Say It Ain’t So, Mayor Gloria!

ADUs, Neighborhood Character, Class Privilege ,and the Education of Children

I have been a supporter of Mayor Todd Gloria in the past. I have done so because of the mayor’s willingness to fight against the ultimate cause of homelessness: the cost of housing. This has taken guts on his part in standing up against the assault by NIMBYs on policies like Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) in middle class neighborhoods. Unfortunately, this courage has now run up against the power of elite homeowners, and the mayor has capitulated. I know this is political realism, but this realism is at the expense not just of housing for low income people, but the education of their children.

As a recent KPBS report makes clear, the mayor’s reversal of his previous policies puts at risk the building of housing for low income families in middle class neighborhoods. This in turn threatens low-income children’s educational opportunities. This is why I am so disappointed in Mayor Gloria’s capitulation to privileged NIMBYs, and I call on the City Council to find the courage the mayor used to have.

I currently serve as the president of the County Board of Education where some of the County’s most vulnerable children are educated. We are told that there are nearly 20,000 children who are homeless in our county—most of whom live in the city of San Diego, and many are in our Monarch school for the homeless. It is for these children, and the much larger group of low-income children who are excluded from the educational and social advantages of living in middle-class communities, that I am so concerned about the mayor’s proposed changes to ADU policies.

Study after study has found that low-income children benefit academically, socially, and economically from living and going to school in socio-economically diverse neighborhoods. In groundbreaking research, Raj Chetty found that children of poor families who were randomly assigned to live in middle class communities “…increased college attendance and lifetime earnings and reduced single parenthood rates.”

The scholar Richard Kahlenberg argues that “Housing Policy is School Policy....[and that] the most important predictor of how a child will do is the socio-economic status of their parents, but the second most important predictor is the socio-economic status of their class mates.”

It is not just the quality of the schools in middle-class neighborhoods that help low income and working-class children do better in school and life, but the cross-class friendships that develop as well. Chetty’s recent study makes this point specifically, arguing that according to his research, cross-class friendships were “the single strongest predictor of upward mobility [of children] identified to date.”

This evidence makes clear that those who want to preserve “neighborhood character” and resist building affordable housing in high income communities are not just defending upper middle class privilege but condemning children to educational apartheid.

Of course, some of the reforms that the mayor supports are well taken. Yes, removing the loophole that allows for huge multi-story developments and exclusion of areas at high risk of fire are well worth supporting. But NOT the removal of very low density (i.e. wealthy) neighborhoods from the ADU bonus plan.

I admire much of what Mayor Gloria has done in the past. I hope members of the city council will protect him from this lapse of courage. More importantly, I hope they will protect our vulnerable children by pushing back against changes in our housing policy that will deny them access to the schools and communities that will provide for their future.

Gregg Robinson is a long-time activist, retired Grossmont College Sociology professor, San Diego County Board of Education member, and a member of the AFT Guild, Local 1931 Retiree Chapter.