January 24, 2018
The Honorable Scott Wiener California State Senate State Capitol, Room 4066 Sacramento, CA 95814
RE: SB 827 (Wiener) ZONING NEAR HIGH-QUALITY TRANSIT -- SUPPORT
Dear Senator Wiener:
We the undersigned California technology leaders wish to voice our support for SB 827, your “Zoning Near High-Quality Transit” bill. The lack of homebuilding in California imperils our ability to hire employees and grow our companies. We recognize that the housing shortage leads to displacement, crushing rent burdens, long commutes, and environmental harm, and we want to be part of the solution.
We hope to grow our businesses in California, but it’s difficult to recruit and retain employees when they could accept jobs in other states and pay a fraction of California’s housing costs. Already, many California- based technology firms have accelerated hiring in other states because housing costs are too high. SB 827 will provide housing opportunities for many Californians while permitting our firms to increase good jobs and improving the fiscal position of the state budget.
The housing shortage places a huge burden on workers, many of whom face punishingly long commutes and pay over half of their income on rent. Caltrain and BART receive significant state funding and are the backbones of our regional transit infrastructure, and yet these systems are not able to realize their full potential because too few people are able to take advantage of them to shorten their commutes. SB 827 would expand housing opportunities for everyone and is vital to ensuring that the Bay Area remains an engine of social mobility, as well as economic growth.
We therefore solidly support SB 827, and urge your colleagues in the Legislature to stand with you. Thank you for your leadership on this critical issue.
Sincerely,
Nat Friedman Zack Rosen California YIMBY, Co-Founder California YIMBY, Co-Founder Xamarin, CEO Pantheon, CEO
Marc Benioff Jack Dorsey Salesforce, CEO Twitter and Square, CEO
Jeremy Stoppelman Logan Green Yelp, CEO Lyft, CEO
Chris Beard Reid Hoffman Mozilla, CEO Greylock, Partner
Dustin Moskovitz Jared Friedman Asana, CEO Y Combinator, Partner
Jessica Mah Patrick Collison inDinero, CEO Stripe, CEO
Alexis Ohanian, Sr. Tracy Young Reddit, Co-Founder PlanGrid, CEO 1
Josh Albrecht Jack Altman Sourceress, Co-Founder Lattice, CEO
Denis Anscombe Keith Ballinger Index, CEO Microsoft, Director of Program Management
Justin Bedecarre Henrik Bennetsen HelloOffice, CEO Canvas, Co-Founder
Todd Berman Lukas Biewald Loom, CEO Weights and Balances, CEO
Gagan Biyani Ethan Block Sprig, CEO Digit, CEO
Vladimir Blumen Jason Boehmig Alto Pharmacy, Co-Founder Ironclad, Inc., CEO
Maxwell Brodie Matt Brown Kaizena, Co-Founder Bonsai, CEO
Carl Carell Dan Carroll GetAccept, Co-Founder Clever, Co-Founder
Jason Chen Brian Clark Slab, CEO HDP Health, CEO
Lawrence Coburn Ron Conway DoubleDutch, CEO SV Angel, Founder, Co-Managing Partner
Cristina Cordova David Cramer Stripe, Business Development & Partnerships Sentry, CEO
Neville Crawley Felicia Curcuru Kiva, CEO Binti, CEO
Adam D’Angelo Waseem Daher Quora, CEO Pilot, CEO
Andrew Dickson Kurt Ericson Acre Designs, CEO AgileMD, Co-Founder
George Favvas Donald Fischer Circle Medical, CEO Tidelift, CEO
David Frankel Taro Fukuyama Founder Collective, Managing Partner, Co-Founder Fond, CEO
Ooshma Garg Adam Gibson Gobble, CEO Skymind, Co-Founder
David Gobaud Anurag Goel Mobius, CEO Cove, CEO
Ranvir Gujral Eric Gundersen Chute, CEO Mapbox, CEO
Prerna Gupta Josh Hannah HOOKED, CEO Matrix Partners, General Partner
David Hsu Rob Hunter Retool, CEO HigherMe, CEO
Luke Iseman Nabil Kassam Boxouse, CEO Noble Iron, CEO
Paul Katsen Andy Kim Blockspring, CEO Niles AI, Co-Founder
Aaron King Kwindla Kramer Snapdocs, CEO Daily, CEO
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Matt Krisiloff Katherine Krug Y Combinator, Director, YC Research BetterBack, CEO
Jayant Kulkarni Amit Kumar Quartzy, CEO Accel Partners, Investor
Christian Lanng Tracy Lawrence Tradeshift, CEO Chewse, CEO
Jeff Lawson Aaron Levie Twilio, CEO Box, CEO
Daniel Levine David Lieb Accel Partners, Investor Google, Product Lead, Google Photos
Zijie Lin Chris Lindland GoLorry, Co-Founder Betabrand, CEO
Alex Lofton Chris Lotz Landed, Co-Founder Goodcover, CEO
Charity Majors Mike Maples, Jr. honeycomb, CEO Floodgate, Founding Partner
Ben Marcus Scott Maxwell AirMap, CEO OpenView, Founder, Managing Partner
Nick Mehta Marten Mickos Gainsight, CEO HackerOne, CEO
Ann Miura-Ko William Morgan Floodgate, Co-Founding Partner Buoyant, CEO
Rosanna Myers Prayag Narula Carbon Robotics, CEO LeadGenius, CEO
Maran Nelson Vladimir Novakovski Clara Labs, CEO Elliot Technologies, CEO
Jen O’Neal Tim O’Reilly Tripping.com, CEO O’Reilly Media, CEO
Ryan Petersen Roy Raanani Flexport, CEO Chorus, CEO
Keith Rabois Ben Rahnema Khosla Ventures, Investment Partner Returnbase, CEO
Guillermo Rauch Joseph Reisinger Zeit, CEO Facet, CEO
Eric Ries Joanna Riley Long Term Stock Exchange, CEO Censia, CEO
Alex Rodrigues Arram Sabeti Embark Technology, CEO ZeroCater, CEO
Can Sar Judd Schoenholtz Value Voting, Co-Founder Open Listings, CEO
Tim Schwartz Bhanu Sharma motion, CEO Maker, CEO
Shawn Simpson Star Simpson Boutique Air, CEO Corvidair, CEO
Brian Sloss Sai Soundararaj Disclosures.io, Co-Founder FloydHub, CEO
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Alexander Stigsen Jarrett Streebin Realm, CEO EasyPost, CEO
Ilya Sukhar James Tamplin Matrix Partners, General Partner Founder Collective, Founder Partner
Garry Tan Yuliya Tarasava Initialized Capital, Co-Founder, Managing Partner CNote, Co-Founder
Samuel Tia Des Traynor Correlia Biosystems, Co-Founder Intercom, Co-Founder
David Ulevitch Deena Varshavskaya OpenDNS, CEO Wanelo, CEO
Joseph Walla Alexandr Wang HelloSign, CEO Scale API, CEO
Kalvin Wang Heather Watkins Nava, Co-Founder Better Impact Marketing, CEO
Evan Weaver Richard White FaunaDB, CEO UserVoice, CEO
Doug Wightman Andy Wilson Groq, CEO Logikcull, CEO
Cameron Woodward Hanadie Yousef Sprinkle Lab, CEO Juvena Therapeutics, CEO
Tim Zheng ZenProspect, CEO
CC:
Assemblymember Phil Ting Senator Nancy Skinner Senator Toni Atkins Governor Jerry Brown
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