California’s SB-79 Is Quietly Redefining Neighborhoods Without Voter Consent |Elaine Culotti

The Daily Signal

Government, Daily News, News, Politics

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🗓️ 15 January 2026

⏱️ 9 minutes

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Summary

Local officials in California may be co-opting Wolfgang Puck’s and Frank Gehry’s forthcoming upscale retail center along the Pacific Palisades coastline to install unpopular, high-density housing in the coming future using a little-known, Gavin Newsom-backed bill: SB 79. “About a year ago,” California passed its Senate Bill No. 79 under the premise of encouraging housing near existing transit hubs, which, in principle, sounded like a good idea with best of intentions. SB-79 can’t be “implemented unless it's at a train station, bus station, [or] airport transit district,” so most people “didn’t say no to it” because transit districts should only have limited, localized impacts, California Correspondent Elaine Culotti explains. “This happens in California a lot where things are kind of slipped under the radar because they feel like they're not going to affect you. Well, guess what? They figured out a way to put transit districts in areas that don't have transit districts, after the fact.” For more video commentaries like this one, subscribe to The Daily Signal’s YouTube channel 🎥 ⁠https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1 ⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:30.1	About a year ago, SB7-9 was passed in California, and I think it was largely passed
0:35.2	because people thought it's a good idea to provide housing around transit districts.
0:39.3	And you can't have SB 7-9 implemented unless it's at a train station, bus station, airport, transit district.
0:46.3	So a lot of people didn't say no to it.
0:49.3	This happens in California a lot where things are kind of slipped under the radar because they feel like they're not
0:54.9	going to affect you. Well, guess what? They figured out a way to put transit districts in areas that
1:00.8	don't have transit districts after the fact, which is once again in California ripping the rug,
1:07.3	slide of hand, doing things backwards. I'm Elaine Collade for the Daily Signal.
1:21.6	Today, my podcast is about SB 79 and the crazy legislation surrounding transit districts in California.
1:31.5	About a year ago, SB 79 was passed in California, and I think it was largely passed because people thought it's a good idea to provide housing around transit districts.
1:41.8	And you can't have SB 79 implemented unless it's at a train station
1:46.8	bus station airport transit district so a lot of people didn't say no to it this happens in
1:53.2	california a lot where things are kind of slipped under the radar because they feel like they're not
1:58.4	going to affect you well guess what guess what? They figured out a way
2:03.2	to put transit districts in areas that don't have transit districts after the fact, which is,
2:09.9	once again, in California, ripping the rug, slide of hand, doing things backwards. So I'm going to
2:16.7	use the best example that I can to explain how
2:19.2	terrible this is and how it's got to stop. Pacific Coast Highway and Sunset Boulevard have
	...

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