None of this matters if property taxes are aligned with actual value. If people want to pay the taxes to preserve their low density township, fair enough. The issue is that in CA, we've created a system where density is disconnected from land value, so there is effectively no incentives to use land efficiently. Unsurprisingly, we see vast amounts of sprawl in California.
Facilitating the development of sprawl has negligible exteralities in the short run, but is terrible externalities in the long run.
I've said this once, I've said it a hundred times. The NIMBYs are penny-smart-pound-foolish in their war against incremental density. The political model of CA's housing crisis is not a pendulum swinging back-and-forth. The housing crisis is two generations of pent up demand, finally getting the political power to do something about it. The better allusion is that of a cascade, a dam breaking. Every unit added to these intransigent cities will be occupied by a person previously blocked from home-ownership, and more likely to support more development. Every state law passed that forces these towns to add housing undermines their ability to block it further.
The NIMBYs can build the foundations of the dam, but they won't be able to control the fallout when it breaks, and it will be swift and unpleasant. Creating sustainable, incremental systems is the only way to prevent this in the long run... but that requires a concept of stewardship and common wealth, which is contrary to the NIMBY ideology.
Facilitating the development of sprawl has negligible exteralities in the short run, but is terrible externalities in the long run.
I've said this once, I've said it a hundred times. The NIMBYs are penny-smart-pound-foolish in their war against incremental density. The political model of CA's housing crisis is not a pendulum swinging back-and-forth. The housing crisis is two generations of pent up demand, finally getting the political power to do something about it. The better allusion is that of a cascade, a dam breaking. Every unit added to these intransigent cities will be occupied by a person previously blocked from home-ownership, and more likely to support more development. Every state law passed that forces these towns to add housing undermines their ability to block it further.
The NIMBYs can build the foundations of the dam, but they won't be able to control the fallout when it breaks, and it will be swift and unpleasant. Creating sustainable, incremental systems is the only way to prevent this in the long run... but that requires a concept of stewardship and common wealth, which is contrary to the NIMBY ideology.