In the meantime, he displaced about 80 families, most of whom lived in the old walkups that actually did provide housing at working-class rents. Often gone, too, on such projects are the little street-level shops, the florists and the shoe repairs, which preserve a sense of place.
Conservatives frequently tout Houston as a model for affordable housing, crediting its lax zoning laws. The larger reason is that Houston is surrounded by Texas. It can spread into the prairies and gently rolling hills. San Francisco is surrounded on three sides by water.
What happens when people feel priced out of neighborhoods is they create new neighborhoods. High rents in Manhattan sent younger workers into neglected parts of Brooklyn that have since been revived.
Gen Z, meanwhile, is reportedly looking at smaller cities, where they can find more space at less cost. The destinations include Oklahoma City; Birmingham, Ala.; Indianapolis; Cincinnati; and Louisville, Ky. That trend should take pressure off the very expensive big cities while breathing new life into some very pleasant metros with fine housing stock, places that earlier generations had bypassed.
In the suburbs, there has been such a thing as exclusionary zoning — single-family homes only on large lots — originally intended to keep out poorer people. And some zoning rules that forbid duplexes make little sense. Converting a garage into a granny apartment shouldn’t be a problem. There also are good arguments for filling in some low-density areas, especially near public transportation.
It does not follow, however, that suburbs must submit to any tower that destroys the small-town feel of their downtowns. Building booms can destroy the historic structures that make a place special.
Rent increases have moderated of late — to the point where economists predict housing should soon bring the inflation numbers down. Falling interest rates are lowering the cost of a house. New construction and incentives for owners to fix up old spaces are indeed adding to supply.
So let’s not level neighborhoods in the interests of massive projects. Some ways to address the cost of housing will involve private decisions. Some may involve public subsidies. They certainly shouldn’t require handing our Main Streets to the real estate barons.
