Mike
Jeeze!! Makes our itinerant housing look spacious.
Let's tell Scott Wiener about this!! Well, let's not.
However, I am conflicted about all this downsizing of expectations. I have rejected the idea of oversized living quarters since seeing Expo 67's Habitat exposition at the Montreal World Fair (I believe it was the Montreal Fair). While single, I lived in tiny, beautiful studios, and loved it. Problem is, the tiny house movement that we know of here is San Francisco comes with strings attached to income distribution and other questionable economic ideas (the fine print in the Housing Trust Proposition that just passed gives you a hint).
So, given San Francisco's current strong commitment to the watermelon syndrome (you know, green on the outside...), LPSF maybe could come up with some "Libertarian Solutions" that do not involve social engineering? Ah yes, solutions to what? The way I see it, traffic jams, dwindling water supplies, pollution.
As I said, I am conflicted over this subject; not speaking out for or against tiny houses.
Marcy
Yesterday I drove to Sacramento and plopped an impersonal letter in each legislators' in-box, asking him or her to introduce a constitutional amendment to repeal Prop. 14. I will be trying to stimulate groups that oppose Prop. 14 to stimulate similar requests.
Prop. 14, the top-two open primary, did not fulfill promises its backers made for it. (1) we had the lowest turnout in a presidential primary in June 2012 than we have ever had, and we have been having presidential primaries in California for exactly 100 years. Proponents had said top-two would increase turnout; (2) we had no minor party members on the November ballot for Congress, and only 3 for state office (they were all 3 Peace & Freedom Party members who ran in districts in which only one person had applied to be on the primary ballot, so PFP came in 2nd with primary write-ins. Yet proponents had said top-two would be good for minor parties. California had fewer minor party and independent candidates on the ballot (taken together) in November since 1966. (3) top-two supporters said top-two would elect more moderates who would work together in the legislature, but there are only two legislative races in which top-two caused a "moderate" to
defeat either a liberal or a conservative. One was the 5th assembly district where the more centrist Republican beat a conservative Republican; and one was the 10th assembly district where the more centrist Democrat beat a liberal Democrat.
The bad things about Prop. 14 are the elimination of minor party campaigns in the general election; and the fact that Democratic and Republican politicians in certain districts had to spend millions of dollars opposing members of their own party, such as the Sherman-Berman congressional race in Los Angeles, and the Miller-Dutton congressional race in San Bernardino County.
Even worse, in the 31st US House district, another district in San Bernardino County, a district with an overwhelming Democratic registration margin over Republicans, and a district that went overwhelmingly for President Obama and Dianne Feinstein, there was no Democrat on the November ballot for US House because in the primary 4 Democrats split the Democratic vote, and the top two vote-getters were both Republicans. So a majority of voters in that district were denied the ability to vote for a Democrat who almost certainly would have won.
Richard Winger
415-922-9779
PO Box 470296, San Francisco Ca 94147