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In evaluating the origin and consequences of gentrification and the housing crisis in Berkeley, we can look to the city’s exclusionary and racist policies.
Photo: Pete Rosos The Berkeley City Council unanimously denounced the racist history of single-family zoning in the city on Tuesday night, beginning a two-year process to change the city’s general plan and introduce more multi-unit housing in every part of the city. Read our live-tweets from the City Council meeting on housing As council members emphasized repeatedly during the late-night meeting — the approved Resolution to End Exclusionary Zoning in Berkeley is just a document of intent, meaning it’s largely symbolic and doesn’t immediately change any city zoning rules. That’s a ...
Berkeley may eliminate single-family zoning in neighborhoods like this one on Hillegass Avenue in The Elmwood. Photo: Frances Dinkelspiel The future of Berkeley could be denser and less segregated, thanks to new proposals to scrap historically racist single-family zoning and legalize the widespread construction of fourplexes. On Feb. 23, the City Council will vote on a resolution that could start a process to eliminate “exclusionary zoning” – typically viewed as the R1 or single-family-only zones that predominate in richer, whiter neighborhoods in North and Southeast Berkeley, by Decemb...