco Business Times
The most expensive projects range from enormous office towers to new hospitals to the Warriors' new arena. Find out where they rank and how much they cost.
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California voters reject gas tax repeal
The Mercury News
California voters on Tuesday rejected Proposition 6, a measure to repeal a recent increase in the state’s gas tax and one that, in many ways, determines the fate of California’s roads, bridges and transit.
Who should fix the housing crisis? California voters send a mixed message
The Mercury News
Voters in traffic-choked, rent-strapped California gave mixed reviews to a wide array of proposed fixes that appeared on state and local ballots, from creating more affordable housing for the poor and enacting price caps on rents to paying for road repairs and transit.
Peak Silicon Valley? Not yet!
Silicon Valley Business Journal
The Bay Area’s gravitational force has so far overcome the negatives of cost and congestion; we have not seen peak Silicon Valley and probably won’t soon.
Will new tech taxes in Mountain View, San Francisco, East Palo Alto be contagious?
The Mercury News
Both sides in the debate over whether Bay Area businesses should pay more taxes to help solve the region’s housing, traffic and affordability problems predict that cities will increasingly turn to squeezing Big Tech after voters in three cities approved new levies aimed at tech companies.
Amazon’s HQ2 choice said to be near conclusion
The Mercury News
Amazon’s quest to build a second corporate headquarters, dubbed HQ2, may be on its way toward reaching a conclusion.
San Francisco tech sector keeps growing, but Seattle added more than twice as many jobs during the past two years
San Francisco Business Times
The Emerald City now leads the nation for the most tech job with more than 33,000 new jobs in 2016 and 2017 — more than double San Francisco’s during the same time period.
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In superstar cities, the rich get richer, and they get Amazon
San Francisco Business Times
New York and Washington are leaving the rest of the country behind. Companies like Amazon explain why.
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Prop. 10: California rent control expansion defeated
San Francisco Chronicle
A ballot measure that would have allowed cities to expand rent control was defeated Tuesday despite widespread concern in California about high rents.
South Lake Tahoe, Pacific Grove measures to limit vacation rentals winning
San Francisco Chronicle
Two California tourist towns could be on the verge of banning vacation-home rentals in residential neighborhoods.
San Francisco News
SF Prop. C homeless tax — measure to raise $300 million a year wins with 60%
San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco voters Tuesday gave a solid thumbs-up to Proposition C, which is designed to inject the most money ever directed at city homeless programs by taxing big businesses to raise hundreds of millions of dollars.
SF Board of Supervisors: Stefani, Mar, Walton lead. Mandelman and Haney win.
San Francisco Chronicle
With most votes tallied, the results showed Catherine Stefani leading in District Two, Gordon Mar leading in District Four, Matt Haney winning in District Six, Rafael Mandelman coasting to victory in District Eight and Shamann Walton holding a commanding lead in District 10.
SF’s Embarcadero seawall measure wins easily
San Francisco Chronicle
A ballot measure that would give San Francisco the money to start rebuilding the Embarcadero seawall was approved by voters Tuesday by a comfortable margin.
Editorial: A $2.25 million fine for abusing short-stay rental rules sends a message
San Francisco Chronicle
In 14 apartments, there was the same Costco food. Damp towels were flipped over doors the same way. The houseplants, dishes in the sink, and clothes and shoes in closets were alike.
SF Mayor Breed didn’t get all she wanted in election — that’s not necessarily bad
San Francisco Chronicle
There was a lot on the line for Mayor London Breed on Tuesday night as she walked into a cramped pizza restaurant on Irving Street, where her preferred District Four candidate, Jessica Ho, was holding a modest election watch party.
SF puts brakes on Prop. C homeless measure; legal challenge anticipated
San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco voters passed Proposition C by a wide margin Tuesday night, turning on a fountain of tax money to pay for expanded homelessness programs starting next year. But those programs are going to have to wait a while — possibly years.
South Bay News
Nearly 700 homes eyed near San Jose’s Winchester Mystery House
The Mercury News
Almost 700 homes are being eyed at the site of a west San Jose mobile home park near the Winchester Mystery House and Santana Row, a prospective development location that’s encountered controversy.
San Jose launching self-driving car program
The Mercury News
San Jose residents may soon see driverless cars shuttling passengers between downtown and Santana Row.
North Bay News
BioMarin Pharmaceutical, nonprofit Whistlestop partner on Marin County housing project
North Bay Business Journal
When Whistlestop CEO Joe O’Hehir returned to Brooklyn, New York, where he was born and raised, he noticed something besides the much-talked about gentrification of a formerly gritty area he left in 1978. He noticed elderly people, even those in their 80s or 90s, still living at home in the neighborhood.
Santa Rosa's Measure N affordable-home bond, Napa Valley's hotel taxes for housing get mixed success
North Bay Business Journal
Of the seven ballot measures in Napa and Sonoma counties employing novel methods for raising millions of dollars annually to build affordable dwellings, Santa Rosa's proposed housing bond seemed to fall short in preliminary results, and two of Napa Valley's bids to raise lodging taxes were just below the two-thirds threshold in the first tally.
Peninsula News
Dumbarton rail project to get full environmental, fiscal analysis
The Almanac
In a sharp acceleration of a project that has for decades lurched through planning processes that haven't gone anywhere, a proposal to reinstate passenger rail transit along the Dumbarton corridor is moving forward in earnest, due mainly to a new partnership formed by SamTrans, Facebook and the Plenary Group.
Independent expenditures factor into local election
Palo Alto Online
Groups target measures E, F and one council candidate for support, opposition.
LASD fires warning shot over Bullis growth plans
Mountain View Voice
Bullis Charter School officials announced that they are seeking to boost student enrollment by over 20 percent in the coming school year, and formally requested last week that Los Altos School District find space to house more than 1,000 students by April next year.
Mountain View’s ‘head tax’ measure passes; Incumbents Siegel, Showalter ousted by new council members
East Bay Times
Months of debate over Mountain View’s proposal to charge Google and other businesses a tax based on the number of their employees culminated with a resounding victory Tuesday night, with unofficial election results showing ballot Measure P captured 69.22 percent yes votes.
Menlo Park City Council: Taylor, Combs and Nash leading
The Almanac
Preliminary election night results show that Menlo Park City Council candidates Cecilia Taylor, Drew Combs and Betsy Nash lead in the race for council districts 1, 2 and 4, respectively.
Abrica, Wallace-Jones lead in East Palo Alto Council race
Palo Alto Online
East Palo Alto Mayor Ruben Abrica and tech executive Regina Wallace-Jones have won the two open seats on East Palo Alto's city council, according to unofficial election results released Tuesday.
Woodside: Fluet takes lead in council race
The Almanac
Ned Fluet has taken a small lead over his opponent, Frank Rosenblum, in the race for the District 7 Town Council seat. The unofficial count from the county Elections Office posted at 11 p.m. gives Fluet 52 percent of the vote as more ballots are being tallied.
First major housing project in Google's Mountain View backyard set to win approval in deal with Sobrato
Silicon Valley Business Journal
The approval marks a milestone for Mountain View as the first major development approved since the city enacted its North Bayshore Precise Plan, which outlines a framework for future development in Google's back yard.
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County transportation tax measure on the edge
The Almanac
By the narrowest of margins, preliminary results from the San Mateo County elections office show that voters may reject Measure W, the half-cent sales tax that would collect some $80 million in revenues annually for transportation projects in the county.
Cormack, DuBois and Filseth win Palo Alto council seats
Palo Alto Online
Alison Cormack scored an emphatic victory in the race for the Palo Alto City Council on Tuesday, while incumbent Palo Alto council members Tom DuBois and Eric Filseth were comfortably re-elected to fresh four-year terms.
Mountain View voters back bonds, progressive policies
Mountain View Voice
In keeping with past years, Mountain View voters largely leaned left in the Nov. 6 general election, backing spending measures, rejecting the gas tax repeal and showing a more favorable view -- however slight -- on repealing constraints on rent control.
Challengers set to oust incumbents in tight City Council race
Mountain View Voice
In a shake-up, a trio of challengers appear to have edged out the incumbents in the Mountain View City Council race. As of the vote tally Wednesday morning, Ellen Kamei, Alison Hicks and Lucas Ramirez emerged as the top vote recipients for three seats, with Councilwoman Pat Showalter close behind.
Mountain View tax measures coasting to victory
Mountain View Voice
Two tax measures poised to raise about $7 million in annual revenue for Mountain View won easily on Election Day. The business license tax update, Measure P, is winning by a comfortable 69.2 percent majority; meanwhile Measure Q, the city's proposed tax on cannabis retail sales, won by a landslide with 81.1 percent approval.
Council race: How they won — and lost
Palo Alto Online
While Cormack won broad support, Wolbach met his Waterloo in Crescent Park and Barron Park.
Challengers set to oust incumbents in tight City Council race
Mountain View Voice
In a shake-up, a trio of challengers appear to have edged out the incumbents in the Mountain View City Council race. As of the vote tally Wednesday morning, Ellen Kamei, Alison Hicks and Lucas Ramirez emerged as the top vote recipients for three seats, with Councilwoman Pat Showalter close behind.
In change of heart, Brisbane voters give green light for controversial Baylands project
San Francisco Business Times
Less than a third of eligible Brisbane voters cast ballots, but nonetheless it appears that a measure to allow up to 2,200 homes and 7 million square feet of commercial development on the Baylands passed.
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Mountain View voters pass 'head tax' aimed at Google, other big employers
San Francisco Business Times
The new tax will replace one that charged most businesses $30 a year and ding Google, Mountain View's largest employer, for about $3.3 million.
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East Bay News
Oakland City Council races: Desley Brooks loses bid for re-election
San Francisco Chronicle
Loren Taylor defeated Oakland City Councilwoman Desley Brooks in the latter’s bid for re-election Tuesday, ending the incumbent’s 16-year term in office after a series of recent scandals.
All this 500,000-square-foot Berkeley biotech project needs is a developer
San Francisco Business Times
This rare Berkeley property hits the market and is marketed as potential office or biotech space.
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Exclusive: Hayward pushes for thousands of homes on 200 acres near BART
San Francisco Business Times
Groundbreaking is already in sight for the first project — 472 townhomes that will take up 25 acres, in close proximity to the South Hayward BART station.
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