> Is there anywhere in the country that you think is an actual poster child for progressive ideas implemented well? Colorado and Massachusetts come to mind as

> Is there anywhere in the country that you think is an actual poster child for progressive ideas implemented well? Colorado and Massachusetts come to mind as possibilities. I don't know of any one place that does a great job. Different places have tried different components of progressive policies, sometimes successfully and sometimes not. Like Salt Lake City isn't overall progressive, but it's done a good job building housing for homeless people. Berkeley has a reputation for being more legitimately progressive than SF, but I haven't looked into the details on that and I'd bet there are still serious issues. Massachusetts and Colorado have done well at some things. And at least SF, like Massachusetts, makes health care relatively accessible even to poor people. > The unaffordable housing problem is not just because of NIMBYs. It's also because of a lot of regulation in general including endless environmental reviews that add tons of cost and uncertainty to housing development. When you increase the up-front cost of building anything by tacking on a bunch of compliance and regulatory requirements, you bias the market heavily toward luxury high-end developments in which the builder can recoup the cost. You can't build affordable housing in a high-cost environment because it doesn't deliver the margins. Agreed. And it's tough because you do want environmental reviews and building codes, especially in an earthquake zone. But Cali in general definitely goes overboard on these and other red tape. Also the land is expensive, labor is expensive because the workers need to live in or near SF, etc. And SF has rent control. This is sort of a progressive policy, and it's basically the only way that less-than-rich people can still afford to live there, but it also skews the market and makes the remaining places even more expensive.