City Government Stifles Dissent to Develop Land

A Bay Area city government (San Ramon) is disallowing rebuttals on their ballot measure and moving their council meetings around to avoid having to face up to property owners. Read more here.

Of course we can't vote on the ballot measure in November, but the general lesson is still very relevant to us down here in San Diego. There's this myth that protecting open space somehow threatens existing property owners. Nothing is further from the truth. Protecting open space is good for property owners, because it increases the value of their property. The people who stand to benefit from opening more land to development (and who are happy to spread the myth) are usually the city governments - because more homes = more tax base = more $ for them, and of course for their friends the developers.