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J.K. Lund's avatar

Nice work Ryan!

We underestimate the effects of restrictive euclidean zoning. They damage runs broad and deep; it isn't limited to high housing costs.

High housing costs means that labor cannot move to where it will be most productive. It's a massive, albeit hidden, tax on human opportunity and prosperity.

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Bennie's avatar

I go back and forth on this. I am all for YIMBY and ending restrictive zoning, but NYC is not wilderness. At some point a neighborhood, city or region is just plain overpopulated and the "too damn high" rent is the market's way of asking "Do you really need to live here?"

Maybe with wall-to-wall hundred story apartment towers you'd have enough housing to substantially bring down the market rate, but are there a lot of people who really want to live like that?

As for the firefighter, maybe the most cost-effective solution is to pay him enough to live in NYC at market rate rather than build "affordable" housing.

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