During the first few months of 2017, I hit a rut. At the time I was living in Palo Alto, having moved there a few months earlier in order to reach a job based in San Jose. And I was miserable. I had been extremely active in college and had gotten used to four years of easy access to friends and fun. But life had slowed down dramatically. My weeks mostly consisted of driving to work at an office park and driving back to my studio apartment. Sprinkled in between were some dinners with friends and the occasional trip to Three Brothers Tacos (every week is considered occasional right?). Life was totally monotonous. Was this adulthood?
My hand was forced when my lease ended and the owners needed to move back into the studio. I decided this was my chance to head up to San Francisco, but I was anxious about the move. I had read stories about crime, car break-ins, terrible and overpriced Mexican food, stories that sent shivers down my spine. But what I ended up experiencing was one of the best decisions I had ever made.
Even though I ended up extending my commute to an hour and a half (with my office moving up to Redwood City), my days were filled with countless adventures. From meeting up with friends and exploring new places to eat and drink to roaming on my own and discovering hidden gems like Ross Alley and Ina Coolbrith Park, San Francisco brought back a lot of joy into my life. I felt the same excitement I had while I was in college and the same sense of discovery I had when traveling abroad. Some of the people I met in San Francisco have connected me to better career opportunities, and many have become lifelong friends.
However as time went on, cracks started to show in my San Francisco experience. Sure, I sold my car, but why were Uber and Lyft the only reliable ways to get around the city? Why was it that only certain neighborhoods seemed to have a density of restaurants and groceries while others were left empty? Why did the city seem so inhospitable to families and raising kids? Why was the rent so damn high?
Urbanism had always been a topic that interested me from my trips to walkable cities, which was what first led me to SPUR, the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association. I started picking up a few things from the group and from there, I learned about YIMBY Action and the Yes in My Backyard movement.
I learned that apartments are effectively illegal to build in San Francisco. I learned that exclusionary zoning laws were first created with the intent of race and class discrimination, and have succeeded in that and making the city unaffordable to most people. I learned that bad policies like Prop 13 starve cities of money and encourage some residents to fight against new housing, abusing tools like CEQA to accomplish that.
And learning all of this frustrated me. San Francisco is not perfect, but in my mind it is the closest west coast city to being the kind of place where people can start families, live without a car, and have access to excellent career and life opportunities. Los Angeles, where I grew up, feels like it has too far of a way to go with all of its suburban sprawl. But San Francisco feels like it could be so close to other amazing urban centers like Mexico City, Paris, Kyoto, and more. It’s frustrating to learn that it’s not technology that is holding the city back, but policy.
Throughout history, cities have always been the place for people to find opportunities and become the best versions of themselves. Philosophers in Athens, merchants in Tenochtitlan, artists in Vienna, and immigrants to New York City have found urban centers to be the place where they can thrive. And I think it’s a damn shame that due to bad housing and zoning policies, San Francisco has closed the door on the next generation of artists, inventors, business owners, and thinkers.
I’m a YIMBY because I believe that cities are engines of progress and prosperity, and I think we should give more people the ability to access opportunities that will help them grow, meet new friends, and enjoy their lives. In order to build a more equitable society where people have the chance to succeed, it’s important that we build affordable and sustainable cities. And that’s why I say “Yes in my backyard.”
If you’re interested in learning more, check out YIMBY Action and a video on how the US made affordable homes illegal.