You know, I think for our listeners, I think it would be a good place to start is what's going on in California with our housing situation and, you know, how did we get here?

That's a great question.

Do we have all day? I think California has been at the forefront of policy choices that have caused the housing crisis.

Policies over decades that were designed to slow construction have achieved their express purpose.

They've done exactly that.

And I think a lot of those were well-intended laws, but have had major unintended consequences and have made it very difficult to build housing.

And that's been decades in the making.

This is the meat and potatoes.

Um, and if you would, share with us, 'cause people are watching this, stay closely in your own words, uh, why this is different than Democrats' approach there in the past.

past.Sure. You know, I think we view this as really as a blatant power grab designed to rig the election, and I think as Governor Newsom said it best, we have to fight fire with fire, and that's exactly what we're gonna do here in California.

You know, we're not gonna let Donald Trump dismantle our democracy and we really view that that is what is at stake here in terms of what he's trying to do and what he's doing in Texas.

I will also note though that our plan is by far the most transparent in the nation.

We voted today to go to the ballot to let voters see the maps, the voters will ultimately decide if they want these maps, and we also will revert back to the independent commission in 2030.

But we're not gonna sit by on the sidelines while Trump tries to rig the system.

So I think we've put forth the most eloquent solution given the situation that we're in, and let me be clear, none of us wanted to be in this situation.

Right.

So before we get to the details of the legislation, I really wanna understand the urgency of it and the scale of CEQA's use to block housing in California.

So, so for instance, in my district, I represent Berkeley.

UC Berkeley is in my district.

Um, y- there, 10% of the students at Cal have or are experiencing homelessness while at Cal, 10% of the students in the, one of the world's best institutions, higher education institutions.

Um, and there's People's Park that is there.

This is a classic example.

Um, there was a development, uh, to bring in 1,200 units.

You got some time.