Navigating NIMBYs
Affluent San Francisco NIMBYs have filed a lawsuit to prevent the construction of a badly needed Navigation Center planned for the Embarcadero. It’s a destructive action that may not prove successful — the center has already been approved by the Port Commission and the Board of Supervisors — but it goes to the heart of why San Francisco’s homelessness problem is so persistent and distressing.
Now that problem has gotten the state’s attention.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has just signed legislation originally authored by state Sen. Scott Wiener, DSan Francisco, that requires cities to approve new Navigation Centers as long as they comply with local zoning laws and safety requirements. Wiener’s original bill was folded into a budget trailer bill.
Budget trailer bills are often used to pass bills quickly. This bit of legislative maneuvering may have been why the change was able to slide through the state Legislature without the kind of hysterical pushback that’s greeted virtually every housing production bill in Sacramento.
If so, both Wiener and Newsom should be applauded.
While the legislation wouldn’t have prevented the Embarcadero Navigation Center fiasco — it doesn’t prevent lawsuits to block construction — San Francisco isn’t the only place suffering from either homelessness or NIMBYism.
The latest homeless figures showed doubledigit increases in cities ranging from Oakland to Los Angeles. Solving the state’s homeless crisis won’t happen if small groups of naysayers are allowed to grind the process to a halt.
Wiener wants cities to have access to the $650 million the state has set aside this year for homeless shelters, so there’s a carrot to go along with this legislative stick. Both strategies are not just sensible, they’re necessary.