[zzzeek]

> If someone built a gigantic apartment complex next to your house it would mean that the demand for housing in your neighborhood was massive

or it could mean a developer was very stupid to overbuild somewhere, or more likely it's a shell building used as a money laundering scheme for organized crime (See https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/nov/17/trump-ocean-... for one such building built by Trump; such buildings are also often structurally unsafe such as the building in Florida that collapsed which was also started as a money laundering front). I'm not down with this "the free market will make sure everything is OK" idea.

[spothedog1]

If a developer is stupid to overbuild, then let them take that risk and that loss. We don't have to zone away risk. As for money laundering, you're using an example of one Trump Tower out of millions of apartments buildings to say it's "more likely" that every apartment building built is just used for money laundering. That's just silly.

As for structural safety, no one is arguing to reduce building codes or safety regulations so that's just a straw man argument. If an apartment building is built unsafe then the government should have done a better job inspecting and enforcing/expanding their regulations, it's not really an argument to not build.

[zzzeek]

i meant "more likely" than a developer who is stupid. There's lots of buildings that are built for cynical, non-market related reasons.