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- Choosing where to live is a "lifestyle choice," like choosing who to love, former Beverly Hills mayor John Mirisch said in a column.
- Mirisch made the comparison while arguing against pro-development housing activists.
- His passion on the issue sums up the housing market's tension between the conservative status quo and change.
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A war is being waged over US housing. Beverly Hills, California, is a key battleground, and one of the city's former mayors feels so strongly about protecting home values that he wrote a column comparing it to the freedom to "love whom you love."
The column, by John Mirisch in CalMatters, underscores the wide gap between pro-housing advocates and those looking to protect home values. These groups have acquired the monikers YIMBYs and NIMBYs, as in "yes in my backyard" and their "not in my backyard" opponents.
Preventing development in your backyard is good for home values, and for Mirisch, that's beyond a policy debate – it's a lifestyle choice.
"In California we pride ourselves on being very tolerant of a diverse array of lifestyles and lifestyle choices," wrote Mirisch, who remains a member of Beverly Hills' city council. "Dress how it suits you; love whom you love; define yourself in accordance with your own preferences."
In a sign that NIMBYs are threatened by the direction of the debate, Mirisch sounds the alarm. "If living in a home with a garden is your thing, you probably shouldn't expect Californian tolerance from a certain group of people who with cult-like zeal will tell you that your lifestyle is bad, wrong, immoral and even 'racist.'"
Mirisch is likely responding to the recent spate of victories by YIMBYs, who are largely millennial and Gen Z housing advocates. YIMBYs argue for denser apartment developments, more home construction, and widespread housing availability. The group successfully pushed Berkeley to reverse its century-old history of exclusionary zoning and, just weeks ago, was pivotal in California outlawing single-family zoning.
Mirisch specifically decries how the YIMBY agenda is an "elimination of single-family neighborhoods," and said the activist group's ideals would strip Californians of an important lifestyle option.
A handful of Mirisch's claims fall short. For one, homosexuality isn't a "lifestyle choice" that can be likened to music preferences or fashion. Also, YIMBYs argue for more housing density, including duplexes on single-family lots, not necessarily eradicating single-family neighborhoods.
Mirisch also leaves unaddressed how single-family zoning has its roots in explicitly racist policy from the early 1900s. For example, a CNN investigation from February 2020 found a contemporary Beverly Hills deed that included language restricting occupancy by "any person other than of the white or Caucasian race."
Beverly Hills is among the most expensive neighborhoods in the US, with median home prices nearing $4 million at the end of August, according to Zillow. The city is therefore one of the least likely to cave to pro-housing initiatives.
Mirisch didn't immediately reply to a request for comment.
Mirisch is not alone in his passion on housing issues. Over the last year, outrage over property prices has reached a fever pitch, as the dire housing shortage is keeping millions from climbing the socioeconomic ladder. Millennials are struggling to buy homes just as they hit peak homebuying age.
In most cities, the shift to remote work during the pandemic and record-low mortgage rates kicked off a nationwide homebuying spree in 2020. That drove home inventory to all-time lows, and the market broke down as contractors were slow to bring more houses to market.
Price growth is cooling on a monthly basis as the pandemic housing mania subsides, but the barrier to homeownership is now permanently higher.
Other solutions exist for shaping a more inclusive housing market. Congress is pushing for a historic construction drive, hoping to solve the shortage with an onslaught of new homes.
At least one other California mayor is on the side of the YIMBYs. Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguín, who once opposed denser zoning, is now among the most vocal pro-housing officials in the US. He told Insider in September that "single-family zoning was established on a foundation of racism in Berkeley and it's the basis upon which our zoning is built."