Gov. Newsom signed SB 79 to override local zoning and allow mid‑rise apartments near some transit stops. But the policy reportedly applies to fewer than 1% of stops, making it a symbolic change unlikely to loosen statewide housing scarcity.
— It spotlights how blue‑state ‘pro‑housing’ headlines can mask minimal reforms, pushing journalists and lawmakers to audit the real scope of supply bills.
Halina Bennet
2025.12.03
45% relevant
Slow Boring reports local experiments that may be substantive or symbolic; that dynamic matches the critique that some state/municipal reforms are small, ‘token’ changes that look like progress but have limited geographic scope and impact.
Alex Tabarrok
2025.12.02
35% relevant
Both pieces speak to California housing policy: Tabarrok’s post exposes a biting local regulation that reduces rental supply in a high‑demand city, which undercuts headlines about symbolic state‑level housing reforms (e.g., small zoning tweaks) and shows why token statewide reforms may fail without addressing municipal regulatory distortions.
Jon Miltimore
2025.12.02
85% relevant
The article documents Los Angeles’s 12–2 council vote to tighten rent control—an action that mirrors the critique captured by 'Token YIMBYism in California' that state or elite reform gestures often fail to alter local restrictive politics; both pieces highlight a gap between pro‑supply rhetoric at state/national levels and durable local regulatory choices (LA limits rents to 1–4% vs previous 3–8%).
PW Daily
2025.10.17
100% relevant
The piece says SB 79 “allows apartment buildings to exist” while noting it covers under 1% of California’s transit stops.