Fights we have won, and what each one took.
Two of them, told the same way: what was at stake, what we saw that others did not, what we did, and what changed.
Three rent-control initiatives. Three defeats.
Three times in six years a statewide rent-control initiative reached the ballot. Three times the state’s rental housing providers asked us to help defeat it.
Each measure would have let cities put rent control on housing the law had kept it off, including single-family homes and anything built after 1995. For the people who own and operate rental housing in California, that is a change to the value of every building they hold. The same principal funder put up most of the money each time, and each time the measure started with a huge lead that many owners thought was impossible to overcome.
What we sawThe primary opponents had the wrong messaging. They were positioning for a property rights fight. This was an owners versus tenants fight, and we felt owners would lose it.
What we didWe found credible consultants and helped fund polling, research, and an industry education campaign that forced larger institutional investors to change their messaging.
With limited resources we influenced a successful campaign we never could have won on our own. We used that initial success to build a stronger organization, with a permanent lobbying presence in Sacramento, a more engaged membership, and a streamlined fundraising effort for future campaigns.
What changedAll three measures failed by similar margins. What started as an impossible-looking uphill battle turned into an organizational transformation that saved multifamily owners billions in property valuation. It was also the right thing to do for tenants, even if many of them do not fully appreciate it.
An air district made to count the cost
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District has a history of passing expensive regulations with negative consequences for everyone in the region. We helped build a real coalition, not astroturf.
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District prides itself on being a nation-leading environmental regulator. Over the years it has taken on the toughest regulatory efforts over strong opposition from the traditional business community. The economic analysis used in developing those regulations was cursory, and it arrived too late in the process to make a meaningful difference for public engagement.
What we sawThe board is made up of progressive-minded elected officials from Bay Area cities and counties. We believed that standard business-impact communications was unlikely to change the policy.
What we didWe helped build a real coalition. Not astroturf. Community meetings attended by board members, staff and low-income community members. They met in churches and community centers, and started showing up to hearing after hearing. Real meetings, with real residents, asking one question: what will this cost us, and who checked? Comment letters, prepared speakers, media and social work, all pointed at that one demand, mixed with the authentic complaints of real people engaging for the first time in their lives.
What changedThe board voted unanimously to require a genuine economic analysis for all of its rules going forward, with enough time for the public to learn the costs to different communities before a rule is voted on. Every regulated party in the Bay Area now has a formal channel for the economic argument. Every community now has a clearer picture of the costs and benefits before a vote. We helped build that channel, and we know how to use it.
Clients are not named on this page. Some prefer not to appear in a consultant’s marketing, and we keep to that unless they say otherwise. Every figure is one we can show you the record for.
Tell us what you need decided.
A bill, a rule, a permit, a board seat or an opponent. We are glad to talk it through before anyone signs anything.
- Emailrussell@highviewstrat.com
- Phone916-710-2872
What happens next
Russell reads every message himself and replies within one business day. The first conversation covers the fight, who decides it, and whether a free assessment is worth running.