While tech giants like Google, Facebook, and Apple have approached the Bay Area's housing crisis gingerly the CEO of Yelp has thrown himself into the YIMBY movement. His activism says a lot about the real world and the virtual world.
"Last year, Stoppelman wrote a $100,000 check to SF-BARF. This donation got Trauss in trouble with some of her anticapitalist critics, who complained that she was just doing the bidding of big business. I’d like to think, though, that it’s the other way around: this is one instance in which business is doing the bidding of — or at least supporting — the common good."
"Stoppelman called out his fellow tech giants directly the other night: 'Google and Facebook have started to engage locally, Stoppelman said, and he’s surprised that "more tech leaders weren’t paying attention to this problem as it was developing,'" according to the Chronicle. Not exactly damning criticism, but it’s a start."
"Yelp’s users come from the same faceless mass of bits and bytes that Facebook’s, Google’s, and Snap’s do. But, whereas those other companies seek to create their own 'communities' online, Yelp is one of the few tech companies whose product is linked, intrinsically and immutably, to the real world. (No offense to Pokémon Go.)....Cities thrive when Yelp works properly, and Yelp thrives when cities work properly."
FULL STORY: Yelp in My Backyard
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After a San Mateo County Superior Court judge ruled that charter cities are exempt from the Housing Accountability Act, aka the anti-NIMBY law, the state stepped in to support the appellant, a YIMBY group that launched a "Sue the Suburbs" campaign.
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California State Senator Scott Wiener has released the highly anticipated follow up to last year's failed bombshell of a housing bill, SB 827.
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It received a lot of press, but ultimately California's Senate Bill 827 went nowhere. Now, the state senator who introduced the bill is working with advocates who opposed it on another version that just might have better chances.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
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San Francisco Suspends Traffic Calming Amidst Record Deaths
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California Homeless Arrests, Citations Spike After Ruling
An investigation reveals that anti-homeless actions increased up to 500% after Grants Pass v. Johnson — even in cities claiming no policy change.
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