CM Banks Q&A: Mangin on 'homeowner cartels' terminology

And my last question, and I'll come back in the second round.

I know you had mentioned in your writings you compared homeowners to cartels.

In the first sentence of your article in the new exclusionary zoning, you referred to a homeowner.

As cartels, is that correct?

Thank you for the question.

Again, I'm a huge supporter of homeownership opportunities.

I just want to answer that question.

Did you refer to homeowners as cartels?

That's a term of art from the literature that is not mine.

It's a descriptive term from fair housing literature.

But do you agree?

Based on the context when you wrote that article that homeowners are cartels.

And I'll go even further.

Do you characterize homeowners who oppose additional density as cartels?

Is that correct?

No, certainly not all homeowners are parts of homeowner cartels.

It's a term of specific meaning.

That oppose density, homeowners that oppose density.

Homeowner cartels is a term of art from the fair housing literature that doesn't imply any particular orientation towards policy questions.

It's just, it's a term from the literature.

I didn't coin it.

Okay.

And I just want to, for the record, the homeowners that participate in the same public process

that is available to all residents, right?

This is a process that communities are involved in or able to engage in, am I correct?

The land use review?

Yes.

Yes, absolutely.

Yet, you described the participation as a cartel behavior, am I correct?

I'm sorry, I don't recall the passage that you're referring to.

Is it fair to say that you disagree with the position because you support allowing greater density in areas currently zoned for single-family homes?

I'm sorry, I've lost the thread, Council Member.

I guess I'll come back around to the line of questions.

I just wanted to kind of get clarification as to the term you had used.

It's called homeowners cartels.

And why was that term used to describe homeowners?

You know, normal folks would take that offensively, especially when they're advocating for their community, and they want to make sure that

the character of the community is not changing and the folks that invested in their community, their views and input is being respected.

But thank you, Chair, for indulging and allowing me to get my questions through.

I'll come back in a second.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Great.

Thank you.

And I'm going to pass it on to Council Member Krishna.