Scott Wiener Is California's ‘YIMBY' State Senator

IN NOVEMBER, VOTERS in San Francisco reelected California Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat, over his opponent, democratic socialist Jackie Fielder.

- CHRISTIAN BRITSCHGI

Wiener is a YIMBY, which stands for “yes in my backyard.” Unlike Fielder and many other powerful California Democrats, he believes that making it easier for private actors to build more housing in the state’s densest and most expensive cities is key to relieving California’s housing shortage.

One of Wiener’s signature legislative attempts would have preempted local control of zoning to allow mid-rise apartments near transit and to allow fourplexes almost everywhere. Those efforts didn’t clear the Senate, but a smaller pro-development piece of legislation, Senate Bill 10, passed out of the Senate and might’ve passed the California Assembly had unrelated political wrangling not killed a host of bills at the end of the last state legislative session.

Reason’s Christian Britschgi spoke to Wiener in January about his plans to reform housing regulations.

Q: How do you see the COVID-19 pandemic affecting the need for upzoning bills like S.B. 10?