In San Francisco, A Six-Story Moral Panic

One local NIMBY is desperately trying to pull up the ladder behind him. Here’s why it matters.

Because I’m on several housing nerd group chats, all manner of internet flotsam ends up in my DMs, including this gem of a blog post, written by long-time hater George Wooding. In his post, Wooding, a homeowner on San Francisco’s anti-development west side, has many Very Big Feelings about housing, YIMBYs, and California State Senator Scott Wiener, who is now running to replace Nancy Pelosi in the House of Representatives.

Posts like this are amusing, but they also indicate something more pervasive. They serve as a mask off moment illustrating a sentiment that infects far too much local policymaking. As such, a rhetorical vivisection can be useful for reminding us what truly lurks in the hearts of NIMBYs and what we’re up against in the fight for housing abundance.

Housing Isn’t Scarce. You’re Just A Failure.

After a little preamble, Wooding says the quiet part out loud — he doesn’t think you deserve to live near him:

Today’s home-owning San Franciscans worked hard, saved their money, lived frugal lives, and only then purchased houses commensurate with their income level. We cannot all live in Pacific Heights.

And after he gets done huffing Puritan work ethic like it’s paint thinner, he lays out who his enemies are:

State Senator Scott Wiener, developers, and YIMBY’s (Yes In My Back Yard) — mostly millennials — are on the verge of destroying the character of neighborhoods throughout San Francisco. They aim to make residential units smaller, denser, and affordable and place them throughout neighborhoods.

As soon as home interest rates become reasonable for developers to make a profit, they will begin building four-to-six residential units.

The tradeoff? They will add large tracts of residential housing to existing residential neighborhoods. Much of this new housing will be deemed “affordable housing.” These new homes are called “Wienervilles” in honor of Scott Wiener’s horrible housing legislation. With developer money backing, and an army of low-income millennials, Wiener became former San Francisco Mayor London Breed’s housing Rasputin.

Wooding is being quite clear — he thinks that building denser housing will ruin “neighborhood character,” the people who want housing are unworthy, and change is unfair to the virtuous San Franciscans who did things the “right” way and “earned” not just their housing, but their right to stop other people from having a house of their own.

Obviously, this is all asinine.

The argument is a clumsy attempt to draw attention away from a broken system and cast blame on the people trying to right the ship.

The only thing that tempers my anger is the absurdity of the whole thing. Remember, according to Wooding, the harbingers of neighborhood destruction are 4-6 story buildings. Maybe he imagines they’ll have to stomp their way into the neighborhood like a pack of wild kaiju? (Regardless, I guess we’ll find out with the passage of Mayor Lurie’s Family Zoning Plan!)

If Wooding had been in the first Ghostbusters movie, he would have manifested a six-story walk up to destroy New York (sorry kids, this one’s for the old folk)

Wooding goes on to frame things as generational warfare. According to him, “entitled” millennials could stand to learn a thing or two from … Gen X?

What’s so different between millennials and Gen-Xs? For starters, Gen-Xs—born between 1965 and 1980 — came in on the cusp of cell phones, the Internet, and social media, while most millennials — born between 1981 and 1997 — grew up when these things were a regular part of daily life. Millennials are often called “the generation of entitlement.” They are the richest generation ever to be born in the United States. Many have been spoiled and pampered by their parents. They are the generation of participation trophies and instant gratification.

To be fair, it’s actually unclear what he likes about Gen-X (other than he doesn’t think they’re YIMBYs?) After all, this is the generation that was universally lambasted as directionless slackers.¹ But maybe Wooding is right and the original sin of the millennial generation was our decision to not be adults during the Clinton years.

From Wooding’s post: apparently this is how the he imagines a housing abundant future…it’s giving Kowloon Walled City

Hilariously, Wooding goes on to amend the SF YIMBY mission statement to reveal what he thinks is the true, inner essence of the YIMBY (Wooding’s subtle addition highlighted for clarity):

We (mostly entitled millennials) are a group of volunteer housing advocates in San Francisco fighting to end the housing shortage in our community. We are frustrated by tenant displacement, segregation, high rents and home prices, and long commutes that result from a lack of housing close to jobs, schools, and other community resources. We believe we can fix these problems and create a community with abundant, affordable homes for everyone.

What’s The Big Idea?

So, does some random blog post by some random member of California’s petite landed gentry actually matter? No. But the ideas it represents do.

If you’ve ever been to a council or planning commission meeting, you’ve probably heard a version of “Wasting Away Again in Weinerville” performed live.² And that’s not just in San Francisco or the Bay Area, either. In Seattle’s recent election, soon-to-be former Mayor Bruce Harrell (a boomer deca-millionaire property owner) attacked Mayor-elect Katie Wilson (a millennial mother of one who gets by in part thanks to financial help from her parents) for … not knowing the meaning of hard work.

Whether it’s coming from homeowners or politicians, this all boils down to the belief that there’s virtue in unnecessary hardship and the status quo is not only fine, but morally right.

1. Which is more an indictment of the get-off-my lawn style criticizing that older generations like to aim at whoever’s presently considered youths than it is of gen-x itself.

2. And if you haven’t, find your local YIMBY Action Chapter today — they’ll take you to see the show and dark comedy is always better with friends.