Emeryville's Mayor, Vice Mayor Called Out As "Developer Shills" by Local Media
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| Mayor John Bauters A "developer shill". |
development in the greater Bay Area in the “developer shill’ bracket produced by a local rental housing lobbying group known as YIMBYLAND in an open election of its followers. The mutual love fest between YIMBY and corporate developers and Mayor John Bauters was particularly pronounced in the fantasy football-like bracket, netting Mr Bauters a position in the quarter finals, the group announced earlier this week.
Being selected for the YIMBYLAND developer shill bracket is no small thing, and Mr Bauters as well as the vice mayor, Courtney Welch, had to throw Emeryville’s local housing control over to developers in order to compete.
The celebration of Mr Bauters and Ms Welch by YIMBYLAND is just the latest in the tender and devotional relationship grown between these two Council members and the nation-wide developer lobbying organization known as YIMBY, a developer funded group that wants to clear the field for developers to deliver the rental housing that is the most profitable kind of housing to build.
The result of having City Hall committed to allowing large corporate developers build what they want is the transformation of Emeryville from a city of mostly home owners into a city of mostly renters. But Emeryville citizens don’t want what YIMBY wants. Our General Plan is unequivocal: the City Council is to deliver more ownership housing, not more rental units. To the extent residents know what these two City Council members are doing with our housing policy is problematic for the Mayor and Vice Mayor. In this way, Mr Bauters and Ms Welch have had to operate under the citizen radar in Emeryville.
More Rental Apartments Than Rain
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| Vice Mayor Courtney Welch A "developer shill". |
This implementation period, with all the new rental apartment towers approved by the City Council, has allowed Emeryville to crush its ABAG RHNA numbers by 203%, even more than the percentage over normal rainfall in Emeryville for this year, the most in recorded history (177%).
Mayor Distances Himself From YIMBY
Emeryville has earned the accolades from YIMBY, especially since Mr Bauters was elected. The San Francisco Chronicle in 2021 called Emeryville's City Council one of California's "most YIMBY city councils". However, the YIMBY agenda is not what Emeryville citizens are: pro-gentrification, pro-capitalist, free market fundamentalism associated with neoliberal economic modalities. It’s funded by real estate corporate developers, Big Tech and right wing think tanks like the Koch brothers and is popular in the Bay Area only insofar as the organization can keep the right wing attachment hidden from view. Accordingly, neither Mayor Bauters nor Vice Mayor Welch have told Emeryville citizens the two of them had made the YIMBYLAND list of shills for developers. Mr Bauters has not said anything about it publicly while Ms Welch made a brief mention of it on her Twitter account.
It’s almost as if they don’t want Emeryville citizens to know about all the hard work they’ve done to help developers build so many market rate rental apartments. The Mayor told the Tattler the list is “humorous” but he said he didn’t know why so many YIMBYLAND supporters voted for him.
Why indeed. Perhaps Mr Mayor, it’s because corporate developers appreciate what you’ve done for them over the years and they want to show their gratitude.
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| The Developer Shill Bracket Emeryville's Mayor and Vice Mayor beat out almost every Bay Area pol when they made the 'Developer Shill Bracket'. The Vice Mayor came out from the 'mixed-use zone' while the Mayor took up position in the 'industrial zone'. Mayor Bauters made it to the quarter finals only to be beaten by state senator Scott Wiener who wrote SB35 which forces cities that have fallen behind their government mandated housing allotments (not Emeryville) to deregulate their housing development policies. |
