After I graduate from Stanford next month, I would love to live in San Francisco, the city where I grew up. But opponents of Mayor Daniel Lurie’s plans for housing are turning the city into a place where only the wealthy, the elderly, and young people in tech can afford to live.
The mayor’s plan to upzone the north and west sides to increase housing density is great news. If anything, it doesn’t go far enough — we need to streamline permitting and remove fees to reduce construction time and cost. More San Franciscans must recognize a solution when it’s staring them in the face: Building more housing is the way to make housing more affordable.
Yes, upzoning will change the appearance of some corridors, but it will also preserve their culture, by helping small businesses and lowering housing prices. I’ve lived in the Richmond since I was 7. I spent my childhood playing in Mountain Lake Park, picking out books from the Milton Marks library and Green Apple, drinking taro boba from Mr. and Mrs. Tea House, and taking the 28R bus to school. We should care less about the appearance of buildings and more about the people inside them.
This is especially important for young people who haven’t had time to build up the savings to afford to live in San Francisco. Few of us can afford an average rent of $3,100 for a one-bedroom unit or $1.2 million for the average home. There’s a reason the majority of Californians don’t become homeowners until age 49, the oldest in the country.
The benefits of increasing housing supply are not just theoretical. Austin, Texas, built more homes per capita than any other U.S. city during the pandemic, and rents have been dropping every month for two years.
It’s time to face facts: Those who oppose new housing are driving the city’s affordability crisis. By slowing development, they create conditions that perpetuate economic inequality, making the city increasingly hostile to young people.
This cultural shift is already happening: In the last 12 years, San Francisco has seen the largest drop in residents in their 20s of any county in the U.S. Once known for activism, artists, and counterculture, San Francisco is now seen as the home of tech. While the industry has brought immense wealth to the city, it has also brought soaring housing costs that can be alleviated only by an increase in supply.
As my friends and I decide where to live after college, we must consider whether the sticker price of housing is worth it. With a median age of 41, San Francisco is becoming a city for the middle-aged; it has less affordable dining, fewer social spaces, and fewer nightclubs and bars that stay open late.
Lurie’s “family zoning plan” promotes upzoning along commercial and transit corridors in the north and west. Upzoning has faced fierce opposition for years from residents, community advocacy groups, and supervisors who fear changes to their neighborhoods. My own Supervisor, Connie Chan, responded to west-side upzoning plans by declaring that “the Richmond is not for sale” and calling for greater “community input” in the housing planning process and the development of affordable housing.
There’s some legitimacy to concerns that zoning changes can lead to displacement — we should not be destroying affordable housing units. But it’s possible to develop new housing without displacing longtime residents.
Without Lurie’s family zoning plan, the buildings and the views may remain the same, but the people will not. They will get older, richer, and more determined to stop future housing construction. San Francisco’s resistance to new housing is driving economic and cultural homogeneity, pushing out my generation and others who love the city. Without a radical change to the housing system, the city will lose what makes it vibrant: its people.
As San Franciscans, we must recognize that we are all on the same side of the battle. It’s up to the people of the west side to embrace development and welcome new neighbors.
Otherwise, despite the fact that my family has been here for generations, I too will bid San Francisco goodbye.
Juliana Lamm-Perez is a senior at Stanford University pursuing a BA in political science and a master’s in public policy. She is proud to be a third-generation San Franciscan.