iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Gov. @gavinnewsom.bsky.social sticking to the claim that housing construction is up 59% since 2018 despite our thorough debunking of the stat. www.politico.com/news/2026/08...

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 28/09/2026

Also, some weirdness around Bass' embrace of LA Councilmember Traci Park who has been on the warpath against Raman. Bass' campaign has talked about deploying Park as a surrogate. But Park hasn't endorsed the mayor and has "deep concerns about the leadership and effectiveness of both candidates."

The Bass campaign has amplified Park’s remarks and leaned into the newfound friendliness from her critics.

“Working alongside local leaders like Councilmember Traci Park and Rick Caruso, Mayor Bass has delivered tremendous progress in the Palisades,” campaign spokesperson Alex Stack said, citing the reopening of schools and businesses and home permitting. The mayor’s campaign manager told POLITICO this month that they intended to deploy Park as a “surrogate” to reach Pratt supporters.

That was a bridge too far for Park, who is the only member of the City Council — aside from Raman — not to endorse Bass. Park reiterated her shots at Raman in a statement to POLITICO but added that she wasn’t anyone’s surrogate.

“As an LA resident and councilmember, I have deep concerns about the leadership and effectiveness of both candidates,” Park said.

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 16/09/2026

Early days of the Left-YIMBY synthesis in New York via @economist.com www.economist.com/united-state...

Screenshot of Economist headline on developers learning to love Mamdani

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 15/09/2026

Of the many problems facing SRO Housing, Skid Row's largest homeless housing provider, one is familiar to many developers — market-rate and affordable — in LA. Its CEO told me that the opening of new building was delayed because the city-run utility didn't connect electricity.

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 23/07/2026

Absolute dismal satisfaction rates for federal, state, local government among LA wildfire survivors in survey released today static1.squarespace.com/static/6792c...

Graphic showing low satisfaction rates for government entities among LA wildfire survivors

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 12/06/2026

Am I wrong that this is Teddy Roosevelt for some reason??

Spencer Pratt "war" video appears to end with Teddy Roosevelt laughing

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 06/06/2026

Yes www.82-0.com/share?id=fyD...

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 05/06/2026

Feel solid about this one www.82-0.com/share?id=dUS...

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 04/06/2026

Today's press release from @governor.ca.gov's office on homelessness is pretty congratulatory but leaves out some, uh, context.

CA Governor's office claim touting largest reduction in unsheltered homelessness in 16 years.

Graphic from HUD report showing 31% increase in homelessness since 2007.

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 29/05/2026

LA Council Committee reviewing the city's mansion tax/Measure ULA decides NOT to recommend a November ballot measure to make changes. Chair Ysabel Jurado says it's too early to evaluate the tax's long-term effects.

The recommendations advanced today focus on strengthening implementation and long-term impact, including new pathways to move unhoused Angelenos into permanent housing, stronger oversight and reporting requirements, improved accountability measures, and tools to accelerate affordable housing production and preservation:

Creating a time-limited dedicated pathway using ULA funds to move unhoused Angelenos into permanent housing;
Expanding reporting requirements of the ULA Citizens Oversight Committee to ensure the City Council receives regular recommendations and clearer oversight on program performance, implementation, and fund delivery;
Exploring the feasibility of issuing revenue bonds backed by future ULA revenue to further the purpose and mission of Measure ULA by accelerating affordable housing production and preservation;
Establishing a temporary, targeted transfer-tax exemption for qualified affordable housing developments to spur production and ensure more affordable housing gets built; and
Directing a long-term evaluation of ULA’s economic, housing, and programmatic impacts.

Following weeks of testimony, data review, and public input, Jurado also stated that she does not believe the City should move forward with a ballot measure at this time. The committee’s review found it remains too early to fully evaluate Measure ULA’s long-term impacts and that many implementation challenges can be addressed through targeted reforms and technical improvements without weakening the measure or risking critical funding for affordable housing and homelessness prevention programs.

Jurado also reiterated support for advancing technical amendments identified by the Los Angeles Housing Department to remove administrative and financing barriers that can delay affordable housing projects. Because those changes fall within the City’s existing authority under Measure ULA and do not require voter approval, Jurado emphasized the importance of moving quickly to improve efficiency,

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 16/05/2026

Our permitting process is better than other fires is not what she’s saying by talking about applications, approvals and completions in totality. Also I don’t have Santa Rosa’s permit turnaround times ready at hand but it’s impossible to look at this and say LA’s process is going faster

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 16/05/2026

I don’t know why Karen Bass keeps saying that rebuilding in the Palisades is going faster than other California fires. The @ms.now anchor even pushes her on it later in the interview and she admits it’s not

Los Angeles is a very, very big city, and the wildfires had a big impact, that is for sure. But people do recognize that there are other issues. And let me just tell you, in terms of the Palisades, we have issued over 2,600 permits for 1,100 properties. We have 400 homes that are actively under construction now. And people are beginning to move back.

If you compare that to other wildfires that have happened in the State of California, we are moving along quite quickly

ALEMANY: Mayor Bass, quickly before we're out of time. You know, you did previously say that the recovery for the Los Angeles fires in -- in the Palisades and Altadena would be on track to be the fastest in California history.

BASS: Right.

ALEMANY: Do you acknowledge that this is not the case, despite permitting?

BASS: Oh, no, I absolutely will.

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 14/05/2026

Digging in here, but more details released in the actual budget presentation. Development fee waiver proposal seems pretty narrowly tailored to affordable housing ebudget.ca.gov/FullBudgetSu...

ALIGNING LOCAL POLICIES TO LOWER COSTS FOR STATE-FUNDED HOUSING
PROGRAMS
To better leverage state dollars and promote the production of affordable housing, the
May Revision proposes statutory language to advance targeted policies that align
local actions with efforts to reduce development costs. The proposal encourages local
governments to provide development fee waivers by recognizing those waivers as a
form of local contribution in state affordable housing programs. In addition, as a
condition of receiving state funding, the proposal prohibits local governments—when
serving as a lead- or co-applicant—from imposing development impact fees on
projects receiving state funding.
This proposal does not require local jurisdictions to change their underlying fee
structures and establishes clear expectations for the use of state funds. The proposal
helps direct state investments toward building affordable housing rather than offsetting
locally imposed costs, while reducing overall development costs for state-funded
affordable housing.

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 14/05/2026

Looks like the governor's housing proposal today is going after local fees on affordable housing developments:

Lowering Aﬀordable Housing Costs
The Governor’s revised budget proposes new reforms to stop state aﬀordable housing dollars from
being wasted on locally imposed development fees that drive up construction costs and reduce the
number of homes California can build. The proposal would prohibit local governments from charging
impact fees on aﬀordable housing projects when they are directly applying for or co-applying for state
funding, while incentivizing broader local fee waivers through competitive housing programs. Combined
with the Governor’s “One Stop Shop” housing finance reforms, the proposal is expected to reduce
aﬀordable housing development costs by tens of thousands of dollars per unit and generate hundreds
of millions in annual savings that can be reinvested into building more housing.

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 14/05/2026

I'll be talking housing and wildfire recovery with LA County Supervisor Kathryn Barger and California Community Foundation President Miguel Santana at @politico.com's LA event on 5/20. Come check it out! You can request an invitation here: californiaagendalosangelesrequest.splashthat.com/Reporter

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 08/05/2026

Matt Mahan intentionally eschewed the “big, round number” approach. Instead, he has a 15-point plan that covers a variety of issues. He did not support the law — though he wouldn’t roll it back — that ended single-family-home-only zoning in the state (9/10)

Unlike others in the race, Mahan is not calling for an explicit housing production target.

“Those promises are empty promises, and we’ve seen that over and over again,” Mahan said in an interview with POLITICO. “Every time I hear a politician throw out some giant number of homes they’re going to build, my eyes roll as do the eyes of every voter in the state of California.”

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 08/05/2026

Katie Porter’s plan to reduce construction costs by 20% is actually supported by the research she’s relying on! There remain big challenges though because a lot of what she wants to do is now mostly under the control of local governments (8/10)

Porter’s goal to bring down multifamily construction costs by 20 percent comes from a 2025 RAND study that found the pace of building in California lags other states and contributes to high price tags.

Ward, the report’s lead author, said Porter’s idea to speed up construction would likely result in the savings she’s projecting.

“That’s a pretty conservative estimate,” he said. “Those costs are really quite quantifiable.”

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 08/05/2026

Xavier Becerra has offered few details on his housing plan. But he’s kept referring to one figure: 40,000 “shovel ready” homes he’d expedite in his first 100 days. He’s said they just need “a little kick” to get over the finish line. But the “little kick” costs $4 billion (6/10)

According to Becerra’s campaign, the 40,000 number comes from a report tallying up all the low-income housing developments that have applied for or received state funding. To fully finance the projects, the state would need to come up with $4.1 billion in grants, loans and tax credits, the report found.

Advancing that amount of funding immediately would mark a significant departure from the Newsom administration, which is not planning to allocate new low-income housing dollars in programs referenced in the report because of concerns over balancing the state budget.

Becerra recommitted to the pledge in response to questions from POLITICO.

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 08/05/2026

Similarly, his plan relies on a huge surge in modular construction. He’s said it can reduce construction costs by one third to a half. Those figures aren’t backed by research Steyer himself cites in his platform (5/10)

But the modular industry, which now makes up less than 5 percent of residential construction nationwide, has not proven it can deliver cost reductions close to those numbers. A March study from UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation, which Steyer cites in his housing plan, says that off-site construction has achieved savings of “up to 20 percent.”

In one instance, a modular affordable housing development in San Francisco saw 25 percent cost savings, but that project benefited from streamlined permitting and financing that contributed to the lower price tag as well, said Ben Metcalf, the Terner Center’s director and former head of the California Department of Housing and Community Development.

“To basically squint and say you can achieve that level of savings across every home built by modular, there are some leaps of faith that have to happen,” Metcalf said.

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 08/05/2026

Tom Steyer wants to build 1 million homes or 250,000 a year. Half as much as Gavin! But even these figures are far out of scale with what California has built for almost 40 years. And he wants to restrict sprawl growth that would limit simply raw housing production (4/10)

Even with what he called a “World War II-style mobilization,” housing economist Jason Ward was doubtful it could be done. For one, back in the ‘80s, developers were still replacing orchards and pastures with suburban subdivisions en masse.

“Where are you gonna build a million homes?” said Ward, who leads the RAND Housing Center and studies housing production in California. “You’re not just going to do that through just selective infill building. It’s going to be exurban sprawl.”

That’s not what Steyer wants. A billionaire climate investor, Steyer has called urban sprawl “environmentally disastrous” in response to surveys from housing groups. (His campaign did not answer a question from POLITICO on the issue.)

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 08/05/2026

Newsom did lead the state into a more activist role on housing. He believes the root of the state’s problems are a shortage and that the state should have lots more oversight on local land-use decisions. His potential successors are likely to entrench these perspectives (3/10)

As part of POLITICO’s survey, Steyer, Becerra, Porter and Mahan were asked to choose between four options for what they believed was the primary driver of California’s affordability problems: a housing shortage for people of all incomes, Wall Street speculation and investment in the market, a lack of tenant protections or something else. Three said housing shortage, and the fourth, Steyer, said it was barriers to construction and “Wall Street and corporate developers ripping off working people and families.”

Additionally, POLITICO asked if Newsom and the Legislature’s actions to reduce the authority of local governments over housing decisions were too little, too much or just right. All four candidates agreed the moves had been appropriate.

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 08/05/2026

First, the context. Current Gov. Gavin Newsom made an astronomical promise to build 3.5m new homes or 500,000 a year. Not only did that fail spectacularly, but key metrics on housing affordability are worse than when he took office (2/10)

The candidates would be wise to heed the cautionary tale offered by Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has felt the sting of overpromising and underdelivering. In his 2018 campaign, Newsom vowed to build 3.5 million new homes in seven years. Despite signing hundreds of new housing laws and dedicating tens of billions of dollars toward low-income housing, the governor will finish his time in office likely meeting just a quarter of his goal.

Even groups who push politicians to build as many homes as possible now say it’s inadvisable to promise a specific housing production goal.

“The distance between the governor’s office and the carpenter might as well be to the moon,” said Matthew Lewis, a spokesperson for California YIMBY, a housing advocacy organization that has not endorsed in the gubernatorial race.

Whoever takes over from Newsom will inherit an intractable problem. According to federal data, rental housing in California is nearly as scarce as when Newsom took office and today a higher percentage of tenants spend more than half of their income on rent than in 2019.

“Vacancy rates and affordability metrics alike suggest that while supply has grown, it is not yet high enough to eliminate the state’s housing shortage,” a recent report from the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California found.

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 08/05/2026

Pretty fascinating from @dsa.la on the Los Angeles mayor's race dsa-la.org/wp-content/u...

In 2024, DSA-LA membership approved a censure for Raman’s acceptance of an
endorsement from a pro-Israel Democratic club during her hard-fought reelection
campaign. However, she was also key to bringing the demand for a permanent
ceasefire to City Hall, an important victory that was achieved through months of
organizing by DSA-LA members and coalition partners.
Ultimately, Raman touts her political independence as an asset, and, despite her late
entry into the race, has out-fundraised Bass in the first three months of 2026, and
she is currently the only candidate other than Bass and Pratt polling in double digits.
While DSA Los Angeles has not endorsed a candidate in this primary election,
membership interest in the race remains high, between the excitement of Zohran
Mamdani’s win and the strong possibility of challenging Karen Bass from the left in
2026. Responding to a membership petition, the chapter’s Electoral Committee ran an
advisory strawpoll of membership, the results of which are as follows:
Total submissions: 733
Nithya Raman: 365 (49.8%)
Rae Huang: 306 (41.7%)
Karen Bass: 10 (1.4%)
Adam Miller: 0 (0%)
Unsure/No Preference: 52 (7.1%)
These results show clearly that while there are diverging opinions on who should be
the next mayor of LA, members are largely united in their desire to see a democratic
socialist Mayor elected to City Hall this November. With a plurality in support of
Nithya Raman, substantial support for Huang, and a significant minority without
preference, this was a seriously challenging race to evaluate, and we debated it at
length. 2026 will be a big midterm year, and as socialists we must decide how to vote
tactically for Mayor in the jungle primary, given Pratt’s candidacy

Some DSA-LA members believe that we should vote for the candidate with the most
radical and grassroots platform, especially in the wake of Raman’s sometimes rocky
relationship with major constituencies on the left. Others believe that the opportunity
to elect a DSA member to mayor is worth accepting the contradictions. Her council experience, even if imperfect, demonstrates a real ability to execute and enact
change in City Hall. Yet others argue that the movement is best served by
organizationally expressing no preference in the primary.
Ultimately, we recommend a vote for Raman to ensure a left candidate with a proven
track record of delivering for working class Angelenos makes it to the general against
Bass. ☆
This recommendation reflects a political assessment reached after substantial
discussion and careful debate, informed by members’ opinions and the expressed
strategic priorities of our chapter. It is not an endorsement and does not commit
chapter resources, volunteer capacity, or other forms of organizational support that
come with a formal endorsement of a candidate.

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 07/05/2026

Wildfire survivors who lost their homes in Pacific Palisades last year are reporting a gap of nearly $1.2 million between insurance payouts and the cost to rebuild, according to a just released quarterly survey static1.squarespace.com/static/6792c...

After accounting for insurance payments received or expected, homeowners estimate
they would need about $660,000, on average, to rebuild their homes. The median is
$500,000. Those who experienced total loss would need about $850,000 on average. Of
total-loss survivors in Altadena, the average deficit is about $550,000; in Pacific Palisades,
$1.19m, and in Malibu, $1.73m.

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 01/05/2026

Kudos to this lady who agreed to be the face of "scromiting" in the bathroom where she apparently scromited

Photo of woman in bathroom who has a rare marijuana-based disease

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 01/05/2026

To be clear, there are signs that rebuilding may eventually be robust. But that's not today.

Graphic showing rebuilding in LA behind Santa Rosa and Paradise post-fire.

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 01/05/2026

To be clear, there are signs that rebuilding may eventually be robust. But that's not today.

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 01/05/2026

Why the homebuilders hate the candidate who wants to build the most homes

PUNCHING STEYER — Tom Steyer is promising to build 1 million homes if elected governor. Yet the state’s major homebuilders are fighting him.

“All we know is that Steyer made it explicitly clear that his solution to California is to regulate and tax it to death,” Dan Dunmoyer, president and CEO of the California Building Industry Association, told Playbook. “And so we just can’t live with Steyer.”

Dunmoyer said his members don’t like the specifics of Steyer’s housing plan. While the billionaire climate activist is proposing to cut fees and transfer taxes, which the builders like, he says he’ll replace revenue with a major property tax hike on commercial property, which the builders don’t. Dunmoyer also panned Steyer’s reliance on modular construction to meet his housing goals as an unproven technology.

But more than housing specifics … Dunmoyer blasted what he cast as Steyer’s overall hostility to business. The CBIA has formed a coalition with likeminded groups, including the California Association of Realtors, California Chamber of Commerce and major utilities, to fund a political action committee to oppose Steyer. As of Thursday, the PAC had raised $21 million, including a $1 million contribution from the CBIA and $10 million from committees funded by Pacific Gas and Electric, the Northern California utility that Steyer has pledged to break up.

“If you really study his plan carefully, and then listen to him carefully, there’s no future for us in this state,” Dunmoyer said.

Dunmoyer said the fluidity of the governor’s race has made it hard for his group to pick a candidate. Katie Porter impressed with her knowledge of housing issues, he said, but some of his members in Orange County, which she represented in Congress, weren’t fans. Mahan entered the race too late to make an impact, he said.

CBIA endorsed Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, a former developer, before she dropped out of the gubernatorial race last year. Dunmoyer said the group was close to lining up behind Eric Swalwell before his campaign imploded. Now, they’re trying to learn more about Xavier Becerra, the former Health and Human Services secretary who has surged in the wake of Swalwell’s demise. Like Steyer, Becerra supports a commercial property tax hike. Dunmoyer said his group needs more clarity on Becerra’s positions on mandated wage floors for construction workers.

“Maybe we just miscalculated,” Dunmoyer laughed when asked why the group was so opposed to Steyer and not Becerra. “I think part of it is [Becerra] has not articulated (his positions) as clearly. But to your point, we are attempting to sit down with him to find out now that he’s become more real.” — Liam Dillon

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 30/04/2026

Under questioning from Sen. Alex Padilla today, US EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin gave no timeline on when Los Angeles should expect long-term disaster aid for the 2025 wildfires. Trump appointed Zeldin to the unofficial role of LA recovery czar in January.

PADILLA: I appreciate your attention and support for the improvements in and around Tijuana River, number one. On another positive note, want to thank you for having worked with local officials, city and county folks after the fires in the Los Angeles area last January — both the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire, more specifically or the largest footprint. So the response and the aid in the immediate aftermath was helpful, was good, was necessary. But as you know, there is still disaster aid pending as the communities are trying to rebuild. It has been more than a year, and so I’m wondering if, on behalf of the Administration, you know when we might expect that supplemental request for consideration by Congress?

ZELDIN: Well, I know, Senator, that there was a meeting that I’ve heard nothing but positive feedback from, from both the White House as well as Mayor Bass, County Supervisor Barger. That meeting last week, I would imagine, was felt universally as a good conversation to talk about insurance, to talk about banking, and to talk about potential federal aid. Some of this is a request with FEMA that might not require a new act of Congress. Part of this might be CDBG-DR funding that will require it. I believe that the OMB Director was in that meeting as well. And I also am under the understanding that there's been follow-up conversations as well.

PADILLA: I hate to cut you off. I do want to get to other issues, but yes or no, do you have a timetable? A couple of weeks? A month?

ZELDIN: I don't have a timetable. I’ve been focused on the EPA budget, but I'm happy to continue to help however possible on any front related to the LA rebuild.

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 23/04/2026

Here are some photos of Bass and Barger's White House visit with the president today.

Bass, Trump and Barger in the Oval Office today

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 22/04/2026

Affluent suburban homeowners: NIMBY is a slur. Rural residents against data centers: Keep that the hell out of my backyard

The group "NIMBY Imperial" opposes data centers in Imperial County

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 13/04/2026

Fifteen months after the Los Angeles wildfires, rebuilding is lagging behind other disasters. "There’s certainly no chance of them being this outlier of fast recovery. It’s not physically possible at this point." www.politico.com/news/2026/04...

Graphic showing faster rebuilding in Santa Rosa and Paradise than Altadena and Pacific Palisades

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 13/04/2026

The record recovery that isn't. Rebuilding after last year's wildfires in Los Angeles lags behind other recent natural disasters in California www.politico.com/news/2026/04...

Waffle chart showing half of destroyed properties don't have an application to rebuild after the 2025 LA wildfires

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 05/04/2026

Like no wonder that people chafe at living under these rules for a year (plus no outside guests!) and end up violating them and getting kicked out or otherwise leaving

Description of strict rules for people living in Inside Safe

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 19/03/2026

For the Measure ULA heads. The LA City Council’s committee that aims to recommend a new local measure for the November ballot will be chaired by DTLA Councilmember Ysabel Jurado with Valley councilmembers John Lee and Imelda Padilla also on the panel.

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 17/03/2026

I was struck by this homeowner advocate's stance that buying a house in a single-family-home neighborhood means you should have a kind of "vesting" in that neighborhood remaining single-family — the same as a developer with zoning for their projects subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2026...

Just as the city provides certainty for developers who know what zoning rules allow when they plan projects and for tenants in rent-stabilized apartments, the same should be true for homeowners, said Maria Pavlou Kalban, vice president of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association.

“I think [the principle] also applies to homeowners that buy into a neighborhood and assume that's what they bought into,” Pavlou Kalban said.

“Now, all of a sudden, that's changed,” she said, referring to the fallout from SB 79.

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 07/03/2026

Want to understand why a Los Angeles apartment owner/real estate influencer would say that Nithya Raman was trying to "destroy" the city 2.5 years ago yet now is Raman-curious in the upcoming mayoral election? Buddy, do I have a story for you. www.politico.com/news/2026/03...

Moses Kagan tweet saying Nithya Raman was trying to "destroy" LA from 2023

Kagan tweet from 2026 saying he went to a Raman for mayor event

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 28/02/2026

Just reminding everyone who missed out on buying @metrolosangeles.bsky.social's Ride the D shirts, that you can still find limited-edition Rude Dude shirts for $20 shop.metro.net/products/sho...

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 25/02/2026

Not sure how I didn't know before today that @metrolosangeles.bsky.social has a creepy, vertically eyed mascot named Rude Dude

"Rude Dude" riding an LA Metro escalator

1527747

Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 23/02/2026

A quick visit to the Capitol but I had to pay my respects to the shrine

78814

Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 07/01/2026

A phoenix on top of the American Legion post where survivors of the Palisades fire are holding a one-year memorial ceremony

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 30/12/2025

Looks like the city of Los Angeles just issued its second certificate of occupancy in Pacific Palisades for a rebuilt home after the wildfires.

Screenshot of LA permitting site showing certificate of occupancy issued for wildfire rebuild on 12-29-25

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 10/12/2025

It's my aspirational goal that the governor stop calling his 2018 campaign pledge to build 3.5 million homes through 2025 an aspirational goal. www.politico.com/newsletters/...

COUNT ‘EM UP: In the interview with Klein, the governor also repeated his claim that his oft-cited 2018 campaign promise of building 3.5 million new homes in the first seven years of his gubernatorial tenure was only an “aspirational goal.”

But Newsom was firm in his pledge on the trail, telling the Los Angeles Times early that year that building 3.5 million homes was “not just what I want to do — it’s what we must do to address California’s housing crisis, which worsens every day.”

“When I embraced the goal of 3.5 million new units by 2025, I knew it was unprecedented and audacious,” Newsom said in February 2018. “But it’s what must be done.”

The state has permitted 665,000 new homes from 2019 through 2024, less than 20 percent of his goal, per U.S. Census data. — Liam Dillon

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 10/12/2025

I see that New York Times transcription service is unfamiliar with California's Regional Housing Needs Assessment

Q&A with Ezra Klein and Gavin Newsom. Transcribed California's RHNA as "arena"

Why is it so hard? Because you’ve wanted to do this. You set a 3.5 million housing production goal.

That was the aspirational goal. And then the legal goal, 2.5 million by 2030, became what we call the arena goals —

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 24/11/2025

It's underappreciated in LA's wildfire recovery how much the lack of accountability for government failures leading up to/exacerbating the disasters is contributing to residents' lack of trust for government to find solutions for rebuilding www.politico.com/news/2025/11...

“Imagine you literally just lost your house, at least partly due to government incompetence,” Allen said. “If you already were inclined to be someone to not trust the system, you’re just not in any mindset to embrace a proposal from the county blue-ribbon commission and the state senator to create a government authority that’s going to centralize power.”
No other broad-based funding or organizational effort has emerged since. Allen said he’s willing to introduce new legislation next year so long as the proposal comes from resident groups.

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 16/07/2025

A good reminder that California's affordable housing regime requires PLANNING for low-income housing and not CONSTRUCTION of low-income housing. (Obviously, some reasonable reasons for this, but for all the heat that housing element conversations get they don't mean housing gets built.)

Screenshot of article saying Coronado agrees to support affordable housing after state pressure.

Screenshot of article saying Coronado has not built any affordable housing.

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 10/07/2025

Six months after January's fires, 8% of homeowners in Pacific Palisades have applied for permits to rebuild www.latimes.com/homeless-hou...

Graphic showing increasing permit applications weekly in Pacific Palisades

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 06/06/2025

Why is this happening? Yes, labor and material prices have risen. But numerous factors within the control of state and local governments — environmental and labor mandates, parking requirements, lengthy approval processes, and byzantine financing all play a major role.

A key driver of the increases is labor and material prices, which have soared because of inflation, supply-chain problems and worker shortages during the COVID-19 pandemic. But a Times investigation published in 2020 found numerous factors within the control of state and local governments also to blame for the high cost of building affordable housing in California.

A man stands in a low-income housing complex being rehabbed in San Francisco.
Julio Lara of Mission Housing Development stands in a low-income housing complex being rehabbed on Great Highway in San Francisco. (Paul Kuroda / For The Times)
In comparison with private sector development, low-income housing is often saddled with more stringent environmental and labor standards. Affordable housing projects also frequently face high parking requirements, lengthy local approval processes and a byzantine bureaucracy to secure financing.

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Liam Dillon @liamjdillon.com · 03/06/2025

When I say "elaborate tree house" I mean 6-foot by 3-foot, 28 feet in the air in an ash tree:

The structure has been visible from the street for weeks. Flores had attached a sign to the front with a message calling for a citywide rent strike.

The tree house is elaborate. Flores used galvanized steel braces to attach a series of ladders to the ash tree’s trunk. Where the trunk narrowed higher in the tree, Flores bolted spikes into the bark to make the final few steps into the structure.

Inside the tree house and hanging on nearby branches were blankets, warm clothing, food, water and his medication. To keep things clean, there’s a wooden broom he can sweep out leaves and other detritus. Flores expected to charge his phone via an extension cord connected to electricity in the garage. He bolted a chair to the bottom of the tree house and has a safety belt to catch him should he fall.

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