3 ms·

> If Harris wins, I hope to see sweeping changes Any reason this is more realistic with Harris in charge?

epistasis 2y ago
IMHO, surprisingly yes, for several reasons: 1) For the first time ever, national level Democratic politicians are speaking publicly about housing supply and adopting YIMBY language 2) Harris adopting YIMBY policies will have great influence over both the faux-progressive SF faction and the centrist-to-right-wing Peninsula NIMBY democrats. Their choice will be to defy a hugely popular national politician that originated in the Bay Area, or break from the Democratic infrastructure and lose influence. 3) The Biden administration has, in the past two months, really switched focus to hyping up YIMBY policies, with several announced policy changes on their blog. I believe this is the administration finally realizing that housing costs are the last big segment of inflation that has not been tamped down. With Harris' & Obama's & Walz's much more strident YIMBYism than Biden, I think this will increase, with lots more national level policy pushing local zoning decisions and code decisions towards more housing. 4) If Harris does lose, local politicians can blame her YIMBY policies in contrast to Trump's strident NIMBYism and anti-apartment politics. Generally, the voting populace in local elections is majority YIMBY, and the small number of hyper-motivated folks that organize and decide local elections are NIMBY, and the NIMBY faction will be paying attention to this loss. Overall, YIMBYism has crossed the party lines up until now. In highly Republican areas, like San Diego or Utah, Republican elected officials embrace YIMBYism. In Democratic strongholds, Democtratic elected officials embrace YIMBYism. There's a problem that with the Harris/Trump political split on YIMBY/NIMBY, this divide might get pushed towards the local level. In which case, blue cities will tend towards more YIMBYism, and redder cities (like San Diego) may go more NIMBY. Up until now, within California, I'd say that San Diego and Oakland have been the most YIMBY, with Berkeley starting to catch up. We will see what happens after the November election!

IMHO, surprisingly yes, for several reasons: 1) For the first time ever, national level Democratic politicians are speaking publicly about housing supply and adopting YIMBY language 2) Harris adopting YIMBY policies will have great influence over both the faux-progressive SF faction and the centrist-to-right-wing Peninsula NIMBY democrats. Their choice will be to defy a hugely popular national politician that originated in the Bay Area, or break from the Democratic infrastructure and lose influence. 3) The Biden administration has, in the past two months, really switched focus to hyping up YIMBY policies, with several announced policy changes on their blog. I believe this is the administration finally realizing that housing costs are the last big segment of inflation that has not been tamped down. With Harris' & Obama's & Walz's much more strident YIMBYism than Biden, I think this will increase, with lots more national level policy pushing local zoning decisions and code decisions towards more housing. 4) If Harris does lose, local politicians can blame her YIMBY policies in contrast to Trump's strident NIMBYism and anti-apartment politics. Generally, the voting populace in local elections is majority YIMBY, and the small number of hyper-motivated folks that organize and decide local elections are NIMBY, and the NIMBY faction will be paying attention to this loss. Overall, YIMBYism has crossed the party lines up until now. In highly Republican areas, like San Diego or Utah, Republican elected officials embrace YIMBYism. In Democratic strongholds, Democtratic elected officials embrace YIMBYism. There's a problem that with the Harris/Trump political split on YIMBY/NIMBY, this divide might get pushed towards the local level. In which case, blue cities will tend towards more YIMBYism, and redder cities (like San Diego) may go more NIMBY. Up until now, within California, I'd say that San Diego and Oakland have been the most YIMBY, with Berkeley starting to catch up. We will see what happens after the November election!