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how horribly selfish existing home owners are But they don't have any power. They don't have a vote on the planning commission or the city council. They don't

how horribly selfish existing home owners are But they don't have any power. They don't have a vote on the planning commission or the city council. They don't have a vote in the Legislature. Sure, individuals can rant in meetings to the degree allowed, but that's it -- they can't implement policy. So if the vast majority are actually on the YIMBY side, then recalcitrant officeholders will be gone shortly... right?

epistasis 9y ago
This is the terrible outcome of having tons of votes for so many offices on huge ballots, most people can not possibly track the positions of all the people they are voting for. So that leaves a small number of highly motivated people to choose these commissions. And because it takes very few votes to change the commissions one way or the other every decision can now be swayed by whatever small number of people show up at random times during the day. Small numbers of highly motivated people control these commissions. They rally a large enough number of people at the right time, and they organize, and they do have complete control of these decisions. Meanwhile, those who are young and have to work, or those who have to work many jobs and have children to take care of, can't spend the hours per week it takes to give input. This form of direct democracy ends up enfranchising those with the most time and power to follow minutia that's unrelated to their day-to-day lives. And it attracts the sort of people that like to stick their noses into all sorts of other people's business.
- DrScump 9y ago
  so many offices on huge ballots City Council and mayoral seats are usually voted on odd-year elections with short ballots. Those elections are generally low turnout as well, so the YIMBY types should find it easy to have an impact if the broad electorate is on their side.
- rcpt 9y ago
  Hey, thanks. That's a great summary of the structural problems in our government that allow regressive rent seeking to overtake so many industries. For a (slightly) longer exposition I found chapters 6 and 7 of "The Captured Economy" by Lindsey and Teles quite informative.
rcpt 9y ago
We need to build housing for people who don't yet live in the area. In the current setup, where zoning is decided at microlocal levels, homeowners have far more power than future residents.

epistasis 9y ago

This is the terrible outcome of having tons of votes for so many offices on huge ballots, most people can not possibly track the positions of all the people they are voting for. So that leaves a small number of highly motivated people to choose these commissions. And because it takes very few votes to change the commissions one way or the other every decision can now be swayed by whatever small number of people show up at random times during the day. Small numbers of highly motivated people control these commissions. They rally a large enough number of people at the right time, and they organize, and they do have complete control of these decisions. Meanwhile, those who are young and have to work, or those who have to work many jobs and have children to take care of, can't spend the hours per week it takes to give input. This form of direct democracy ends up enfranchising those with the most time and power to follow minutia that's unrelated to their day-to-day lives. And it attracts the sort of people that like to stick their noses into all sorts of other people's business.

DrScump 9y ago
so many offices on huge ballots City Council and mayoral seats are usually voted on odd-year elections with short ballots. Those elections are generally low turnout as well, so the YIMBY types should find it easy to have an impact if the broad electorate is on their side.
rcpt 9y ago
Hey, thanks. That's a great summary of the structural problems in our government that allow regressive rent seeking to overtake so many industries. For a (slightly) longer exposition I found chapters 6 and 7 of "The Captured Economy" by Lindsey and Teles quite informative.

rcpt 9y ago

We need to build housing for people who don't yet live in the area. In the current setup, where zoning is decided at microlocal levels, homeowners have far more power than future residents.