Google Image of Redondo Beach, one of the West’s most dense cities at 10,623 people per sq mile.

December 10, 2021

Redondo Beach Mayor Bill Brand in a Dec. 9 interview on NPR affiliate KCRW outflanked Los Angeles Times reporter Liam Dillon, who openly defends the hated anti-homeowner law SB 9.

In a riveting discussion with award-winning KCRW journalist Steve Chiotakis, Mayor Brand was upfront with Dillon, who continues his months-long, tired downplaying of SB 9 as a “duplex”  bill.

SB 9 takes effect Jan. 1 2022 and the law does not have the word “duplex” in it. SB 9 is not a duplex bill. But “duplex” is far less alarming than the truth, that SB 9 overrides single-family zoning to allow four-unit market-rate projects without yards or garages, where one home stands today.

Mayor Brand explained to the engaged and capable Chiotakis, “For those of us on the frontlines who’ve been dealing with housing — I’ve been dealing with it for over 12 years — this is of no help. This will displace affordable housing, gentrify neighborhoods, and actually be a financial disaster for cities.”

With SB 9 becoming law in single-family communities where 21 million Californians live, Brand and a diverse group of community leaders from across the state are seeking backers to fund their effort to place a voter initiative on the 2022 ballot.

Dubbed the Our Neighborhood Voices initiative, it would give cities the power to wrest back local control of zoning and land-use from the increasingly dictatorial and developer-influenced State of California.

To help fund the 2022 ballot initiative, please visit the Our Neighborhood Voices website, and stop a bad law that is a blank check written to developers.