SUBJECT: Your vote on SB79 shows why we need new leadership in LA
TO: councilmember.park@lacity.org
CC: councilmember.Lee@lacity.org, heather.hutt@lacity.org, councilmember.mcosker@lacity.org, councilmember.rodriguez@lacity.org, councilmember.padilla@lacity.org, Councilmember.Yaroslavsky@lacity.org, Councilmember.Jurado@lacity.org
Councilmember Park and Members of the Council,
On August 19, you voted to oppose SB 79, a commonsense bill to legalize housing near major transit stops. That decision made clear where you stand: with wealthy homeowners and entrenched interests, not with renters, workers, or the future of this city.
Los Angeles is in the middle of a housing emergency. Families are being priced out, homelessness is rising, and our climate goals are slipping further out of reach. SB 79 is about building safe, code-compliant, mid-scale housing near rail and rapid bus lines, with affordability standards and environmental protections. It does not threaten hillside fire zones or historic neighborhoods. What it does is open up the single-family areas near transit that Los Angeles’s CHIP program left untouched. These are the very places that must play a role if we’re going to build an equitable, sustainable city.
By voting against SB 79, you chose the past. You chose fear-mongering about disasters that the bill doesn’t touch, and the hollow promise of “local control” that has failed for decades to deliver affordable housing. You chose to keep high-resource neighborhoods off-limits while pushing displacement pressure onto lower-income communities. That is not leadership.
Los Angeles deserves better. We need leaders who will say YES to housing near transit, YES to affordability, YES to climate solutions, and YES to a future where working Angelenos can actually live in this city. When you stand in the way of that future, you show us exactly what side of history you’re on. And we’ll remember.
Sincerely,
