Reply to Can we talk about Abundance, Ezra Klein’s book

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]That has always been the conservative critique:  that  technocratic governance, no matter how laudable the intent, almost always fails when it hits reality.   Klein is skirting around that. He’s also avoiding the fact that he was one of biggest cheerleaders and proponents of the very policies he now recognizes as having failed to deliver the goods.

Finally, the politicians are part of the problem. Obamacare COULD have been single payer. There would have been a massive electoral price to pay, but there was a once in fifty year opportunity to achieve a longstanding goal and 
Obama and Dems chose to try to thread the needle with incrementalism that they hoped would preserve their control of government. They got neither. 
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Yes - this.  I like Ezra Kelvin’s podcast and the concept of his book. But I think he and others are wrong that Dems went “too far”. I think the problem is they didn’t go far enough. For example: healthcare.  While Obamacare increased insurance coverage it hasn’t helped health outcomes or costs.  But bc it was healthcare reform under Obama now Dems don’t want to touch that issue bc it’s “fixed”.  Dems need to be strong to own up to past errors and fix them.

NIMBY-ism is another example.  My town did some reason to allow more multi family housing: who is crying the loudest but the “liberals” who signed on to pledges promote diversity/equity/inclusion in all policies. They cite the fact that the new housing will result in “million dollar condos” but they ignore the fact that with no rezoning all we have gotten are $3-4 million single family houses (yes, I live in a pretty wealthy suburb).  Our local elections this spring were pretty heated with a ton of finger pointing and misrepresentations and calls to “preserve the historical character of our town”. My town votes 90% Dem btw.  [/quote]

Does the book explain why building housing requires rezoning?  Why can single family home areas not exist?

I don’t think that we are out of space, at all.  It’s an idealogical argument, and a bad one.  So, people oppose it.  This doesn’t hurt Democratic messaging. There can be abundance for all.

We could instead focus efforts elsewhere on winning arguments.[/quote]

I read the Atlantic article and listened to Ezra Klein on Lex Friedman's podcast last week.

Zoning is not about "enough land". Resistance comes from established wealthier neighborhoods who show up to city council and planning meetings to fend off multifamily building in their neighborhoods, along with fending off development in historic districts. That's not really a party policy, but it does create barriers in cities which tend to have liberal governments like SF and Seattle. The people who most need a larger housing supply do not have the time and leisure to pack those meetings and are unheard. And although there was an expectation in the 70s-80s that due to energy and transportation costs hhhhhhouses would become smaller, but the opposite occurred. The average new house floor plan nearing tripled in size from 1950 to 2023, with square footage decreasing somewhat in recent years. The town adjacent to mine requires minimum dwelling floor space of 1800 sq feet plus 200 for each bedroom, so even a one bedroom house would require 2000 square feet and a 3 bedroom requires 2400. I'm not sure what the house I grew up in (built in 1957 and we were the first occupants) was but would put it at about 1200 total on two floors. It was a 1 and a half story house with 4 bedrooms and one and a half baths. Kitchen, living room, no dining room.

Single family home zoning for new development definitely costs money and adds to the cost of city services: physical infrastructure such as roads, water, electrical grid as well as distances for transportation and emergency services. It is also environmentally costly.

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