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Episode 856: Yes In My Backyard

By Dan Charles,
Alex Goldmark
Published July 27, 2018 at 6:27 PM EDT
Justin Sullivan
/
Getty Images

It's hard to build new housing in cities like San Francisco. There's restrictive zoning that keeps developers from building too high. Plus, neighborhood councils get to object to specific projects they don't like.

These restrictions are a big part of why rents have gotten... too high. So a group of renters is pushing for a simple solution: Let developers build.

Only problem is, almost everybody hates it. In working class neighborhoods, people worry new development means gentrification. In richer areas, homeowners don't want high-rises blocking their million-dollar views.

Today on the show, we talk to the woman trying to solve the housing crisis by making construction cool.

Music: "Disco Forever" and "Blues Rock Attitude."

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Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Corrected: July 30, 2018 at 12:00 AM EDT
A previous version of this episode misstated the location of a town that Sonja Trauss is suing. It is to the east of San Francisco, not the south.
Dan Charles
Dan Charles is NPR's food and agriculture correspondent.
See stories by Dan Charles
Alex Goldmark
Alex Goldmark is the senior supervising producer of Planet Money and The Indicator from Planet Money. His reporting has appeared on shows including Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Radiolab, On The Media, APM's Marketplace, and in magazines such as GOOD and Fast Company. Previously, he was a senior producer at WNYC–New York Public Radio where he piloted new programming and helped grow young shows to the point where they now have their own coffee mug pledge gifts. Long ago, he was the executive producer of two shows at Air America Radio, a very short term consultant for the World Bank, a volunteer trying to fight gun violence in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, and also a poor excuse for a bartender in Washington, DC. He lives next to the Brooklyn Bridge and owns an orange velvet couch.
See stories by Alex Goldmark