Boomer logic: oppose every new construction project anywhere near your neighborhood and mock millennials when they find there is a scarcity of affordable housing.
I don’t think this is inherent to Boomers so much as the general reaction of people who have chosen to live someplace specifically because it has a small town feel.
Instead of finding new ways to cram people into smaller spaces, we should be trying to incentivize businesses to spread out and open new branches. This has the side effect of encouraging diversity and social mobility.
Converting sprawling residential areas into high-density urban areas without upgrading infrastructure and public transit like we have been doing leads to a lot of issues.
People are gradually getting stuck choosing between skyrocketing real estate prices and massive contention for shared resources in urban areas, or languishing opportunities and pay in rural areas.
Not to mention the consequences of climate change, and the additional risk of concentrating more people in fewer places. Or the impact on political power due to the way the Senate and Electoral College are structured.
So I disagree that this is just a “housing crisis” where building more housing is the obvious solution. That will lead to secondary costs and problems that could well be crises themselves. Plus I think we have enough housing, it’s just that there aren’t equal opportunities across the country where the housing surplus exists.
Rezoning plans usually include refactoring to current infrastructure and public transit. If you let things sprawl then you make infrastructure and public transit cost more and less likely to ever happen. Take Austin for example, they've spent millions on rezoning plans and they always get shut down from the NIMBY types. Meanwhile lower income individuals in Austin suffer due to poor public transportation and increasing cost of living. Additionally adding more efficient and convenient public transportation cuts down on personal vehicle usage and having people live in higher densities incentivizes public transportation efforts. If there is too much sprawl they can't really meet the needs of everyone and remain convenient.