The US city that pioneered NIMBY zoning has finally abandoned it

The US city that pioneered NIMBY zoning has finally abandoned it

In 1916, a neighborhood in Berkeley, California became the first in the US to require only single-family homes be built on land there, a move intended to exclude Black and Asian residents. Early Wednesday morning, the city council voted unanimously to end the practice, which advocates hope will lead to more affordable housing and less displacement of Black residents from the city. The vote could be an inflection point for debates about housing in the San Francisco Bay Area, ground-zero for the affordability crisis in the US.