When Silicon Valley blocks housing, the Central Valley pays the price

For decades, California’s coastal cities have blocked housing that’s affordable to working families. As those folks are forced to flee the coast in search of more affordable options, the Central Valley shoulders the burden of urban NIMBYism. It’s time our state legislators corrected this shirking of responsibility and passed new state legislation to rebalance housing development in our state.

Our state legislature can address this by passing SB 79, a bill introduced by State Senator Scott Wiener. It won’t fix everything overnight, but staying on our current path means more farmland will be lost, more families torn apart, and more workers spending their lives on Highway 99 instead of with their kids. We’ve been good neighbors long enough. We need state policy that protects Central Valley f