California's Housing Hypocrisy on Display in Marin County

"A constant tenet of Marin County’s guiding ethos is resistance to growth, manifesting itself in a kind of environmental apartheid," writes Dan Walters. "Under the guise of preserving a serene environment, Marin County’s residents and politicians use every means possible to avoid building new housing that would allow more population growth, particularly low- or moderate-income dwellings."

The commentary provides additional historical context for a controversy that erupted in June 2017 (mirroring a previous controversy in May 2014), when a state budget "trailer bill" made the news for its inclusion of "a brief passage that extends Marin County’s exemption from [housing] quotas for an additional five years, until 2028," explains Walters. The exemption, according to Walters, reveals the posturing of Democrats in leadership at the state level that talk out one side of their mouth about the need for housing but then sign bills like this with as little public scrutiny as possible.

Walters concludes with a strongly worded statement: "For at least another decade, therefore, Marin’s residents can smugly assume that their bucolic lifestyles will not be marred by having more neighbors who don’t make as much money and, you know, just don’t fit in."