[applause] thank you for coming its great to be back one of the greatest independent bookstores in the entire country. [applause] i was just browsing the children section i spent many time day and night looking at my daughters books. That there was an excellent gift item. It is a wonderful book it isnt just housing but i think it is not and exaggeration to call this a manuscript of california history. So you will be getting a lot of policy in here and then with the housing crisis and then it begins and then it ends up the author of sb 50 and may be coming back. Take us back to the great migration and the movement west and with the singlefamily home. And with the barbecue a backyard. And the california living. And some of the early history of how california grew and the role housing has played. It is a journalism book with history in it. So what it is like to be a rich society in america. And then the house with an orange tree in our backyard. People really thought of it as an instruction manual. It was truly seen of a warm california life. What we think about america postwar history. And then to forecast what he has become with 700,000 another made 150 and another 40 grand. With an orange tree in the backyard. Look at how well everyone is doing. They came and they came in that fake 400mile river as you know there is the giant aqueduct. But you are youre welcome for that. [laughter] so they built and they built and becoming so tolerant. Obviously reagan and nixon are at this time so she really set the course. And that california is showing us that we have some problems. And there are some universal truths and observations in here that it would be appreciated not just in Northern California but also Southern California and other states and cities are experiencing this. So what happened in paradise and then to say california in the mid seventies. So to write an article as a haven for the wealthy and childless. Our economy changed and then it became much much more unusual the Technology Service sector type of jobs so typically waiting people to have more money and then the big important of housing. We got to our place to solve and solve. No its not going so well at all. When the population was 10 million today the population of l. A. County was 10 million. The state is close at 40 million. I am pretty old so maybe thats not shocking to anybody. [laughter] but we have not billed enough new housing to accommodate 30 million people. There are some reasons for that. If they have this robust economy so why do we have a housing shortage . So all these things are through the characters the father and son and the icons of the state like Governor Brown that are at the center of the backlash so pat brown is this guy that theres not enough water to go around. And then adding dozens of people moving to california people were having these moments in all these great things. And then my mayor is a dark character talking about the next colorimeter one calamity like a nuclear holocaust. And then to sustain for more people and to go so off the rails with the entire San Francisco bay. And then with the golden gate park. And then im happy but it is so easy with the neighborhood of singlefamily homes and it is this environmentalism that became peoples way to stop everything and sure enough there are still a lot of jobs being created that it just kept going from the seventies through the eighties and nineties and finally i think we have all recognize the last two years it has reached a point obviously we have global traffic people who drive at least three hours to and from work and then bankruptcy happens gradually then all at once. Recently i was writing about new teachers the starting salary will be 53000 and i think the average rental is a 3500 it is referred to as a heat map where every employee lives of course there is the concentration in the San Gabriel Valley and to San Bernardino and almost san diego. So im worried about housing people tell me why . If they cant afford to live here then moved to nevada or india. I have answers but i dont want to hear my answers. Why should everybody if you cannot afford to live here then why should you why do we have to build housing for you . [laughter] for starters a lot of people are born here and have families her here. We are creating a ton of jobs. The streaming revolution is a part of im sure a lot of them will stay but we have created tons of jobs not all that many people work in the industry there are other jobs workers and accountants and all these people to make a whole robust economy. But what bothers me about this is big complicated cities like los angeles and San Francisco and denver i hesitate to call them secondary cities, that is where prosperity happens no program is better than to lift than a big city with a lot going on. When we start locking people out of those cities because of house prices, i think that is super unfair especially if you think about a look at detroit and Silicon Valley putting all these people into middleclass jobs and that is what we should work on but it seems profoundly unfair the places where americans can better themselves the most and find new jobs getting into industries that are exciting was stability they cant get near them unless they have a high paying job or family money. Obviously interrelated you get into gentrification in the book at a way for people to say nobody ever did but in the coastal cities of california to drive poverty you do that much more eloquently in your book. Talk to me about that how sincere is no shortage of highly skilled well educated people to pay whatever is asked for an apartment or house what is the impact on the mechanic and the teacher . There is a whole long narrative one girl comes home one day with a package taped to the door thank you for your continued residence from his two bedroom apartment but your rent is going up 800 in ten days if you cannot pay it then you will be evicted. So she goes and organizes all these people in her apartment complex another one is the same landlord and eventually they got a meager buyout deal pike stop making noise and i will give you money to leave. So then i went back to say who moved in after with a very similarly situated family but they just packed eight people into the same space. So what is happening the people are coming to this region to get close to those who make a lot of money and Service Professionals to get close to entertainment and other industries so the fact that they can go a better themselves they dont know theyre in this really but they are fighting over this very small number of Affordable Apartments. Then there is another apartment complex in a similar area that was bought by an investor who tried to make it a midlevel type of housing. So that people are being pressed down and on top of each other because there is not enough affordable places. And not enough lowpaying jobs. And its like five times the current minimum wage. And the economy and with more assistance to do those necessary jobs i spent several weeks at an Elementary School in the Central Valley or the San Fernando Valley an Elementary School were almost one quarter of the students are homeless. But waking up in motels or garages or two or three families in the two bedroom apartment. I want to get your thoughts so as an area surrounded by shutdown Lockheed Martin and gm and all of those manufacturing and Aerospace Jobs that were the backbone of the california economy. And 25 percent of the students and talk about the relationship between the ways in which californias economy has grown. So leading the nation nothing that is happening here that is super unique with knowledge jobs that have some talent or acting or radio and then multiply that talent and they become quite wealthy but the American People working sidebyside if somebody works at target the ability really isnt as much so the economy is bifurcated into these knowledge jobs or service jobs. Where people could use machines and manufacturing plants the people love very little education to have decent middleclass jobs you kurds grew up in life and the loss of that job was a higher problem. So the erosion of that class i am a big fan of people always going from the manufacturing plants. There are these two completely different versions of reality but the folks in power would have you believe things have never been better and its really booming so the army of candidates for the democratic nomination. Are you surprised to see so many headlines about the economy booming . I could see the headlines and say i used to take them on tour to the places i regularly visit. And for the new york times. I would never do such a thing. So if you look at any piece of data the unemployment, record low and traditional is very good the highest poverty rate in the nation adjusted for costofliving so it is a bifurcated economy so we dont have to jump up into those knowledge jobs. So this girl who suffered this displacement missed him at the school on top of that i cant imagine her studies were going swimmingly during the month she was organizing so just imagine the cost to the future economy of missed on number one missed hours. You will love the characters in this book so tell us the sonja story so the center of the book is a lovely story of people having this awakening and local government and to say that they are all different in the way that you can imagine so people have these long speeches but its people who feel like they have a voice and then discovering that we will figure this out ourselves. But she starts going to the board of supervisors meetings and says i am here i represent renters. And meeting after meeting yelling at people and not in my backyard. And what is remarkable but this is not nothing but the and Silicon Valley and then suburb she goes and copy and paste files a lawsuit on behalf of herself and then they pay to go away but then and all of these groups all over the country portland, austin. And they are out in force all around the country all the democratic president ial candidates have introduce some sort of zoning reform that has never happened. So this person who is totally off the rocker finds that she can make a difference in people around the country doing the exact same thing and would be surprised to find out if they show up and with a determined band of people and every community has them so i will shift from where we are to where we go from here and also we need to squeeze you win and give you a chance to ask some questions. He said he didnt write the book to offer solutions. Do you want to hear my extremely unpopular . If you promise not to get up and leave. [laughter] i will make it quick. Its not about me but part of the problem is singlefamily exclusionary zoning upanddown california so many places you cant do density with any neighborhoods because people are out in force and that is understandable. But here is the way i look at it. We are searching for a way to fund more housing because the market will not take care of all of it so where do you get the money . Some very smart people have persuaded me there is a lot of money in equity. What do they mean by that everybody in this room you probably have benefited from so much policy the value of your home has been driven up by policies you have supported that have made it difficult to build any density and then you get prop 13 benefits there is a reason from prop 13 maybe it went too far but there was a reason for it. But the value of your home and your equity has exploded because of it. You can write off your Mortgage Finance charge with the benefit of all the freeways to get you whatever you need to go. [laughter] so shouldnt you when its time to sell your house in addition to Capital Gains tax be hit with a small but significant equity tax . It is significant to the Affordable Housing fund so now youve got the money but the second problem is where do you build it. So scott is in your book quite a bit so talk about what we tried and will be will be trying in some of the solutions. First of all did anybody like my idea . Do you like that . I see people saying no. [laughter] but this is happening everywhere a housing problem in a lot of places minneapolis the first major city in america is to eliminate singlefamily housing for the skyscraper next to a bungalow but you can have a triplex now you can do that effectively so we see this movement around the country one of the more radical proposals and california you can build a fourstory Apartment Building and basically in the school district. People flipped out and what was interesting of the contours of the flip out was that guy from a beautiful neighborhood anyone would want to live there it was predominantly black so they come together to oppose this and this was true those worried about newer homes coming in and raising rent and then people are worrying about this other character. So i guess what that taught me was a Broad Coalition of people and they are together so to address that through that political process is the hump that we have to get over so i think it is more firm and more educational to see these people bashing their heads against the wall. We are going after solutions and showing up to meetings to talk about the new housing was in this 15 yearold girl and sister christina who is a multimillionaire apartment investor who goes up against the private equity fund she wants to buy it to make it affordable but she is a Serious Business person now and then there is this suburban guy he tries to push the community to build middle solution of course that is squashed so all these people are trying to solve this problem in the way they think they know how and watching them try to solve it to see how hard it is first of all thats much more realistic and on top of that you see the perspective and why it is so genuine and certain solutions dont help them. So to do that and to scene that brings you in a way. But are you encouraged . It seems to be more of a focus and then to devote so much of the state. Are you encouraged by that . To lay out a specific plan or how to finance it. Whats happening all across the country like i said before they are all talking about but y advanced plans talking about the facilities and has never happened before. So they are taking pretty radical steps so as change more than a as the last 100 years so now across the country its like people building cottages in their backyard that is happening everywhere. So people are taking steps and we will learn from those steps a lot of them are stupid steps but that is okay its all these people actually trying to solve it and if anything this book is about the importance and the impact you can have if you just show up and even to the people that show up. Now i think he is employed. So we have reached the point we know you are all here to buy books so you have 20 minutes to ask. Please absolve me to say who gets to ask. So let me suggest first that we are interested in your comments we dont have time for policy or speeches so try to keep it as brief as you can we will let connor give it a shot. Thank you so much this is such an important issue i look at endoflife for people that are dying ive been doing it for over 30 years. So this influence do you address anything . Like the high cost of bankruptcy your medical care about the social issues that there are more Homeless People dying and we try to help them . And then not be better so i see such a deep level do you address that at all . I dont address endoflife care specifically. But i think that there are goals but the impact on her family i spent four days at the homeless encampment and i think there is plenty of bitter in the book but there are all sorts of things that you are talking about whether teachers or cops who sleep in their cars. All sorts of professions and services that we need cities have a hard time hiring people. There is a lot of Different Things that we need in the economy and society and those people basically cant do those jobs. California has the strictest rent control with emergency legislation but it failed the ballot so something that landed Real Estate Investors know that could have happened it is something voters have been so resistant to so what would happen will that succeed . So what you are talking about is a less strict than what the voters rejected . That is not the same. Rather than having a debate about rent control we have to recognize that what i was saying about giving people their perspective, if you are stephanie and her family you are the concerned citizens as a participant in this democracy and to go look for that policy lever to help you not be homeless. And we are seeing a huge change around the country not just california. And we have to come up with more ways to keep tenants and their home and if people are not a fan of rent control the they should be think about Affordable Housing because that policy fight is not going away as long as stories like the one in this book are happening. A big part of the response right now to homelessness is the realization even if you could house the 50000 people that are currently homeless their 15000 more that are coming so like rental assistance and homelessness. There was an article Diane Feinstein said it is promising they could end it by christmas. [laughter] any time you hear anyone announce. They didnt realize something was breaking the whole way of life. It is still breaking. Have you thought further in terms of the economic ramifications that reduce mobility that is upcoming with the housing crisis like this with the broader systemic effects of that. But yes the normal thing to do that everybody goes to california where there are jobs but if you cannot afford to do that then there is no builtin that is a huge problem. But 2 trillion per year of Economic Activity is lost when we need better opportunities and there is no better unemployment than a place that has a ton of jobs so it is a huge problem not saying everybody has to move around all the time that people show up you can get a chicago dog in l. A. I know people still complain. [laughter] but i think it is a huge problem because people dont know what opportunities they are missing out on and they dont know you hear the story all the time i moved to this place in my life just improved so much. And that is not happening is a huge problem and this is one economist are starting to work on it is keeping people from reaching their potential. So i like your idea. We need more housing that has a chance to be affordable so theres a neighborhood in every city i guess in l. A. In the Warehouse District with all the industrial stuff that is happening so to be holding really really tall condos but i think that those giant glass elevator equipped buildings have no prayer to be affordable because two or three story brick things that has a chance to be affordable and then you can go get into it. I worked in Homeless Services for a number of years im currently a candidate for city council and pasadena i have been in tenant all my life. Im 48 years old i have zero equity in property as a result so what do you think about the idea that the elephant in the room is the commodification of the central feature of human life . If we look at prescription drugs that modification is inhuman because people cannot afford what they need or medical care more broadly. So what i am noticing what is tied up in their property becomes enemies of the people that dont have that. Because for me for my housing your Property Value has to go down and you will never vote for that. So to me it seems capitalism is the enemy of any future to that. They did not plan on that scenario happening and then we shut down the conversation this is where i try not to use that word i dont think that changing anytime soon with a great range of income of property i dont know it seems unfair to change that and then that becomes rent control then thats their way to solidify their place. Im not suggesting we take it away from them but they have their rent control and tax write off i paid my landlords mortgage and any increases of taxes that they get i pay my property taxes through my landlord so how do we achieve some kind of equity . Not radical communism to confiscate property but creating an equitable system more Affordable Housing can be bill outside of Market Forces much housing do we have to bill before prices can go down . It will not happen overnight but it does i dont thank you can just shut out the market most of the major changes that of led to widespread benefits with a large private sector component i dont think that will change anytime soon we will have to build Affordable Housing there are plenty of countries where works fine but we will have to intensify where people live. And then say we built this space with a lot of jobs. We saw this employment go up we knew what we were getting into her should have. I think it is fundamentally dishonest for people who are anti a growth or anti housing. My point is will have to spend a lot of money but it is not appreciably different lock together through policy and some people say its so stupid and i appreciate that view and americas fun was some radicalism and what seems vaguely realistic and over time gently. Did you see any more successful for Affordable Housing . But the tax benefit based on individual homes but those that are incentivizing landlords because the rent control model tends to make them adversaries. And have you had a free market approach and that write off for these types of residences that needs to be off for five times that need the Affordable Apartment to get a voucher hang without going deep into alphabet soup the low Income Housing tax credit and to get this tax coupon that we still have to build it. So at some point you figure out where you have to put it. So in that legislation that around the country you can build apartments in your backyard and the regulatory lowering of that means its much easier to build some people will make it a space for them but some people will rent it out. So with that incentive we have to make it much easier for you to build a place but all those things are slowly happening in from that tax credit to find ways to be flexible in an interesting way that seems like its working. David brooks wrote an article that you saw that on the questioning of the Nuclear Family so is some of that and play with our denied with our dynamics with our small Nuclear Family and we might be going back to a victorian model. Without going too deep into the headline read by my lovely colleagues on the opinion side of the house more people live with those populations that are still declining and those that were more growing because there was more singles. People are getting married much later. So the amount of people that need a place for their household is larger now than it used to be. So that means micro units i know. We have reached the point you need to begin lining up to buy the book. With the cost of building housing with over 500,000 per unit so the question is about technology can it save us we read about three d imprinted houses and at one third of the cost. This is a huge problem we spent millions of dollars on Affordable Housing is still not nowhere near what we needed the cost is quite high so they will pass us 600 milliondollar Affordable Housing bill. What about the equity tax . I dont want to Say Technology will save us, but there are a lot of exciting things happening like with construction there is a chapter in this book and it is kind of crazy after 22 steps is like the apartment in the box and put on a truck it takes a couple more months and that is something i am optimistic about. I dont want to say these companies it is awesome the private market is tinkering in that direction people say its their problem not ours instead of another social media at. That Great Potential to solve a problem they used to be like waitresses on the Assembly Line so the way we build housing and then thats about it. So showing up i dont want to be some ideology so it is the real enemy here that they are using it to try to improve this horrible problem. [applause] thank you for coming. He will now be signing copies of his book go ahead and line up and you to grab copies on the table. Thank you. [inaudible conversations]