Many supposedly 'rich' cities like NYC, SFO, LA and Boston are actually poorer in real terms than San Antonio or Oklahoma City largely because their housing costs are extremely high relative to incomes due to planning and other restrictions that go under the ironic name 'Smart Growth'. What 'Smart Growth' seeks to do is restrict the supply of land for housing, forcing people into denser, multi-family environments for aesthetic and 'green' reasons. Apparently our elites disapprove of us having 'tacky' houses in 'tacky' suburbs. They much preferred it when the tradesmen lived above their shop or in a tenement and tugged his forelock respectfully when the Wise Ones geve them unsolicited advice.
What 'Smart' growth actually achieves is swingeing housing inflation and the eventual pauperization of the working and middle classes whose children, rather than move back into the oh so fashionable rat warrens their grandparents fled, leave 'smart' paradise for friendlier (but tacky!) climes. Here is the Demographia annual global housing affordability survey. It is a handy guide to which cities really care about their people. It is astounding how cruel so called 'enlightened elites' can be.
The good news is that Smart Growth has been in a bit of retreat lately, along with a whole bunch of other green party tricks that 'seemed like the right thing to do back when we were all drunk with power'. Florida and New Zealand have both rescinded their land supply restrictions and are explicitly seeking to increase the supply and affordability of housing. In the UK, pressure to make more land available for development is disconcerting both major parties. Imagine that: politicians who work for the people, not the bien pensants.
If you want your kids to be able to live in your town so you can pay them back for all the trouble they caused you, make damned sure that anything called 'smart growth' is strangled in its crib. Or if you're thinking more clearly, that the people who advocate it are strangled in theirs.
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