The Progressive Paucity Agenda From Mamdani in New York to California – WSJ
Environmentalists oppose building more homes in suburbs and want to cram people into cities, which Democrats control. The result: an acute shortage of single-family homes and sky-high prices.
California s rents are on average about 50% higher than in the rest of the country, and the typical home in the state costs more than double. The Golden State s homeownership rate is the second lowest in the country, after New York. The monthly mortgage payment on a two-bedroom house is nearly double the state s average rent.
But few families want to live in cramped apartments or two-bedroom town houses. Mr. Newsom s nonreforms won t help them because they exempt housing projects from CEQA only if they are built in urban areas, meet strict density requirements and comply with local zoning rules.
The legislation also exempts affordable housing only if contractors pay prevailing union wage rates that raise costs. That s how a new taxpayer-funded apartment complex in Los Angeles for homeless people ended up costing nearly $600,000 per studio to build. The development also boasts a café, gym, art room, community garden, computer labs and pet care.
Mr. Newsom last week announced more funding for similar projects. According to the governor s Housing First philosophy, free housing and government services, which apparently includes free kibble for pooches, will help the homeless get sober and find work.
Urban housing projects that don t meet all of the law s requirements for a CEQA exemption can still qualify for streamlined permitting but only if they ditch gas stoves and heating. Housing developers will also have to pay into a state fund for affordable housing and public transportation to mitigate a project s carbon emissions. Want a permit? We ve got a $120 billion bullet train we want you to finance.
The legislation may expand housing for yuppies and vagrants, but it won t help the young families who have been fleeing the state owing to its high cost of living and lousy schools. Between 2020 and 2024, California s population under 18 shrank by 523,000, according to Census Bureau data. Texas grew by 199,000 and Florida s by 219,000.
Might the flight of middle-class families be driving California s political culture left? Same in New York City, which has lost 163,000 children since 2020. The hipsters who have taken over Brooklyn and Queens no doubt vote differently from the families who left. Mr. Mamdani was the ironic beneficiary of population flight caused by progressive policies.
Progressives are trying to drive more people to live in cities even as their policies make them unlivable, which is driving people who don t share their politics to leave. Whether they use nudges or brute force, the goal is the same: Expand liberal government control over how people live. You either put up, or get out.
via www.wsj.com
Every word Allysia Finley writes is true, at least about California. And probably New York as well.