Down with the sales tax, up with land values: the walking tour

Oh it's well intended. SB 1031 would streamline public transit throughout the Bay Region; make no doubt, that's admirable. However, the funding mechanism proposed is a 1/2 cent sales tax increase. That's a regressive tax, and it exempts from their windfall the land owners whose locations will increase with increased and expedited public service.

If public transit adds value to location, let that increase in location value pay for the public transit. That's sensible and just. Communicate with your State Senator BY WEDNESDAY NEXT that this otherwise good idea is a flop. Land owners have elected-folk in their pocket and that's all there is to it.

Come along on a 23 years and going weekly walking tour that lays out the intersection of real estate and social questions. Lots of good stories about identity group liberation (viz. Black Panthers, Native Americans, Migrant Labor, Working Class), intermittent humorous anecdotes, and San Francisco's 19th century (but always a good idea) Big Idea to socialize land values as a measure of society's economic value.