Ben Christopher
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frombenc.bsky.social
Ben Christopher
@frombenc.bsky.social
430 followers 400 following 110 posts
Housing reporter @calmatters.org. Occasional dad tweets. Tell me things: [email protected] / signal: BenC.2017
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frombenc.bsky.social
ChatGPT is apparently both pro-journalists using ChatGPT and pro-family.
November 13, 2025 at 9:30 PM
frombenc.bsky.social
You‘re treating yourself to a birthday trip to Mexico and you only have $170K (allegedly). How do you spend it?

calmatters.org/politics/202...
November 13, 2025 at 1:44 AM
frombenc.bsky.social
Notable finding in a new paper on how California cities have responded to AB 2097, which scrapped minimum parking requirements for housing developments near major transit stops.

At least one city just ignored the law for housing near future, planned projects.

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
October 17, 2025 at 9:18 PM
frombenc.bsky.social
Every single person in my feed:

What's the deal with SB 79? Has Newsom signed SB 79? What is Newsom waiting for on SB 79? Newsom better veto SB 79! If Newsom doesn't sign SB 79 tonight I'm going to move to Canada. I'm launching a SB 79 shot clock widget SB 79 S!B 79 SB 79

Newsom:
Press release from Governor Gavin Newsom: A hiss-torical day: Governor Newsom signs bills establishing state snake, state shrub
October 10, 2025 at 3:04 AM
frombenc.bsky.social
Oh, so that's why @asmlowenthal.bsky.social said "poopy" on the floor yesterday. I was so confused.

www.politico.com/newsletters/...
September 12, 2025 at 6:23 PM
frombenc.bsky.social
A deal that would have capped Los Angeles' ULA transfer tax under the condition that @prop13.bsky.social remove a proposed ballot measure aimed at making it harder for local govs to raise taxes is dead for the year.

Statement from @senatorgonzalez.bsky.social and @asmtinamckinnor.bsky.social:
September 11, 2025 at 8:02 PM
frombenc.bsky.social
An eyebrow raising detail in this story by @levisu.bsky.social about rideshare drivers winning the right to unionize in California
Now that the state's 800,000 drivers have gained those rights, they will need to choose a union to represent them.  The SEIU, which sponsored the legislation, will likely become the drivers' representative, thanks to late amendments to the bill. They include new requirements that make it tough for fledgling drivers unions to qualify to represent drivers. One of those requirements is experience negotiating union contracts.  "This is so outrageous," said Nicole Moore, president of Los Angeles-based Rideshare Drivers United, adding that because the ride-hailing industry is fairly new, even a group like hers, which has been organizing drivers since 2018, does not have that experience. Moore said her group had supported the bill and been engaging with lawmakers as well. "They pulled the rug out from under us," she said.
September 10, 2025 at 6:08 PM
frombenc.bsky.social
Updated the story with a statement from the company that is developing the project that seems have been the subject of this legislation.
In an unattributed statement from Mission LLC, the company slammed the deal and said it would sue, “as California prohibits legislation attacking a single project.” “This bill is an example of the control of public policy by a few wealthy NIMBYs in an attempt to obstruct desperately needed low-income housing,” the company wrote. “The project, located in a wealthy area of Santa Barbara, would provide 54 low-income units and this attempt to block it demonstrates the kowtowing of some legislators to wealthy NIMBY constituents.”
September 10, 2025 at 1:37 AM
frombenc.bsky.social
The national housing market is still stuck in a post-pandemic rut.

But with higher prices, limited supply and a property tax regime that discourages sales, California homeowners have “have extra reasons to stay put,” said @hatethegamebook.com

calmatters.org/housing/2025...
July 29, 2025 at 5:35 PM
frombenc.bsky.social
The lede in this story by @marisakendall.bsky.social

calmatters.org/housing/home...
A common meme image (used to express an unlikely shared viewpoint) of two muscled arms in a firm grip. In this case, one represents Donald Trump, the other Gavin Newsom. Where their hands clasp together, the text says "pushing cities and states to use law enforcement to get unhoused people off the streets."
July 25, 2025 at 10:24 PM
frombenc.bsky.social
A new Lincoln Institute report shows how much more a new homeowner will owe in property taxes than someone who has owned for the avg duration in that city (based on median prices).

Thanks to Prop. 13, California cities well represented at the top of the list.

www.lincolninst.edu/publications...
July 16, 2025 at 6:38 PM
frombenc.bsky.social
This morning Politico wrote that Sen Pro Tem Mike McGuire has "increasingly become the outlier" on housing policy compared to YIMBY-oriented Speaker Rivas and Gov Newsom.

Also this morning, McGuire named former Hermosa Beach Councilmember Ray Jackson to the Coastal Commission.

Jackson in 2023:
May 22, 2025 at 6:07 PM
frombenc.bsky.social
Stumbled upon a 1976 issue of San Francisco Magazine last night. Alongside a Moscone profile, an essay on “the plight of homosexuals” working in finance and a jarring number of cigarette ads, there's a short article about how new development restrictions in Petaluma are causing home prices to go up.
Cover of San Francisco Magazine, January 1976. The cover photo is George Moscone. The lede headline: "Meet your new mayor-elect." A story of "Petaluma's Housing Hassles," centered around the 1971 Petaluma Plan that sharply restricted new housing, notes that the average three-bedroom now goes for $37,000. It ends with a Realtor wondering "What about the have nots? What do they do?"
May 22, 2025 at 5:47 PM
frombenc.bsky.social
This part:
May 16, 2025 at 7:00 PM
frombenc.bsky.social
Will absolutely never forgive my editor for desk rejecting this gem of a headline:
April 30, 2025 at 9:44 PM
frombenc.bsky.social
Some of the stats unearthed here are just staggering.

Nearly 40% of California drivers who have been charged with vehicular manslaughter since 2019 still have valid licenses.

Absolutely vital reporting here:

calmatters.org/investigatio...
Quote from the story: The court records and driving histories reveal a state so concerned with people having access to motor vehicles for work and life that it allows deadly drivers to share our roads despite the cost. Officials may call driving a privilege, but they treat it as a right — often failing to take drivers’ licenses even after they kill someone on the road. We found nearly 40% of the drivers charged with vehicular manslaughter since 2019 have a valid license. That includes a driver with two separate convictions for vehicular manslaughter, for crashes that killed a 16-year-old girl in 2009 and a 25-year-old woman in 2020. In July of last year, the DMV issued him a driver’s license. The agency gave licenses to nearly 150 people less than a year after they allegedly killed someone on the road, we found. And while the agency has since suspended some of those, often after a conviction, the majority remain valid.
April 14, 2025 at 6:23 PM
frombenc.bsky.social
The Trump Administration 2.0 is cutting off funding to a California dementia researcher because he structured his research project to comply with funding requirements set up by the the Trump Administration 1.0

Story by @mzinshteyn.bsky.social:

calmatters.org/education/hi...
April 10, 2025 at 4:58 PM
frombenc.bsky.social
calmatters.org/economy/2025...
April 8, 2025 at 9:03 PM
frombenc.bsky.social
A new study from RAND found that it costs more than twice as much to build a privately-funded multifamily housing project in California than it does in Texas and 40% more than in Colorado.

calmatters.org/newsletter/n...
April 2, 2025 at 4:24 PM
frombenc.bsky.social
Blessed to be a journalist who is so extremely on top of his shit
March 28, 2025 at 7:05 PM
frombenc.bsky.social
Stellar reporting my colleague, Marisa Kendall, and KPBS' Katie Anastas.

Cities across California have aggressively ramped up enforcement of anti-camping laws against homeless Californians.

The result:

calmatters.org/housing/home...
Experts agree clearing or “sweeping” encampments alone can’t end homelessness. But here’s what we did see over and over as a result of sweeps in those cities: people becoming more likely to lose touch with support services, people losing essential items they need to get into housing (such as birth certificates) or to survive the elements (such as tents) and people still stuck on the streets — sometimes in new locations. In some cases, cities try to pair enforcement with offers of a shelter bed or other services. But shelter is generally in short supply, and the types of programs available often don’t work for everyone on the street.
February 27, 2025 at 7:00 PM
frombenc.bsky.social
The YIMBY Law report spends a lot of time dissecting what has and hasn't worked with SB9.

This morning, @scottwiener.bsky.social announced a new bill, SB 677, that would, among other things, treat SB9 lot splits more like ADUs (i.e. making it much harder for local govs and HOAs to restrict them).
February 24, 2025 at 6:42 PM
frombenc.bsky.social
The above analysis didn't look at either State Density Bonus law or the Housing Accountability Act.

It's hard to show empirically, but both anecdotally and theoretically there's reason to think they have had a more profound effect on production.

One anecdote: www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/m...
From the San Francisco Chronicle: Once again, opponents are demanding the Planning Commission deny a housing project in the Mission: a 10-story building with 181 units, including 30 affordable units. Advocates want the owner to sell the site to the city for affordable housing, but based on the comments of city officials, they’re unlikely to prevail this time. That’s because of two state laws: the density bonus law and the Housing Accountability Act, which set objective standards governing whether a city can reject or modify a housing project. Because the proposal conforms to all city rules, the city can’t reject the project, the Planning Department told the Chronicle.
February 24, 2025 at 6:42 PM