Laura Foote
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yimbylaura.bsky.social
Laura Foote
@yimbylaura.bsky.social
170 followers 64 following 31 posts
Executive Director of YIMBY Action. Board Member Up For Growth and Youth Art Exchange.
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Laura Foote
brooklynspoke.bsky.social
Especially great to talk with @yimbylaura.bsky.social, Berkeley Councilmember Rashi Kesarwani, KQED's Adhiti Bandlamudi, and CA State Senator @scottwiener.bsky.social about politics and media in the fight to make cities more affordable, sustainable, safe, and just.
From left to right, Sarah Goodyear, Laura Foot, Rashi Kesarwani, Adhiti Bandlamudi, Scott Weiner and Doug Gordon standing in front of big bright screen on stage.
October 26, 2025 at 5:59 AM
yimbylaura.bsky.social
As a disabled parent, I am simply begging NIMBYs to stop trying to "help" me by making it more expensive to live in transit oriented neighborhoods by blocking housing.
scottwiener.bsky.social Senator Scott Wiener @scottwiener.bsky.social · Jun 1
NIMBYs love striving toward ever more absurd arguments against housing.

In this email against our bill to allow more homes near transit, they argue it’s “unconstitutional” & “discriminates against those who cannot rely on transit,” including “families with young children & disabled people.” 🙄
🧵
June 1, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Reposted by Laura Foote
abundanthousingil.bsky.social
🎉 LOBBY DAY WRAPPED 🎉

✅ 22 advocates
🏛️ 38 legislator meetings
💬 47 offices contacted
🏙️ 28 Chicagoland lawmakers
💼 12 legislative leaders:
🔹 10 House Leaders
🔹 2 Senate Leaders
🌆 1 Cook County President
🏛️ 1 Governor
📄 Legislative wins:
➕ 3 new co-sponsors for HB 1813
➕ 3 new co-sponsors for HB 1814
Lobby Day Wrapped image
May 16, 2025 at 1:16 AM
yimbylaura.bsky.social
I wrote a blog post a few weeks ago about how the "community benefits" negotiation game with housing developers sure does rhyme with the Trump Tariff Negotiation Process, and an amazing person who wanted to remain anonymous sent me this GEM of a draft document from SF's Planning Department...
May 6, 2025 at 10:50 PM
Reposted by Laura Foote
abundanthousingil.bsky.social
🔥
steelwolfwc.bsky.social Ben Wolfenstein @steelwolfwc.bsky.social · May 1
Thank you to @govpritzker.illinois.gov for talking to us yesterday during @abundanthousingil.bsky.social Lobby Day about Illinois housing shortage and Legalizing Housing!
May 1, 2025 at 9:10 PM
Reposted by Laura Foote
howtoadu.bsky.social
Why is That YIMBY Party 1970s themed?

Because the median home price in California back then was $41,000 and a bag of magic beans.

onecau.se/_9crf91
May 1, 2025 at 11:09 PM
yimbylaura.bsky.social
"If a politician won’t say their position in public, they won’t vote for it in public either."
inpractice.yimbyaction.org/p/politician...
Politicians Rarely Lie
Yes, I’m serious.
inpractice.yimbyaction.org
May 2, 2025 at 3:16 AM
Reposted by Laura Foote
resnikoff.bsky.social
Big props to Senate Pro Tem Mike McGuire for selecting her as chair of the housing committee, breaking the streak of housing champions in that seat. Masterful gambit, sir.
raders.bsky.social Ben Raderstorf @raders.bsky.social · Apr 22
Regardless of what happens to all the housing bills, interesting that Sen. Aisha Wahab is leaning into the role of chief left-NIMBY, anti-housing-reform antagonist. Staunch opposition to anything touching market rate and her big push is more parking in multi-family rentals. Pretty wild stuff.
April 22, 2025 at 9:39 PM
Reposted by Laura Foote
dcyimbys.bsky.social
Great article by @yimbylaura.bsky.social on how discretionary approval slows down and increases the cost of housing as developers buy out wealthy, well-connected residents at great expense.

Permitting should be predictable, uniform, and boring!

inpractice.yimbyaction.org/p/what-trump...
Most cities treat zoning as the beginning of a negotiation. Zoning is so restrictive, so obviously impossible to use as written, that planners and city councils have a process where developers beg for changes. After months of negotiations, “benevolent” planning commissions and city councils will offer zoning concessions to those who have successfully fought for their favor. Smart, well-connected developers become experts at navigating these formal systems with informal practices. They know which community groups need to be met with. They know which city council members will need to be shown how the project benefits their district. They learn to bundle sweet Community Benefit Packages with beautiful presentations about their community-serving amenities. These elaborate negotiation games create delays, increase costs, decrease units and height, and, in the end, can lead to abandoned projects. And it creates a much smaller industry of savvy developers and consultants whose competitive advantage is their deep knowledge of who’s back needs scratching. Sure, we might let you build a new apartment building, but have you considered donating to the local parks fund? How about some money for the buses? What about building a little extra space for a politically-favored nonprofit to have an office — and what about not charging them very much rent? But instead of having clear set rules about what we require of developers, these lengthy processes ends up giving leverage to whoever can jam things up the most. And we know that this process ends up benefitting whiter and wealthier citizens. The uncertain and inconsistent decision-making process allows for the “extraction of benefits,” which is why so many city planners and residents love it. After all, who doesn’t like putting the squeeze on your perceived enemies? But the cost of this extraction process is high. Bespoke negotiations drives up the cost of housing and slow down production. As a 2016 report by the American Planning Association put it, “discretionary approvals are time-consuming and costly, and discretionary review processes often culminate in uncertain, inconsistent, and unpredictable decisions.” One study found that by-right projects were permitted 28% faster than discretionary projects. Another argued that “a key driver of higher housing costs in the state is the development costs associated with lengthy entitlement processes. California’s entitlement process is unusually complicated and cumbersome: the permitting process for new development in coastal communities in California takes a third longer than in the average American city.” How do we get real estate developers to stop attempting to work the system? Make it predictable, uniform, and boring! If we want developers out of politics, we need to take the politics out of development. We ought to zone for the housing we need. The rules should be clear and built to achieve the goal of an accessible, affordable community. Once that zoning is in place, cities have to allow housing to get built without separate, bespoke negotiations. That's no way to run a city.
April 13, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Reposted by Laura Foote
sfyimby.bsky.social
Join us for our inaugural event in this exclusive series on April 16th in San Francisco, featuring Toni Atkins in conversation with YIMBY Action Executive Director @yimbylaura.bsky.social

www.eventbrite.com/e/finding-a-...
Finding A Pro-Housing Governor: Candidate Speaker Series w/ Toni Atkins
Join YIMBY Action for a casual conversation about the housing priorities of Toni Atkins as she runs for Governor in 2026
www.eventbrite.com
April 4, 2025 at 3:36 PM
yimbylaura.bsky.social
Like everyone, I'm reading Abundance and having my takes:

"Little by little, we stitched together a gigantic wet blanket that continues to hold back housing production. It’s easy to blame liberals, but like all of our worst problems, it was bipartisan."

inpractice.yimbyaction.org/p/abundance-...
Abundance Isn’t Going To Happen Unless Politicians Are Scared of the Status Quo
It’s A Race Between Building Up and Burning Down
inpractice.yimbyaction.org
March 27, 2025 at 8:03 PM
yimbylaura.bsky.social
I'm getting on the substack bandwagon!

One of the best/worst examples of how a law *designed* to be a nightmare to implement is the CA Housing Element system.

Hopefully this convinces states considering adopting a "fair share" law that there be dragons!
inpractice.yimbyaction.org/p/the-way-ca...
The Way California Requires Local Governments To Plan For New Housing Is Complete Nonsense. This Underwater House In Sausalito Shows Why.
Passing good laws is one thing. Implementing them is another.
inpractice.yimbyaction.org
March 11, 2025 at 4:26 PM
yimbylaura.bsky.social
@sfacc.bsky.social what's the latest with the bleeding husky dog loose in the Castro? Did you manage to catch him?
March 9, 2025 at 9:08 PM
yimbylaura.bsky.social
My landlord (illegally) replaced our windows with new ones that are so so so much safer. They even have built-in child safety locks!

"Preservationists" is a generous term for people who want to control everyone around them at any expense.
thefrisc.bsky.social The Frisc @thefrisc.bsky.social · Feb 27
@myrnamelgard7.bsky.social listens during today's @sfplanning.bsky.social commission hearing to preservationist objections to her bill that aim to loosen SF's strict and expensive window-replacement rules. Melgar: "We do not live in a museum."
February 27, 2025 at 9:58 PM
yimbylaura.bsky.social
Happy Hanukkah!
December 26, 2024 at 1:20 AM
yimbylaura.bsky.social
We're having a very Merry Muni Christmas, taking the bus to the grandparents!

Reminder: public transportation is way better for families than free parking!
December 25, 2024 at 5:29 PM
yimbylaura.bsky.social
It is at this special time of year when we remember to tell the stranger to get out and stay out.
December 24, 2024 at 8:58 PM
Reposted by Laura Foote
yimbydenver.bsky.social
New study from Colorado shows that Denver right-sizing our parking could be a boon to solving our housing shortage. www.sightline.org/2024/12/10/p...
December 11, 2024 at 4:09 AM
yimbylaura.bsky.social
About to speak at the Council for State Governments on the housing shortage, and dropping our latest report:

"Pro-housing State Lawmakers Have a 95% Re-Election Rate"

It will be available online Monday!
December 6, 2024 at 4:19 PM
yimbylaura.bsky.social
Who should I follow here in YIMBY and urbanism?
December 5, 2024 at 6:37 PM
yimbylaura.bsky.social
It's that magical time of year when Americans remind themselves that they actually do love missing middle housing.

Obviously, people are willing to pay a premium for dense, vibrant, walkable, decorative communities!
December 5, 2024 at 6:16 PM