Author Archives: Niloo Nouri

According to California’s statewide housing plan, the state needs to build just over 300,000 new homes each year to catch up with demand. Yet it consistently falls short of this goal.

Doug Thompson had already applied for roughly 30 homes in two months when an Oakland landlord invited him to make his best offer.

Why the most popular housing policy keeps failing the people it’s written for — a story told through an earthquake, a monsoon, a forty‑year waiting list, and a landlord who wanted his tenant to shovel snow.

After nearly two years of legal conflict over one of Menlo Park’s largest proposed developments on the former Sunset Magazine headquarters site, California Attorney General Rob Bonta has sided with the developer, saying the city violated state housing law in its effort to stop the project.

“In Berkeley, you have talent, you have geography, you have weather — you have all of these things coming together that can make for an incredible hub especially for physical AI,” said Jim Liefer, Ambi’s CEO. “More importantly, you have this big, ample space where you could bring in hardware, attract software talent and have it all under one roof.”

Kennedy Re-imagined Berkeley’s Future. Berkeley’s most fabled housing came from such legends as Bernard Maybeck, Julia Morgan and Walter Ratcliff. But the builder who has done the most to change the city’s landscape since the 1990’s is Patrick Kennedy. Kennedy won approval to build market rate housing in downtown Berkeley when none had been constructed since World War 2. He was arguably the first YIMBY, making arguments for building taller and denser infill housing that have become staples of the pro-housing movement.

Cities have always invited us to be constantly on the move. We move around to get to work, go shopping, meet friends, attend a concert, visit an art exhibition, and take advantage of all the many activities that a metropolis offers.

Bridging the gap between houses and high-rises

As the nation grapples with a housing shortage, cities must balance efforts to build new homes and achieve affordability goals with economic realities. That lesson has come to San Francisco, where planning commissioners and supervisors have come to understand that the city’s approach to encouraging affordable housing needs to change.