I guess the bottom line is that homeowners are never going to stop fighting growth in their neighborhoods and are never going to be swayed over to the YIMBY viewpoint. And people who can't afford housing are going to continue trying to implement measures that might make housing more affordable for them and will never give credit to the NIMBY viewpoint.

This is not a problem that can be solved by piecemeal legislation or random lawsuits. It is also inextricably tied to effective mass transportation and needs regional planning, legislation, and funding over the next couple of decades. We should be designating major swaths of the Bay Area as urban corridors with high density housing, world class rail service, and highly incentivized job centers. We would also need to overpay the existing residents in the path of these new urban corridors with either shiny new digs in the luxury high rises or well above market buyouts.

We need a regional leader who can articulate and sell this vision to all the residents and politicians of the Bay Area, not just the young, professional city dwellers. The approach has got to be a win-win investment that every type of person sees some benefit with (even if that benefit is "great, focus all the city folk to those corridors and stop bugging me about changing my neighborhood").