Reply to New Abundance (Ezra Kline) YIMBY Caucus In Congress

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Is that what Abundance means?  I haven't read the book and the Politico article didn't expand clearly on it.  I looked at the wiki page for the book and it is about infrastructure and building new projects rather than merely obstructivism.

We all know that regulations to protect X, Y, Z are well-intentioned but cause massive delays and cost-increases.  Look at regular projects that are years behind schedule and millions/billions over budget compared to the 95 repair of the bridge collapse in Philadelphia that was quick, due to ignoring some regulations using emergency powers.

We are at a point where our infrastructure is aging and much is due for renovation.  We could replace, instead.  We could imagine a new vision of cities and we could enact it.  If we have the will.[/quote]

The basic gist of the book is that progressives/Blue States are good at designing new programs and being inclusive but terrible at execution. Further, the US has generally become terrible at executing big infrastructure projects - costs spiral out of control, everything is bogged down in lawsuits and mandatory impact reviews, incumbent property owners stymie any progress on much-needed housing and transportation infrastructure, the contracting process is too slow and mired in regulations to actually get started on tangible work, etc.

In short, a lot of policies and laws with good intentions - preventing fraud/waste, giving impacted parties a seat at the table, environmental reviews, the court system & judicial review - have created gridlock in actually getting things done. This, in turn, has turned otherwise patriotic Americans against their own government and created a sense of national malaise.

The book wants the government to take a heavier hand in dealing with these issues. It advocates for a China-like model where the citizenry and existing property owners gets less opportunities to bog down big projects. Of course, this would require changes to laws that could preempt local control. One way to do this is through federal legislation utilizing the Supremacy clause.

As a case study, they looked at PA Gov Josh Shapiro when he dealt with I-95 Highway collapse in 2023. He was granted emergency powers by the PA legislature, which enabled him to suspend all sorts of laws and policies when it came to contracting, sourcing construction materials, conducting public outreach, doing environmental reviews, etc. Within three days of the accident, a temporary road was constructed for I-95. Within a few weeks, the bridge was reopened for traffic. Within a few months, all work was completed at a total cost of only $20M. Had PA adhered to the regular course of business, it would've taken 5-10 years for the bridge to open and at a much higher cost (maybe 5-10x higher than what was spent in two weeks). [/quote]

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