>but at the same time it’s the nicer multifamily buildings that face stiffer opposition, due to the perception that such buildings are inherently reserved for t

>but at the same time it’s the nicer multifamily buildings that face stiffer opposition, due to the perception that such buildings are inherently reserved for the impossibly wealthy. I do think you're looking at two different opposition demographics here. On the one hand, you have homeowners concerned about the future of their neighborhood; on the other hand, you have low-income communities concerned about gentrification. While they occasionally support the same political candidates -- particularly in San Francisco -- they live in different places, and crucially, the latter often live in neighborhoods which have had many apartment buildings for years (e.g. the Mission). These are not entirely separate fights, but I did mean to address the homeowners' concerns in this particular argument, motivated by the observation that suburbs are quite common and underutilized. I would even say that building larger apartment buildings in low-income medium-density districts is the norm for addressing housing issues right now (that and building exurbs), while upzoning less dense areas is not currently performed in a way that seems to point to a more general strategy for addressing housing issues.