Let's Get Something Straight ...
by Jonathan Webb
We need real estate developers. Not in the way we need someone to pick up the garbage or fix the sink. We need developers to have a dynamic, vibrant, functional society. We need to have places to live, to go out to eat, to work, to go to the movies, a concert, a play. We need someplace to stay when we go out of town. We need ways to get to work, out to dinner and to the movies. Forget immigration for a moment if you can. Our population grows at something like 2% per year and our average household size has been diminishing for the last 30 years. Therefore we're going to need more places to live, to work, to eat, to be entertained. Therefore we need developers ... and contractors, lenders, architects, marketing people, even property managers and landlords. Yes, but what kind of development? How much? Where?
This site had its genesis over a year ago with the idea a group of us had (after winning a quasi-legislative battle in Sacramento and several cocktails) that we should get together to form a housing advocacy group focusing on the regional issues peculiar to us in Southern California. We had a meeting. Big conference room. "A" office space in Irvine. Some of the most active participants in development, lending and equity syndication of affordable housing in California attended. We had a very lively exchange of ideas. We had sandwiches. Ultimately no consensus emerged as to 1) what the "real problem" was or 2) what to do about it. We vowed to "stay in touch" on the topic and went back to work.
The idea continued to percolate. I started thinking about a question one of the participants had asked of the group. How would our advocacy group be different from the many others already out there? I looked at a bunch of sites, regional, statewide and national. Some groups were "grass roots," some were capitol hill lobbyists, some were very well-connected, some had beautifully constructed, easy to navigate sites and all contained information vital for making sound policy decisions or taking effective action to create housing ... but they weren't a lot of fun.
So in addressing the questions of how much development, what kind and where, this site will look to fill the "POV" niche. This housing advocacy site will not be the result of consensus. It will be fact-based advocacy with a human perspective. We will support new affordable housing development that is sustainable, "green" and well-designed. We will support preservation of existing housing.
We'll aim to be the site of record where personal point of view prevails. We will feature in depth interview/discussions about the future of Southern California with people who can make a difference in the outcome. We will highlight art and artists. We'll include photography. Mostly we'll have great writing (including fiction) from talented and thoughtful (if currently underemployed) writers. We'll provide links to all the existing sites already mentioned. If we can figure out some kind of relevance, we'll have music too. We'll have opinion, yours and ours. We will always strive for excellence. And we will try to have an impact on what Southern California will look like in 50 years.
At least an order of magnitude more news coverage.