RE Dev Land Use Consultant | Housing and homelessness advocate | Former California Democratic State Central Committee delegate
Joined October 2010
- Tweets 5,447
- Following 1,313
- Followers 576
- Likes 26,828
583 Photos and videos
Rafa retweeted
Jun 5
Incredible drop for Steyer in Los Angeles, posting a roughly 19-point gain over Hilton and pushing his statewide vote share to nearly 21%.
Los Angeles County 6/5 Drop
Candidate – Votes (Percent, Difference from 6/2 Votes)
🔵 Xavier Becerra – 48,223 (35.8%, 6.9%)
🔵 Tom Steyer – 42,935 (31.9%, 9.6%)
🔴 Steve Hilton – 19,004 (14.1%, -9.1%)
🔴 Chad Bianco – 5,345 (4.0%, -3.5%)
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May 29
This move by SF is clearly about subverting the infill housing CEQA exemption that was passed last year. It has a carve out for historic properties. Growing the list of historic properties in SF gives the city more leverage to legally extort developers for ‘community benefits.’
May 29
Two headlines this week:
"San Francisco rent reaches new high at $4,000 a month for 1-bedroom apartment"
"S.F. wants to double its historic landmarks"
In the midst of a deep housing shortage, SF is on a preservation spree to subvert state housing law.
Why, @DanielLurie?
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Rafa retweeted
May 27
The California impact fee death spiral:
> Charge high impact fees
> Developers build less, impact fee revenue lower than expected
> Raise impact fees eve n more
> Developers build less, impact fee revenue much lower than expected
> Raise impact fees even more
Rinse, repeat...
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Rafa retweeted
May 25
Housing policy may do more for the climate than climate policy itself.
A new report finds that apartment residents emit 1/3 to 1/2 as much climate pollution as suburban homeowners—and that most US land still bans apartment construction.
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Rafa retweeted
NIMBYs BE WARNED!
After the failed MAGA city council in Huntington Beach FAILED to plan and build housing, a Superior Court judge just ordered the city to cough up $50,000 PER MONTH.
BUILD MORE HOUSING!!!
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Rafa retweeted
May 12
"Overregulation, mostly by localities, drove mass homelessness in our nation. Today, that red tape stands in the way of ensuring that virtually all Americans have a place to call home." @AlexHrwtz @pewtrusts
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May 12
It’s crazy that the Coastal Commission is so vehemently opposed to the idea that the city of Santa Monica should be allowed to decide on its own if it can remove parking in favor of bike lanes near the coast. Ridiculous.
May 12
It’s crazy that so many environmental groups opposing AB 1740 are using language like “sneaky bike lanes as a guise” when literally the people running the bill literally just want bike lanes (the most climate-friendly transportation) by the beach.
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Rafa retweeted
Nice thread about the intellectual victory of YIMBYism. Simultaneously, the average Californian is also pro-YIMBY at this point. However, one big barrier remains: special interests opposed to YIMBYism who have an outsized impact on decision making (the vocal minority).
May 10
I could go on. The candidates basically all agreed that CA should:
- cap impact fees
- reform building code to allow lower-cost construction
- require speedy ministerial permitting, w/ a standardized application form
- backstop it all w/ builder's remedies
/12
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Rafa retweeted
May 10
So proud to have the endorsement of @yimbyaction! I like to think of myself as an OG YIMBY - I first joined and donated to the cause over a decade ago. Now we’re fighting to fix the insurance system so that we can build enough housing for all.
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Rafa retweeted
Land Use: Parking minimums mean nearly every land owner in America is compelled to devote large swaths of land and improvements—often exceeding the space devoted to the business or home—to the exclusive storage of cars. Estimated value of this land is ~$17 *trillion*. With a T.
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Rafa retweeted
May 8
Just once I would like to see someone who says "housing is a human right" take it to its logical conclusion that zoning laws preventing housing being built must therefore be a violation of human rights
Housing is a human right. No one in this city should have to worry about losing their home or end up on the streets due to systemic issues.
Homelessness and the housing crisis are not two different problems, they are two sides of the same coin. And they have the same solution – permanent affordable housing.
Trickle down economics is a fallacy. The market cannot provide affordable housing. Prices are only going up, driving people into homelessness, or out of the city entirely.
Rae will build social housing on public lands and speed up housing production citywide, cutting red tape while keeping in place tenant and homeowner protections to ensure that people are able to keep their homes.
Rae will streamline the city’s housing strategy, creating a Mayor’s Office of Housing For All to consolidate these different departments under one roof, with a public dashboard to track progress and hold us accountable.
Read more on her housing policy platform on our website! (raeforla.com) 🌞🔗
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Rafa retweeted
May 6
Every mayor has a red button that says "press for free money" which is upzoning. Mayors agonize a lot but are somewhat reluctant to press the button
Every University President of a reputable school also has a free money button they are reluctant to press: expand enrollment
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Rafa retweeted
May 6
Inclusionary housing was not meant to be the primary method for providing affordable housing. We need cross subsidized non profit social housing that is not paid for by market rate developers. This is what other countries do. You don't tax the thing you want more of (housing)
May 5
San Francisco Controller: "...the financial feasibility of market-rate housing development is currently very challenging. None of the financial models could support any inclusionary housing and each was significantly worse than the same models in the 2023 study."
media.api.sf.gov/documents/T…
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Rafa retweeted
Apr 30
I support spending a lot of money on affordable housing, but this is not offsetting the other restrictions CA places on housing supply.
Subsidized housing should be additive to a functional housing market, not in lieu of one.
Apr 30
California spends the most of any US state subsidizing deed-restricted affordable housing, yet on every objective measure of housing affordability (price-income ratios, rent burdens, homelessness) we're either the worst or second worst on outcomes.
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Rafa retweeted
Apr 29
Where are the teachers' unions demanding an SB 79 for schools?
Upzone for family housing within 1/4 of mile of neighborhood schools and you'll save at least some of them from closure.
Apr 29
Many don't know how bad the school enrollment decline in big blue counties is.
E.g. Los Angeles USD went from 646,683 kids enrolled in 2014 to 392,654 in 2025. Nearly a 40% decline in 11 years.
There are both fewer kids in the country as a whole, and few families can afford LA.
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Apr 29
Fear the mega blocks. 😂 This one called the Calypso, is thought to be breaking soon as 233 studio apartments with 100% below-market rents for income-restricted residents around the corner from the beach in Santa Cruz.
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Rafa retweeted
Apr 27
As California’s housing crisis continues to dominate state politics, candidates for governor are increasingly positioning themselves as pro-housing, a shift driven in part by the growing influence of the YIMBY movement.
mercurynews.com/2026/04/26/c…
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Rafa retweeted
Apr 20
Unfunded IZ presupposes a permenant housing shortage: the moment rents fall too low to cross-subsidize the unfunded mandate, development stops until rents rise again. It's housing policy pseudoscience.
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Rafa retweeted
not to be on my bullshit again but the #1 thing a California governor can and must do is tackle the disaster that Prop 13 and the Gann limit created in the state budget. all progressive policy priorities depend on fixing that problem.
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Apr 16
This would have been a major boon to cities like Santa Cruz to speed up the implementation of safer streets, bike lanes, and more housing. The Coastal Commission basically killed this housing project through delay by not scheduling an appeal hearing for it for over three years.
Apr 16
AB1740 (Zbur), which exempts housing in urban, transit rich coastal cities from Coastal Comm review was amended in the Ass Natl Res Com. yesterday to only apply to Santa Monica. Still an important step forward - taking an (albeit smaller) bite out of Coastal’s housing authority.
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