San Francisco Mayor Slaps Down Clever Plot To Make Housing Crisis Worse

In a sign of California housing politics' increasingly pro-supply tilt, state housing officials are openly praising San Francisco Mayor London Breed for vetoing a local ordinance that would have made development much more difficult.

The vetoed ordinance, passed in a contentious 6–4 vote by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors earlier this month, was sold as abolishing single-family-only zoning districts in the city, permitting four-unit homes (fourplexes) to be built on properties where only one dwelling was previously allowed. On the surface, this may sound sensible and deregulatory. But the...