6 days ago
Elite liberal Yimbys are killing off the family home
The Yimbys believe that the only real solution is to roll back regulations further and introduce new housing laws designed to increase urban density. Much of this is based on often exaggerated climate concerns about 'sprawl'. Remarkably they have gained the support of the libertarian Right. One might think such people would embrace the notion of promoting a class of small property owners, but it seems that juicing the profits of large corporations is a higher priority.
The problem here, for Yimbys on the Right and Left, lies in the small matter of market preferences: most people don't want to live in the inner-city high rise apartments beloved by planners and Yimbys, but in a house with a garden of their own.
Indeed, generally high-end dense housing has a relatively small market. Condos and apartments may thrill Yimby imaginations – the public, not so much. Surveys, such as one in 2019 by political scientist Jessica Trounstine, have found that the preference for lower-density, safe areas with good schools is 'ubiquitous'. Three out of four Californians, according to a poll by former Obama campaign pollster David Binder, opposed legislation that banned zoning which only permitted single family homes.
This mismatch between what is being built and what most people want can be seen in the huge oversupply of apartments, not just in the US but in Canada's big cities too, causing prices for such properties to drop over the past two years. Yet despite all the evidence, Yimbys show little or no interest in the predominant dreams of their own citizens.
Worse, their ideas are helping to inform the agenda of the so-called 'Abundance Democrats', a fashionable new movement which seeks to make peace between the Left, prosperity and growth, inspired by a book by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson. Even the Yimbys' more moderate ideas as laid out in the book – also called Abundance – largely ignore the suburbs and exurbs, where most Americans live, and stay clear of ownership.
As attorney Jennifer Hernandez suggests, there is an 'ugly elitist underbelly' to Abundance, reflecting the values of hipster professionals while eschewing 'even a passing wave to those who choose not to live in city centres, who want to be able to buy a detached, single family home, and who don't want to share a wall, sound, ride or odours with their neighbours…'
The obvious and likely failure of Yimby policies might well empower far more radical approaches to housing, which seem more interested in turning cities into a souped up version of greater Moscow. The Mamdani approach of public housing and rent control may come to be seen by progressives as the best alternative – however disastrous public housing has been in cities across the United States.
Given the utter failure of mainstream Yimbyism, the progressive embrace of a more socialist approach seems inevitable. Well-heeled Yimbys, and their corporate backers, are unlikely to enjoy the results.
