On September 12th, 2025, Senate Bill 79 was passed out of the California Legislature. On October 10th, Governor Gavin Newsom signed it into law. A huge victory for the cause of housing. This is the rest of its story.

This episode picks up after passage in the Senate, as it moved through the Assembly, back for one final Senate concurrence lap, and finally through the wine-dark sea of contradictions that is Gavin Newsom.

SB 79 WINS!

In which we are brought up to date through the final tumultuous week of the budget cycle. SB 79 receives further amendments & is passed out of the Senate; and on CEQA reform, Newsom steps in decisively.

Episode 10: SB 79 and CEQA, Part 2 (or, Of Trailer Bills and Building Trades)

CURRENT UP TO ABOUT MAY 1ST.  PART 2 FORTHCOMING! 

SB 79, housing near transit, rolls two hostile Senate chairs; SB 677, hitting single-family areas statewide, does less well; I discuss two bills for the first time, AB 609 and SB 607, and how they take on the cause of reforming the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to be more pro-housing but in markedly different ways.

Episode 9: Rolling the chairs on SB 79; and, whither CEQA? (Part 1)

SB 79, transit-oriented development (the spiritual successor to SB 50), and SB 677, fixing the duplex law while cleaning up one other law.

Episode 8: The Big Guns of 2025

I dive into what the California voters saw on their ballots in November: Prop 33 (rent control), Prop 34 (supposedly health care, actually rent control), and Prop 5 (borrowing for housing etc.), what these measures would have done, the personalities and interests responsible for this array of proposals, and what their outcomes (fail, win, fail) mean for housing policy this year

Episode 7: What Happened in 2024? Ballot Measures Edition

Legislative recap of 2024's wins, losses, and draws, and what they mean for 2025. How did we do, how do we feel, why is the turtle on its back? 

Still to come: ballot initiative recap of 2024.

Episode 6: What Happened in 2024?

This time on John Nerds Out, I take a deep dive on the travails of the attempts of Senator Anna Caballero to make it possible to build more for-sale housing with up to 10 homes on a lot—and what the amendments made to them say about how we make policy. (SB 684 in 2023, followed by SB 1123 in 2024.)

I cover these bills as quick hits for the first time:

- SB 1123, cleanup/expansion on housing on commercial strips
- AB 2881 and SB 584, social housing
- AB 1893, builder's remedy reform
- AB 1932, remove mortgage interest deduction on second homes

I check in on how these bills from episode 4 are doing: SB 1470 (condo defect lawsuits), SB 1462 (condo deposits), SB 937 (impact fee delay), SB 1210 (utility fee reform), SB 1077 (ADUs in coastal zone), and AB 2560 (density bonus in coastal zone).

Bonuses: why the phrase "suspense file" strikes fear into the hearts of activists all over the state; and why tax deductions are always regressive.

Episode 5: Bungalow Courts and the Sinister Stealth Edit

I take a deep dive into Senate Bill 1470, that tries to get more new condos built by tinkering with details of how lawsuits against them work. 

Quick hits introducing other legislation in the annual cavalcade: SB 1462 (condo deposits), SB 937 (impact fee delay), SB 1210 (utility fees), SB 1077 (ADUs in coastal zone), and AB 2560 (density bonus in coastal zone).

Episode 4: The mystery of the missing condos

Why does the state protect renters with one hand and prevent cities from protecting them more with the other? Why did a labor leader argue against an (ostensible) labor protection standard? Join us as we bring you up to the present (the end of 2023) with the housing-on-commercial-strips law (AB 2011), the more-affordable-housing-in-scofflaw-cities law (SB 423), and jumping back a bit, the first statewide tenant protection law (AB 1482), and the many, many issues these raise.

My guest once again is Scott Simmons, whose dating podcast Wish You All The Best you should still check out.

Episode 3: The story so far, part 2

Special guest Scott Simmons* joins me for the deep lore of housing legislation to date. Includes the rise of Scott Wiener, the ADU bills culminating in AB 68, the unsuccessful ambitious upzoning bills SB 827 and SB 50, the successful affordable housing bill SB 35, duplex bill SB 9, people over parking bill AB 2097, the power of Anthony Portantino, and many other Deep Thoughts along the way.

* Hear more from Scott's soothing voice and brain at his dating podcast, Wish You All the Best! 

Episode 2: The Story So Far, with Scott Simmons

We need a ton more housing at all income levels. How do we do that? State legislation gets the goods. Follow the California Legislature in real time as bills are born, mutate, and pass into law—or die—and learn about how we can all help end the housing crisis.

John

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