Friday, June 12, 2015

Opposition to Affordable Housing in Marin

Marketplace, on NPR, is running a series that deals with affordable housing in Marin County. Marin County is just north of San Francisco, a wealthy, democrat-voting, suburban and rural county, whence "liberal lion" Barbara Boxer hails.

George Lucas, of Star Wars fame, owns a former dairy farm in Marin County. He has offered to build affordable and working-class housing on his property, out-of-pocket. Local residents are opposing his plan. They cite weak reasons like potential traffic, or aesthetics.

In reality, this comes down to "I was here first!" and "Not In My Back Yard!" [NIMBY]. To get a good flavor of the situation, it's very informative to listen to the story from NPR, especially the town hall meeting. 

Wealthy homeowners in the Bay Area are so unwilling to live people who are not as wealthy as they are. They can't imagine that the people who pick the crops, clean the homes of the wealthy, work in their gardens, and teach in their schools, might have to live somewhere nearby.

The standard refrain is that "those people" can just live farther away and commute. The problem is that there is no "farther away" with both affordable housing, and efficient transportation infrastructure. Living more than 20 miles from your workplace is a terrible idea in the Bay Area, because the roads are clogged with congestion.