YIMBY Prom

I attended YIMBY Action’s annual YIMBY Prom fundraiser event this past weekend.

My wife & I booked a hotel in downtown San Francisco and walked to the venue at the top of Rincon Hill neighborhood.

At the top of Rincon Hill there was a fascinating building–the Sailors Union of the Pacific headquarters with a couple of interesting sculpted busts out front:

I do not think about unions often, but they are an interesting powerhouse in politics–who can be an ally or opponent in the pursuit of housing abundance.

I say “opponent” because requiring union labor imposes scarcity and injects exclusivity onto the process of production.

I say “ally” because if housing construction is too constrained then there are not enough jobs to go around for union members–so they are interested in increasing construction work in the aggregate (if union labor is required).

I was excited to see friends & fellow passionate activists attending the event:

It was especially awesome to see folks from San Mateo County–fellow donors/volunteers and local electeds from San Mateo, Millbrae, Redwood City, et al.

We are a county of roughly 750,000 residents, and we have difficult housing affordability issues (median homeprices exceed $2 million):

Great crowd, great turnout!

We heard from State Senator Scott Wiener on the importance of staying the course and highlighting the wins:

And incumbent San Francisco Mayor London Breed spoke–crediting state law changes with streamlining the speed of new development in the city:

Always inspring, always vital to connect with like-minded political activists.

Housing is the biggest driver of cost of living in the USA today.

Eliminating impediments to supply is critical to creating a wealthy, healthy society.