San Francisco based Astroturf Developers Group comes to Marin to Lobby for Housing in Marinwood

Many housing advocates are paid "consulting fees" and expenses for their "testimony"

Editor's Note: 4/23/2015  Does this BARF group have anything better to do?  Clearly they are wholly ignorant of the real issues involved and have bought the Lucas PR machine "Too many Millionaires" crap.  The community is middle class at best, far below the average San Francisco wage earners.  This is not a FREE gift by George Lucas.  The local taxpayers will be footing the bill for taxes for fifty years including expenses usually reserved for developers.  We will have to build new schools, lay new water and sewer, extend bus lines, hire new safety officials.  The average homeowner barely makes more than what the county calls "low income" at $88,000.  Our gift will increase our taxes and price some right out of their homes.  We will not let that happen. 

From: Alfred <mail@firstcultural.com>

Subject: [sfbarentersfed] Supporting the George Lucas Grady Ranch affordable housing project

Date: April 21, 2015 1:40:05 PM PDT

To: morganl@pephousing.org, marys@pephousing.org, info@rwhassociates.com, judyarnold@earthlink.net, jarnold@marincounty.org, skinsey@marincounty.org,ggiacomini@hansonbridgett.com

Cc: SK Trauss <sonja.trauss@gmail.com>, sfbarentersfed <sfbarentersfed@googlegroups.com>

Gary, Steve, Judy, Mary, Morgan, and Robert:

I'm writing to introduce you to the San Francisco Bay Area Renters' Federation, a group of people working to solve the Bay Area housing crisis by increasing housing supply throughout the region.  Members speak at public hearings in favor of new housing development and write public officials to make sure the need for more housing is heard. 

The Grady Ranch project excites many members as it offers a large amount of new housing in a part of the bay that is among the least affordable. Please let us know how we can participate in the public process to help make this project a reality.

CC'd on this email is Sonja Trauss, SFBARF's founder and main organizer (sonja.trauss@gmail.com), as well as the group's mailing list.  https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/sfbarentersfed

Thanks,

Alfred

[Editor's Note: This just in from Mary Stompe of Pep Housing 4/22/2015.

Thank you so much for your kind offer.  We will be in touch in the near future.  Thanks again.

Mary Stompe, Executive Director

PEP Housing

951 Petaluma Blvd. South

Petaluma, CA  94952

707-762-2336

Fax 707-762-4657

www.pephousing.org

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Here is a posting from one of their supporters. declaring war on the suburbs:

Is there a solution? Piece of cake: Take urban planning away from local officials; make it a regional decision. As long as land use is decided by neighborhood-elected city councils, nothing will change. Short of that real-world impossibility, a big step in the right direction would be to reform the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)."

I think here is where our paths intersect with traditional affordable housing activism. Rich areas need to be upzoned. I'd love to advocate for a ten story, 309-unit project in Palo Alto, however, right now it's so anti-development there that no developer is even proposing anything close to that size.

To call back to the Occupy days, rich neighborhoods need to be occupied - not just with tents this time, but new buildings.