4 ms·

They are wildly popular. It's not the government preventing people from building what they want (though that's the proximate mechanism). It's people who live t

• acdha 3y ago
  You have to consider selection bias here: people live where they can afford to, not necessarily where they’d like. You aren’t seeing what people who were excluded on price or racial lines would want, and you’re not seeing how many people truly want only that style versus not disliking it enough to organize a political movement, since depending on the area that can require things like supermajorities and even nullifying covenants in deeds. This also hits the tension cities have for balancing the interests of long-term residents against the future. Lots of places have this dynamic now where old retirees block any changes either because they’re opposed to change or fearful of losing the equity which is most of their retirement, but anyone looking at the city finances knows that they need more residents, especially of working age, and that includes lower income families if you want to be able to have service workers, city employees, etc. actually live there. This is especially true in places like California where old residents pay far less in taxes but have equally high, if not higher, expectations for city services.