San Francisco loves to talk about solving the housing crisis. Building more units, increasing density near transit, making it easier for developers to break ground — it all sounds great in press conferences. But when it comes time to actually follow through? The city finds creative ways to carve out exemptions that undermine the whole point.

Case in point: the SOMA West Neighborhood Association is now asking the State Housing Department to de-certify San Francisco's Housing Element — the city's blueprint for meeting state housing mandates. Their argument? SF is quietly exempting three parcels in West SOMA from the upzoning requirements of SB 79, the state law designed to increase housing near transit corridors. The reason? Those parcels sit in so-called "industrial employment hubs."

Let's be clear about what's happening here. The state said: build housing near transit. San Francisco said: sure thing — except in these specific spots where we'd rather protect the status quo. That's not compliance. That's a workaround dressed up in bureaucratic language.

If the state agrees that SF is out of compliance, the consequences could be significant. De-certification of the Housing Element would trigger the Builder's Remedy, a provision that essentially lets developers bypass local zoning restrictions if a city hasn't met its housing obligations. In other words, the city's attempt to protect a few parcels from development could blow the doors wide open everywhere else. Irony is not dead in San Francisco planning.

Meanwhile, Governor Newsom is once again threatening legal action against Half Moon Bay for dragging its feet on housing. Good. But maybe the governor should look 30 miles north too, where his own hometown is playing the same game with better lawyers.

The housing crisis isn't going to be solved by plans that look great on paper but exempt inconvenient parcels from real change. Either we're serious about building, or we're not. Right now, City Hall seems to be choosing "not" — and hoping Sacramento doesn't notice.

Spoiler: they're noticing.