LETTER TO THE GOVERNOR & Change.Org Petition
September 29, 2020
On September 9, the Nix-the-Nine Campaign submitted a letter to Governor Newsom urging him to veto the two remaining bills of the campaign—AB725 and AB2345. The letter offered six principles to guide a fresh start in 2021. The letter concluded:
Governor Newsom, you can count on us to work with you on a flexible plan that spells out a vision for housing policy based on reliable data, social equity, and transparent processes that fully engage a broad range of women and men on the front lines of good government.
The letter included 10 groups that co-signed the letter and 469 individual Californians who co-signed via our Change.org petition. As of September 29, the day after the Governor signed the two bills, the Change.org petition had 908 signatures. Of that total,556 were from California and 353 from outside California.
Co-signers often added comments, like the San Carlos woman who wrote, expressing the sentiment of many,
“It’s unconscionable these bills are being literally shoved through Congress at this moment during a pandemic, enormous natural disasters, a divisive election and cultural upheaval. Most residents whose lives and homes will be impacted do not have the bandwidth to fight for or even understand what this change will mean to their hard-earned home, Property will be developed to line the pockets of flippers with no consideration of how it will impact the neighborhood Please, let’s find another more measured, reasonable way to accommodate growth, and definitely pause to see if, after changes from the pandemic, there’s even need to take such drastic measures. Keep zoning local.”
Ten groups co-signed the letter including Bay Area Transportation Group, Better Cupertino, East Mission Improvement Association (San Francisco), EMF Safety Network, Freeman Park Neighborhood Association (Marin), Greater East San Carlos Neighborhood Group, Los Altos Residents, Marin Against Density, Palo Altans for Sensible Zoning, Silicon Valley Association of Republican Women, and West Bay Citizens Group (Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties).
On September 10, the Nix-the-Nine Campaign sent a Media Announcement to approximately 25 media outlets, including links to the letter to the Governor and the petition, the Embarcadero Institute’s report “2020 Housing Bills: Legislation in an Age of Uncertainty,” and contact information for two Assembly members who spoke in opposition to SB1120 in the final minutes of the 2020 legislative session.
Thank you to Maurice Green, who stepped in to manage the Change.Org petition, and to Greg Schmid, who recruited active citizen groups in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties to co-sign the letter letter to the Governor.
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