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In the process, he himself turned into a housing activist.Īnd then there’s Sonja Trauss, the main character of Golden Gates. Falk negotiated with denizens opposed to the project, housing activists, the City Council, and the developer to try to get something built. Meanwhile, in the wealthy suburb of Lafayette, City Manager Steve Falk became an advocate for more housing stock when a local developer proposed building hundreds of new apartment buildings on a plot of land within the suburb. Golden Gates: Fighting for Housing in America is available now from Penguin Random House for $28. Stephanie’s own family’s rent jumped from $1,898 to $2,750 per month, an increase that was untenable for her mother, a single parent, who made $14 an hour. But the Bay Area’s housing crisis is about more than exorbitant prices, and its multifaceted nature is reflected in the variety of stories Dougherty tells.įifteen-year-old Stephanie Gutierrez from Redwood City got involved in housing organizing out of necessity, when tenants in her building received exorbitant rent increases that threatened to displace them.

The average one-bedroom apartment rents for $3,700 a month, while the median house price is $1.4 million. “I wanted it to feel more like a novel than a newspaper article.”īy most metrics, San Francisco is the most expensive city in the United States. “Housing policy is fucking boring,” Dougherty tells Curbed. Instead, Dougherty follows a cast of characters, each facing their own housing struggles, and each with their own ideas about how to fix the vast inequities in the area’s housing market Golden Gates is ostensibly a policy book, but in it you won’t find a list of wonky recommendations on how to solve the Bay Area’s housing crisis.

But they are reviews Conor Dougherty, Oakland-based reporter for the New York Times, has received for his new release, Golden Gates: Fighting for Housing in America. These aren’t descriptors one would usually associate with a book on housing policy. “Improbably stylish.” “Surprisingly riveting.” “A hypnotic tale.”