Progressive politicians in New York and Los Angeles are pushing a "rent freezes plus new construction" housing platform, but developers and centrist critics say the math is fundamentally broken — you can't attract building capital while capping the returns that make construction worthwhile. Meanwhile, a San Francisco investigation has exposed a Chinatown housing nonprofit sitting on $163 million in assets and 29 LLCs, with its director allegedly failing to disclose his control over 18 of them for six years across mandatory financial filings. The broader picture: from homelessness spending that's made things worse to NIMBY fights now blocking $1 trillion in AI infrastructure, California's housing and land-use dysfunction keeps spreading into new terrain.
NYC and LA progressives promise rent freezes plus new construction. Every city that's tried gets ghost apartments instead.
They are accused of harvesting grandma's ballot, pocket $777K salaries, and wield incredible political power in San Francisco. All on your tax dollars.
While virtue signaling politicians and their donors sip champagne, real builders walk the fire rubble of Pacific Palisades and work with startup founders to create jobs
Fareed Zakaria just said the quiet part out loud: blue cities are out of control. But San Francisco might actually be charting a different course.
Housing NIMBYs already took 36% of GDP. Now the same playbook is blocking the AI economy. The states that figure out how to share the upside will win the future.
Zohran Mamdani will increase net spending to defend 3 core policy pillars that are destined for failure
Cities skim $300 million a year in fees from affordable housing projects, then wonder why we can't house families.
San Jose built ZERO market rate homes in 2024. Then Matt Mahan cut the fees, and everything changed.
Berkeley economists calculated the exact cost of housing cartels. The receipts are in—and they're devastating.
San Jose's mayor reduced homelessness by a quarter while Sacramento fumbled. Now he's bringing receipts to the governor's race.