patrick.net

California's increasingly left-wing residents want open borders, and they want their state to give handouts to immigrants, legal and illegal. But they don’t want any building to house this low-income riffraff anywhere near their expensive homes.

California Democrats' NIMBY-ism, or "not in my backyard," is a perfect case study in modern left-wing hypocrisy. Gestures and virtue signaling about tolerance and openness? They're all for those. But don't suggest opening the gates to their communities. ...

Lawmakers in Sacramento considered Senate Bill 50, which would have forced local governments to permit high-density housing in specific areas. Left-wingers who actually, rather than just rhetorically, welcome all comers would pass such a bill. But California Democrats, of course, did not. Instead they passed Senate Bill 451, a tax credit for rich people who restore historic buildings.

SB 451 would grant a 20% tax credit for the restoration of qualifying buildings and a 25% tax credit for the rehabilitation of those historic houses on federal surplus property, include affordable housing, are in a designated census tract or military base, or is a transit-oriented development. Yes, there is some lip service there to affordable housing, but that's all it is. Weighing the marginal benefits, the owners of low-density historic properties will be happy to renovate at one-fifth taxpayers' expense and then charge high rents.

Residents of prosperous Pasadena and Palm Springs have emphatically endorsed the bill. Why wouldn't they? It's free money to spend on their multimillion-dollar estates, from which they can write letters to the editor cursing President Trump and professing their love for immigrants — as long as those foreigners don't live too close by.