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To me the most mystifying part is why the city is involved in any of this planning? I find it utterly appalling that the city is planning housing units. What bi
by ajmurmann 9y ago
To me the most mystifying part is why the city is involved in any of this planning? I find it utterly appalling that the city is planning housing units. What bizarre planned economy, communist system is this? Americans tend to be very pro-market, but as soon as it's about housing we get this bizarre stuff.
- vkou 9y agoOur economy is already highly planned. Particular behaviours are tax advantaged, particular investment in particular industries is centrally planned through government procurement, healthcare prices are controlled through Medicaid/Medicare, almost every corporation heavily practices centralized planning... The strange part is not that planning happens, its how we are so bad at it when it comes to land ownership.
- cmurf 9y agoAny time there's perceived market failure (or suboptimal outcome) in a democracy, voters will try to legislate alternative outcomes. There's nothing bizarre about it, it's been going on for a while now. And not even cities, but towns of 10,000 have these kinds of issues where there's only so much physical room for them to grow and everyone there asserts the right to a view, so there are height restrictions for buildings. And then they also realize they need people who aren't millionaires to be teachers, waiters, plumbers, lawn care, and so on. And they can't all live in town, so now they live in the next town and commute, leading to traffic problems and a need for regional public transit, and all kinds of really obvious classist side effects. You either want to live in an aristocratic homogeneous society or you want something quite a bit more diverse and less walled garden than that. And for sure not everyone is in agreement. Hence there's a problem and there's arguing about it.