Report from YIMBYtown 2017

I spent the last few days in Oakland, CA attending the second annual YIMBYtown conference.  The conference was “a three-day gathering for grassroots community organizers, political leaders, educators, housing developers, and everyday people to identify problems, create solutions, share resources on the issues that impact housing on local, state, and national levels.”

I gave a presentation on parking reform which I hope will encourage other groups to advocate for reduced parking minimums and other smart policy changes.

Here are a few quick parking related takeaways:

• Parking comes up ALL the time. It is often the primary complaint about new development.
• Parking policy is a pretty wonky topic even at a conference full of wonks.
• Los Angeles has zones which only allow parking!!
• Folks in other cities would benefit from a parking reform “playbook”

I attended a great session by David Bragdon and Steven Higashide from the Transit Center in which they proposed a YIMBY transportation agenda that I really liked, for obvious reasons!