A message from our friends at United Neighbors
1/26/26
Hi All,
Just a few updates to keep you informed.
As of last Tuesday, our coalition sent out more than 6000 emails to our mayor and city council members (in just three days). We will follow up soon with another round of letters. We want to keep safety top of mind. The more emails our legislators see the more chance we have of making this an issue they must pay attention to. We are drafting a letter to our state legislators asking them to support safety measures for our communities. As more and more housing density is added in areas built with not enough infrastructure, we need to be sure our legislators are not ignoring our safety in order to please pro development, special interest groups.
Developments you might find interesting:
- Sonia Trauss, founder of YIMBY (yes in my backyard- pro development group), is being investigated by the State Bar as possibly practicing law without a license with a branch of YIMBY called YIMBY Law. As you all know, YIMBY not only introduces and sponsors state bills but they lobby for those bills, fund legislator’s reelections, and sue cities that don’t comply with what they want. Scott Wiener is a big supporter of YIMBY. The State Bar stated that when YIMBY Law sends threatening letters to cities to comply with state law, they are concerned that communication is framed as legal warnings, sent under a “Law” banner by a non-attorney, which crosses a professional line that the State Bar regulates. We have always wondered about this group.
- LA Metro sent a letter to the state legislature opposing SB 79 unless amended because without targeted amendments SB 79 will continue to hinder Metro’s ability to deliver voter-approved transit projects. Another words, what we have been saying all along, Metro is concerned that people will not want transit in their neighborhoods if SB 79 changes neighborhoods to multifamily zoning. A transit agency opposed to a transit bill is powerful. SB 79 is state law. How this might impact SB 79 going forward will be interesting.
- Scott Wiener’s follow up bill to SB 79 will be SB 908. We will report back when it is fully released in late February. SB 677 the bill he quickly introduced this session is supposed to be a bill that simply fine tunes definitions of transit stops impacted by SB 79 but actually impacts coastal cities that were exempt before. We have objected to the bill and will ask for your help as we focus on bills in this legislative year.
Thank you all again for all the emails sent. The more we send the more impact we will have. So please continue to send emails when we notify you, that helps us as we continue to engage with our elected officials. Look for our next campaign this week.
Best,
Maria, Cindy, Jeff, Marc
