YIMBY’s Plan to integrate the East Bay’s White Enclave (apartment, condo)

[GoldKona]

Geez, it is a Podunk town of 25,000 population. Much ado about nothing.

[Dave Coe]

Originally Posted by GoldKona

Geez, it is a Podunk town of 25,000 population. Much ado about nothing.

YIMBYs have been obsessed with integrating it since Bay Area Renters Federation's "sue the suburbs" campaign in 2016.

[Dave Coe]

Robert Stark's point was that the Bay Area should focus on accommodating hyper-density in areas that can accommodate the most growth, primarily the inner East Bay and Silicon Valley, rather than politically targeting areas for being White.

[Dave Coe]

Originally Posted by Hemlock140

I grew up in Lafayette, with other family staying there for years after. Where I live now in Sammamish WA it was very similar to Lafayette when I moved here with my family in 1993. Mostly white and affluent, with the best schools. Currently our median household income is almost the same as Lafayette at $174,000 to $178,000, and our median home price is less at 1.5 million compared to to $1.8 million so we are still comparable. The big difference now is that we are 62% white, with 32% Asians, mostly from India. I would expect the same to happen in Lafayette over the years as the older residents sell and downsize. Here it was mostly hiring by Amazon in Seattle, there Lafayette is still a reasonable commute to high pay tech jobs in Dublin/Fremont and even Silicone Valley, especially with more working from home. This diversity is very visible now as we see more and more Indians in the stores, with Indian stores and restaurants opening up, but apparently they don't count as BIPOC despite being darker than most African Americans.

I've never been to Seattle but I know Redmond is comparable to the Silicon Valley. Is Sammamish more comparable to Marin or Contra County as a bedroom community? Is it as NIMBY as those areas or more pro-growth?



As for the future of Lafayette I could see a number of trends.


1. YIMBYs succeed in upzoning and Lafayette is covered in apartments and becomes more diverse, both Asians in tech and affordable housing for BIPOC


2. the status quo continues. Single family zoning that continues to rise in costs. When the current generation of older homeowners are gone, homes are sold to an increasing number of Asians in tech. Though I don't see Lafayette turning into Cupertino anytime soon. Perhaps 50% White and 35% Asian by 2040.


True that certain Indian groups from the South such as Tamils can be very dark but they do not count as BIPOC, due to their relative privilege. Northern Indian are much lighter. I think the largest immigrant group in Lafayette is actually Korean. Some Chinese but few Indians.


Lafayette is more linked to SF commuters not Silicon Valley.



3. Lafayette stays White, either due to a rise in enclavism or the tech industry decentralizing due to remote work.

[GoldKona]

Inclusive Lafayette should buy up properties as they come on the market and dole them out to the needy. Geez, CA is full. We get our water from hundreds of miles away from melted snow. We are in a drought. Any new building in CA is foolish.

[Dave Coe]

Originally Posted by GoldKona

Inclusive Lafayette should buy up properties as they come on the market and dole them out to the needy. Geez, CA is full. We get our water from hundreds of miles away from melted snow. We are in a drought. Any new building in CA is foolish.

Inclusive Lafayette was founded by a bunch of college age students, who grew up there. You can't expect them to come up with that much to buy up properties. What they want is to have the state enforce existing mandates on fair housing and rhna housing mandates and pressure the City and County to upzone and build affordable housing in wealthy areas.

[kettlepot]

While the 1968 Fair Housing Law made racial covenants illegal nationally, they've been illegal in California since 1948, 74 years ago.

People can live where they want if they have the money. Money only knows one color: Green.

[GoldKona]

Originally Posted by Dave Coe

Inclusive Lafayette was founded by a bunch of college age students, who grew up there. You can't expect them to come up with that much to buy up properties. What they want is to have the state enforce existing mandates on fair housing and rhna housing mandates and pressure the City and County to upzone and build affordable housing in wealthy areas.

And they should get meal vouchers for Michael Mina's! Geez, now if Lafayette is building new housing then probably some of it could be low income but California is FULL. Build cheap housing out in Reno for them.

If they grew up in Lafayette they probably have had more advantages than most. Dragging people down is not the solution.

[Dave Coe]

Originally Posted by GoldKona

And they should get meal vouchers for Michael Mina's! Geez, now if Lafayette is building new housing then probably some of it could be low income but California is FULL. Build cheap housing out in Reno for them.

If they grew up in Lafayette they probably have had more advantages than most. Dragging people down is not the solution.

That is the politics of equity.

[Dave Coe]

Originally Posted by kettlepot

While the 1968 Fair Housing Law made racial covenants illegal nationally, they've been illegal in California since 1948, 74 years ago.

People can live where they want if they have the money. Money only knows one color: Green.

That is the paradigm of liberal capitalism but we are in for a major paradigm shift. It is foolish and naïve to expect the same paradigm to remain for all of eternity, which many boomers do.

Single family zoning is actually not capitalism though.

The future is either the pan-enclavism that Robert Stark advocates for ( https://robertstark.substack.com/p/c...utm_source=url ) or socialism where everyone lives in dense public housing. The status quo is not sustainable.