San Mateo Chapter Lead
Born in an exclusive suburb of the San Francisco Bay Area, Max returned for the area's world class labor market and climate. Upon returning as an adult, Max could not avoid noticing what anyone visiting California notices immediately: a massive wealth gap. It's time to take a concerted look at a multigenerational failure to create housing opportunities and to root out the barriers to housing supply creation. We must stop criminalizing the state of being housing poor.
Born and raised Californian, now a resident of the City of San Mateo. He advocates for infill development and writes at maxmautner.com.
Shelter is a prerequisite to public health, labor participation, civic participation. Without it California will shrink, family formation will be choked out, and the next generation of contributors to our culture and economy will be kept out to our collective detriment.
We need more & denser housing.
How long does your city take to approve housing? We ranked all 22.
By Max Mautner
May 26, 2026
