YIMBY

September 11, 2025

L.A. City Council Votes to Oppose State Housing Bill SB 79 (Excerpt)

In reporting by David Wagner for LAist, TPR excerpts coverage of the Los Angeles City Council’s narrow vote to oppose Senate Bill 79, legislation by Sen. Scott Wiener that would override local land-use restrictions and allow denser housing near major transit stops. The contentious debate highlights ongoing tensions between state housing mandates and local control.

September 11, 2025

Single-Stair Reform: Eduardo Mendoza on Housing Affordability by Design Flexibility

In conversation with TPR, Eduardo Mendoza shares how California’s single-stair reform can expand housing supply by enabling small-lot, incremental redevelopment. He notes that current double-stair mandates inflate costs and limit layouts to studios and one-bedrooms, while single-stair buildings allow more diverse typologies, including starter homes at lower price points. Mendoza emphasizes that the reform is not a panacea but creates policy leverage for affordability and highlights the importance of balancing design flexibility with safety standards.

August 28, 2025

Gerhard Mayer’s Call for Comprehensive Urban Change

As California’s legislature debates several zoning and building reforms, TPR spoke with acclaimed architect Gerhard Mayer both on the specific impact of single-staircase building reforms on Los Angeles' urban form and public health, and the urgent need for comprehensive changes to current planning dictum if the goal of City leaders is to incentivize the building of attractive, amenity-rich multifamily neighborhoods.

July 25, 2025

Storper et. al: Yes, YIMBY-ism Is Profoundly Conservative—And Wrong on Housing Policy

TPR invited economist, urban geographer, and Distinguished Professor of Regional and International Development in Urban Planning at UCLA Luskin, Professor Michael Storper to respond to the Atlantic's recent coverage of the housing affordability debate. Here, Storper, along with Max Buchholz (UC Berkeley), Tom Kemeny (University of Toronto), Gregory Randolph (Georgia Tech) challenge what they call “deregulationist-upzoning groupthink.”

August 8, 2019

CityLab's Laura Bliss: Bridging the NIMBY/YIMBY Divide

CityLab West Coast Bureau Chief Laura Bliss looks beyond the charged rhetoric of California's housing crisis to uncover what motivates both opponents and proponents of efforts to increase housing density throughout the state.

June 17, 2019

Wiener's SB 592: A WIMBY 'Snake in the Grass'

Hydee Feldstein reveals the sweeping impacts of Senator Scott Wiener's SB 592, another attempt to wrest planning and zoning control from cities.

May 27, 2019

UCLA's Ananya Roy on Housing Inequality & Market-Driven Displacement

TPR is proud to present the following interview with Dr. Ananya Roy, professor of urban planning and founding director of the UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy.

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© 2025 The Planning Report | David Abel, Publisher, ABL, Inc.