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Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The Gaping Hole in the Center of the Abundance Agenda
America has a housing affordability crisis. Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson's Abundance, Yoni Appelbaum's Stuck, and Mark Dunkelman's Why Nothing Works argue to varying degrees that land-use restrictions, mostly at the local level, are what created this problem and that easing them will solve it. Build more housing and it will become more affordable. Last week I argued that there are sound reasons for local communities to exert some control over their neighborhoods—reasons that the new supply-side liberals are reluctant to acknowledge. Protecting the environment, scaling building size to limit opportunities for crime, and preserving architecture of historical significance are all legitimate goals. People should have some power to make their communities livable, because if your community doesn't do that, it's doubtful outside forces will—either commercial or governmental. I don't disagree that these defensible goals often act a smokescreen for indefensible goals—such as the exclusion of lower-income people, or the elimination of racial or ethnic diversity. It happens often enough that supply-side liberals are right to call for greater regulatory flexibility, mostly at the local level, to make it easier to build stuff, and not just housing. We need to make it easier to build all sorts of things, including (to cite a central example in Abundance) a bullet train from Los Angeles to San Francisco. My main problem with supply-side liberalism isn't what it contains, but what it omits. To address the housing shortage, to build vital infrastructure, and to address all sorts of other problems, judiciously-targeted deregulation will be nowhere near sufficient. We also need to address the demand-side problem of distribution. At the start of the Great Depression John Maynard Keynes published a famous essay titled 'Economic Possibilities For Our Grandchildren,' in which he argued that their future would be brighter. He was correct: The Depression ended, the global war that followed defeated fascism, and the west prospered. But Keynes overstated his case. In the essay, he wrote that 'the struggle for subsistence' would end and 'the economic problem' would disappear. Keynes predicted correctly the creation of stupendous wealth that he wouldn't live to see. (He died in 1946.) But he was quite wrong to presume that this wealth would be distributed humanely over the long term. Just look around. It isn't. Klein and Thompson almost certainly have read Keynes's essay. If they haven't I presume they've at least seen the 2008 Pixar cartoon Wall-E, which turns Keynes's conceit into a sort of sunny dystopia. Yet they begin their book with a description of a futuristic world that's kind of like—well, Wall-E, minus the grim externalities (a ruined planet, people too fat to walk, etc.). In Keynes's essay and in Wall-E everybody's economic needs are met because the fruits of economic success are shared by all. Will that happen? I hope so. But it won't happen by itself, and we certainly can't get there by tinkering with zoning variances. The government must reverse the past half-century's trend toward ever-growing wealth and income inequality. Abundance alone won't cut it. Boosting wages, increasing worker power, and generally restoring the middle class to meaningful participation in America's economy are much more necessary. Otherwise we'll just make Elon Musk's grandchildren richer. I don't doubt that the authors of all three books favor these liberal goals; just not enough to give them much ink. Granted, it could be worse. The 'It's Too Hard To Build Stuff' argument, which has been around for decades, used to place heavy blame on the cost of union labor. There have been a few instances (for example, the 1975 New York City financial crisis) when that was even true! But in recent memory that hasn't been the case, and I'm pleased to report that these books (mostly) eschew union-bashing. Klein and Thompson point out that it costs twice as much to built a kilometer of rail in the United States as it does in Japan or Canada, and that union density is much higher in the latter two countries. Consequently, they argue, unions can't logically be the problem. (A few pages later they quote an affordable housing consultant griping about having to pay prevailing wage, which usually means union scale, but never mind.) Still, not talking much about unions isn't good enough. The authors of these books ought to consider unions part of the solution to housing affordability. Boost wages and people can buy houses. This blind spot about stagnating wages is pretty glaring. Klein and Thompson cite the economist Ed Glaeser's finding that prior to the 1980s wages in New York City were unusually high compared to the cost of living, meaning people stood to benefit if they moved there. After 2000, though, moving to New York City meant taking 'an effective pay cut. That's not because paychecks have shrunk but because housing costs have risen.' True enough, but another reason housing got less affordable—in New York and elsewhere—was that real wages failed to rise for all but the wealthiest. In a thriving economy, incomes are supposed to rise alongside housing prices, and for everybody, not just the rich. The long-term decline in geographic mobility within the United States is a theme in all three books, and in Appelbaum's Stuck it's the central topic. A thriving economy requires that people move to where economic opportunity is greatest—'Go west, young man,' as Horace Greeley said. Alarmingly, there's far less job-related migration among today's young men and women (unless they're affluent) than in the past. To the limited extent working-class people do migrate, it's away from economic opportunity, because when you have little prospect of increasing your wage significantly you may decide to live someplace where housing is cheaper. I published an article about this problem a dozen years ago ('Stay Put, Young Man,' Washington Monthly), and I reported that, yes, among the reasons for this harmful economic trend was overly restrictive zoning. But the underlying problem was income inequality. Citing pioneering work in this area by Harvard's Daniel Shoag and the University of Chicago's Peter Ganong, I pointed out that working-class people had seen their share of state per capita income growth shrink from 88 percent in 1940 to 36 percent in 2010. Opportunity dried up for America's working-class majority, putting places with brisk economic growth out of reach for all but the professional class, who could afford to pay more for housing. Shoag and Ganong have since concluded that zoning restrictions drive growing economic inequality between regions (which in turn drives the nation's red-state blue-state divide). But ask yourself why red states are able to thrive economically without welcoming in-migration from the working class. It's because the working class has, to an alarming degree, been dealt out of the United States economy. A much-cited recent study by Moody's Analytics found that the top 10 percent in the United States income distribution (i.e., households earning $250,000 or more) now account for 49.7 percent of all consumer spending and about one-third of GDP. The more alarming reality isn't that high housing costs keep the working class out of America's boomtowns; it's these boomtowns don't have to care. They don't require much working-class labor and they don't require much working-class consumer spending. That diminishment of economic power, tantamount to invisibility, isn't a housing problem. It's an inequality problem, and a humanity problem. Reducing zoning restrictions can help, but not enough. Indeed, in the cities where the affluent are most determined to live, building more housing may serve to increase demand, much as Robert Moses's expressways, rather than ease traffic congestion, drew additional motorists onto New York City streets. I've suggested elsewhere that something like this may be happening in Washington, D.C., which during the past quarter century increased the number of its housing units by an astonishing one-third, yet saw median monthly rent rise even faster—by one-half. Housing for low-income people is especially unlikely to become more affordable through market forces. If there's a supply-side liberal paradise, it's Houston, which has no zoning at all (though it does have some land restrictions). Klein and Thompson report that Houston has 'the lowest homelessness rate of any major U.S. city,' and they cite low building costs as the reason. But a 2023 Governing magazine piece by Alan Greenblatt pointed out that Houston also had no zoning back in 2011, when 'Space City' boasted the sixth-largest homeless population in the United States, prompting the department of Housing and Urban Development to place Houston on a watch list. Greenblatt attributed the city's turnaround to collaboration with various government and nonprofit entities (including HUD), a large pile of Covid stimulus cash—and a more than twentyfold increase in police citations issued at homeless encampments. Houston's lack of zoning creates plenty of problems. Between 1930 and 1978, 82 percent of the city's trash got dumped in Black neighborhoods, even though Blacks represented only 25 percent of the population. The neighborhoods had no power to stop it. A 2025 report by the nonprofit newsroom Houston Landing said this problem persists, and that because of Houston's insufficient local housing subsidies affordable housing was more readily available in Boston, which is routinely ranked among the top ten most expensive housing markets in the country. 'There is pressure among liberals,' Klein and Thompson write, 'to focus only on the sins of the MAGA right.' Yes, at the moment that does seem to be kind of an emergency (and not just for liberals). 'But this misses the contributions that liberal governance made to the rise of Trumpism.' Sorry, I'm not buying it. All three of these books were written before the election; their argument would be more compelling had Kamala Harris won. A Harris presidency would have created more space for a conversation about small tweaks to liberal orthodoxies. Trump's victory doesn't leave us that luxury. If Democrats are to win back the working-class majority necessary to regain the White House, they'll need to talk about how a more activist government can address demand-side problems experienced by the proletariat. Back during the 1988 election, Michael Dukakis was judged an out-of-touch technocrat in part because he'd once taken to the beach a book supposedly titled Swedish Land-Use Planning. The supply-side liberals want us to take to the beach a book that might as well be titled American Land-Use Planning. No thank you. I don't can't walk that dark road again.
Yahoo
08-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Nesi's Notes: March 8
Happy Saturday! Here's another edition of my weekend column for — as always, send your takes, tips and trial balloons to tnesi@ and follow me on Twitter, Bluesky and Facebook. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now 1. Governing Rhode Island and Massachusetts is, today, almost entirely a Democratic Party project; for the first time in over a century, no Republican holds high office in either state. So Democrats need to look in the mirror and reckon with why they can't seem to make major headway on the big problems that hold back the region: unaffordable housing, anemic population growth, bloated project costs, high energy bills, perennial budget deficits, and more. That's why every elected Democrat should pick up a copy of 'Why Nothing Works,' the new book by Brown's Marc Dunkelman that is getting a lot of national buzz. 'We Democrats are the party of government. Government isn't working. And that is a reason for people to vote against us,' Dunkelman said on this week's Newsmakers. '[W]e need to focus on what is our product, which is a functioning government that improves people's lives in ways that they can see, touch and feel.' Dunkelman's book is partly meant as a corrective to 'The Power Broker,' Robert Caro's immensely influential 1974 Robert Moses biography, which showed how Moses wielded nearly unchecked power in New York to bulldoze entire neighborhoods. 'We don't want to go back to the mistakes of that age,' Dunkelman said. But he argues the pendulum has now swung too far, making it nearly impossible to efficiently build things like housing, power lines, or high-speed rail. 'We should be, as progressives, the government efficiency folks,' he said. 'We should be the ones calling out bureaucracies that aren't delivering.' 2. Marc Dunkelman's book is one of a trio of high-profile new releases that all examine why Democratic elected officials, particularly in blue states, struggle to execute these days. The others are 'Stuck,' by Atlantic deputy executive editor Yoni Appelbaum, and 'Abundance,' by the NYT's Ezra Klein and the Atlantic's Derek Thompson. All three focus heavily on housing as a prime example of governmental failure in the modern era. Appelbaum was in Providence this week to speak at Brown, and before the event he laid out his argument during a roundtable with reporters. Noting that blue states' stagnation is also shrinking their political relevance in national elections, Appelbaum said, 'Blue jurisdictions are waking up to the fact that they have become their own worst enemies.' 3. Governor McKee made his 2026 reelection bid official on Monday with a two-minute campaign launch video — released a full 18 months before next year's gubernatorial primary. To put the timing in perspective, his predecessor Gina Raimondo waited to launch her reelection bid until barely three months before the primary. The kickoff was so low-key that the R.I. Democratic Party's email newsletter made no mention of it Friday. But our political analyst Joe Fleming sees a clear rationale. 'I think a lot of people have not been convinced that he was going to run again,' Fleming said on this week's Newsmakers, adding, 'I think it's hurt him as far as raising money.' Still, Fleming doesn't count McKee out, noting that he could conceivably win the Democratic nomination in a two-way race with just 60,000 votes, based on typical turnout. Only a week ago, Fleming released a poll commissioned by the Rhode Island AFL-CIO that showed 48% of voters think the state is headed in the wrong direction, a clear red flag for the incumbent. But the governor had a more positive spin on that number, telling my colleague Kate Wilkinson, 'When you start to get less than half the state of Rhode Island saying we're headed in the wrong direction, that's progress.' Regardless, with 18 months to go before the balloting, there are a host of unknowns that could still affect next year's race for governor. One is House Speaker Joe Shekarchi, who up to now has mostly been a McKee ally, but who could certainly make the incumbent's life more difficult if he wants to help nudge him out of the race. (It didn't go unnoticed that Shekarchi put more distance than usual between himself and McKee at Tuesday night's Rhode Map Live event.) Another wild card will come June 6, when RIDOT is scheduled to announce how much the new Washington Bridge will cost and how long it will take to build. Will voters have sticker shock? 4. Speaking of the Washington Bridge, an increasingly pressing question is whether the Trump administration will actually agree to provide the $221 million in federal grants that Pete Buttigieg awarded for the project during his final months in office. We learned this week, via a letter from Governor McKee to U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, that federal officials still haven't put their signatures on the award documents. 'We've already been in contact with [Duffy],' McKee told my colleague Alexandra Leslie on Thursday. 'I'm setting up a call, a direct call with him, and I'll be able to fill in a little bit more information after that call.' Asked Friday if the call had taken place yet, the governor's office would only tell Tim White, 'This is in process.' Stay tuned. 5. The dais at the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce legislative luncheon will be missing some familiar faces next Wednesday. Senate President Dominick Ruggerio remains in rehab at Fatima Hospital following his recent bout of pneumonia, and as of Friday was scheduled to be released on either the day of the luncheon or the day after. Finance Committee Chair Lou DiPalma will join Majority Leader Val Lawson in representing Senate Democrats, alongside Senate GOP Leader Jessica de la Cruz. But the House will only be represented by Democrats — Speaker Shekarchi and Majority Leader Chris Blazejewski — after GOP Leader Mike Chippendale announced the House Republicans would all skip the annual event, a perennial on the State House calendar. Chippendale described the Chamber's leadership as 'an incestuous group of top-level executives at the largest companies in the state, whose main goal is to not offend the Democratic leadership so they can get whatever legislative crumbs might get tossed their way.' Laurie White, the Providence Chamber's longtime president, called the decision 'unfortunate' in an interview with the Current's Nancy Lavin. 'The legislators tell us all the time (and rightfully so): 'Show up. Let us know what you think. Don't sit on the sidelines. Get involved,'' she said. 6. Mayor Smiley is again warning Providence residents to brace for a tax hike. 7. There is so much news coming out of Washington that it's challenging to quickly summarize it all, even if you try to keep the focus local. … An agency posted a list indicating plans to sell federal buildings in New Bedford and Fall River, then deleted it; some local leases are also being cancelled. … U.S. District Chief Judge Jack McConnell again ruled in favor of the states in the court fight over the funding freeze, drawing praise from AG Neronha, who is among the leaders on the plaintiff side. …. Senator Reed has so far voted for only two cabinet nominees, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll; Senator Whitehouse has voted for five, most recently U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. … Reed also signed an unusual bicameral statement from eight top Democrats in Congress that accused President Trump and Elon Musk of imperiling national security. … Congressman Keating and Congressman Amo both tried to redirect a Europe subcommittee hearing about Turkey to discuss the war in Ukraine. … Congressman Magaziner filed legislation he says would bar Trump from seizing Canada, Panama or Greenland. … The status of federal funding for Rhode Island-based nutrition nonprofit Edesia led to a fight on social media between Musk and Pod Save America host Jon Favreau. … The president's address to a joint session triggered a mostly party-line vote to censure Congressman Al Green for interrupting; the region's four congressmen all voted no. … Governor Healey got a national spotlight from the NYT over her response to the new administration. … What will next week bring? 8. There's a lot of news about local newspapers at the moment. The biggest development is at The Providence Journal, where Gannett is shutting down the Kinsley Avenue printing plant this weekend and shifting production to New Jersey. (TV cameras won't be allowed inside to document the final press run, Gannett told us Friday.) Another change is happening in the Blackstone Valley, where the Call & Times announced it is ending its Monday edition and will only print five days a week going forward; the paper was created less than two years ago by the merger of the Woonsocket Call and the Pawtucket Times. The Call & Times' corporate owner, Rhode Island Suburban Newspapers, is also now merging the North Kingstown Standard-Times and the East Greenwich Pendulum into one paper, the Standard-Pendulum. On a more positive note, new Beacon Communications publisher Joy Fox just finished a major technology upgrade that helped the company refresh the design of the Warwick Beacon, Cranston Herald and Johnston Sun Rise. 9. People in the news … former Rhode Island U.S. Attorney Zach Cunha is now practicing at Nixon Peabody … Congressman Amo is in Texas today to speak at SXSW … Joe Powers easily won reelection as Rhode Island GOP chairman … Housing Secretary Deborah Goddard removed 'acting' from her title after winning Senate confirmation … Tom Kane is finishing his term as president of the R.I. Association of Democratic City & Town Chairs; Erich Haslehurst is running to succeed him … Providence's Timothy J. Walsh has been named the new chairman and CEO of audit giant KPMG … the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence is still waiting for the Vatican to announce a new bishop, so former Bishop Thomas Tobin celebrated the cathedral's Ash Wednesday Mass … Roger Williams University School of Law's David Logan is a main character in this New York Times deep-dive about the future of American libel law … the AP has named Kimberlee Kruesi as the wire service's new reporter in Rhode Island; she's currently stationed in Nashville … condolences to the family and friends of former state tourism director David DePetrillo, who has died at age 78. 10. The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth has always stood out for its Brutalist architecture; if you've never been there, picture Boston City Hall. At a time when the president is targeting Brutalism from the White House, what lies in store for the Dartmouth campus? Ben Berke has a great piece examining that here. 11. Time's Jamie Ducharme investigates why more young adults are getting cancer. 12. We are gearing up for a big celebration at the end of the month, when WPRI 12 will mark our 70th anniversary on the airwaves. As part of the preparation, we've been spending a lot of time digitizing old news footage from our archives — my fellow Attleboro natives will get a real kick out of this video of the city in 1986. From the same year, Rhode Islanders may also enjoy this newly unearthed Jack White story covering the late Bruce Selya's swearing-in. 13. Speaking of WPRI, have you downloaded our new 12+ smart TV app yet? You can watch our newscasts live and find all our latest stories on demand. It's really slick — try it out today. 14. Set your DVRs: This week on Newsmakers — 'Why Nothing Works' author Marc Dunkelman. Watch Sunday at 5:30 a.m. on WPRI 12 and 10 a.m. on Fox Providence, or listen on the radio Sunday at 6 p.m. on WPRO. You can also subscribe to Newsmakers as a podcast via Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. See you back here next Saturday. Ted Nesi (tnesi@ is a Target 12 investigative reporter and 12 News politics/business editor. He co-hosts Newsmakers and writes Nesi's Notes on Saturdays. Connect with him on Twitter, Bluesky and Facebook. Download the and apps to get breaking news and weather alerts. Watch or with the new . Follow us on social media: Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
CNN
23-02-2025
- Politics
- CNN
On GPS: How progressives stifled progress
Marc Dunkelman, author of the new book "Why Nothing Works," tells Fareed why Democrats have struggled to achieve sweeping changes when in power.
