View this Email in Your Browser

Neighborhoods United SF

Advocating for Community-Centered Housing Solutions

Radius from Transit Stops - All of San Francisco Impacted by SB79!

RALLY AT CITY HALL

Californians Rally Statewide to Oppose SB 79 (Wiener)

On Saturday, August 23, residents across California will rally to protest Senate Bill 79 (Wiener), a sweeping statewide housing bill that dramatically expands developer rights while ignoring safety, affordability, and local realities.

Join Us for San Francisco Rally

This Saturday, August 23 at 11 a.m.

Steps of City Hall

Speakers:

Aaron Peskin - former President Board of Supervisors

Lori Brooke - Neighborhoods United SF

Stephen Torres - Neighborhood Activist

Christin Evans - Small Business Forward

Peter Stevens - Affordable Housing Developer

Among others

In San Francisco, opponents warn SB 79 could open the door to 7- to 15- story towers across 95% of the city, permanently reshaping neighborhoods with no guarantees of affordability, safety, or infrastructure.

SB 79 ignores San Francisco’s earthquake vulnerability, narrow streets, and aging infrastructure. Without necessary upgrades, density increases pose serious safety hazards.

SB 79 allows developers to build large-scale, high-density projects based solely on proximity to transit stops—even proposed, not-yet-built ones. It has already passed the State Senate and now faces a vote in the Assembly.

San Francisco is Not Exempt

To secure votes, Senator Wiener is dangling a so-called “conditional exemption” for cities with housing elements as extreme as SB 79. For San Francisco, this is not relief — it is a trap.

The north and west sides already face Mayor Lurie’s aggressive upzoning maps, which satisfy Wiener for now. Meanwhile, residents of the Mission, Bernal Heights, Potrero, and other eastern neighborhoods were promised relief from further upzoning after years of major changes. Historic neighborhoods like Chinatown and North Beach are in the path of 79 too.

SB 79 breaks that promise subjecting these communities to further upzoning that drive demolitions, displacement, the loss of small businesses, and make neighborhoods even less affordable.

Residents call this a betrayal of public trust — broken promises that divide the city while handing Senator Wiener, and his YIMBY lobbyist, exactly what they want.

LA Stands Up to SB79,

Why Did SF Cave?

This week, Los Angeles City Council passed and Mayor Bass signed a resolution firmly opposing SB 79 — Senator Scott Wiener’s blanket upzoning bill that would force 7- 15 story towers across nearly every neighborhood within a half-mile of transit -- that is 95% of San Francisco.

LA’s leaders stood with their residents, recognizing the bill as an unprecedented overreach that would fuel speculation, displace working families, and accelerate gentrification.

San Francisco’s elected officials, by contrast, capitulated. Despite the same risks to neighborhoods, small businesses, and affordability, Mayor Lurie and a majority of the Board of Supervisors (Sherrill:D2, Sauter:D3, Engardio:D4, Mahmood:D5, Dorsey:D6, Melgar:D7, Mandelman:D8) refused to oppose the bill.

Instead of defending their own communities, they chose to align with the YIMBY lobby, big tech, and real estate interests pushing Sacramento’s one-size-fits-all mandates. Thank you to those Supervisors that know a bad thing when they see it (Chan:D1, Fielder:D9, Walton:D10, Chen:D11).

“If Los Angeles — a city with its own housing challenges — had the courage to say no, why did San Francisco’s leaders cave?” asked Lori Brooke, co-founder of Neighborhoods United SF. “Our officials should be standing up for residents, not handing our neighborhoods over to developers with no guarantees of affordability.”

SB 79 is part of a broader pattern: Sacramento lawmakers passing developer-driven mandates, while San Francisco’s elected officials rush to comply, even when it means permanent damage to the city’s livability, diversity, and affordability.

What you see now is only the beginning. Senator Wiener has a record of narrowing bills just to get them passed, then returning in later sessions to expand them.

Neighborhoods United SF and allied organizations are calling on San Francisco leaders to explain their silence and reverse course. Residents deserve to know:

• Why is San Francisco doing less than Los Angeles to protect its communities?
• Who benefits from these laws — longtime residents, or speculators and investors?
• And when will City Hall finally put affordability, small businesses, and neighborhood stability first?

San Francisco deserves the same courage that Los Angeles showed.

Actions You Can Take

Share this email with your neighbors and friends across San Francisco!

ABOUT NEIGHBORHOODS UNITED SF

Neighborhoods United SF (NUSF) has rapidly mobilized over 60 neighborhoods across San Francisco to resist extreme state-mandated, locally-implemented height and density increases.

NUSF champions community-led planning to protect vulnerable residents and small businesses from gentrification while ensuring the livability of San Francisco's neighborhoods.