[more_corn]

I have an idea. Tie housing construction goals to incoming migration numbers. If 10,000 people move to a city in a year, the city must permit 10,000 new housing starts. No room to meet your city’s goal? Rezone that empty lot that’s zoned for hotel. (I know you have one, every city does).

Permit is a funny word because it means both the piece of paper that allows a developer to build and also “to grant permission” the city has the power to grant or withhold permission to build. And to be perfectly frank the default position is withhold. But we have the power to change that. We can simply demand it of our elected officials.

We should welcome people who want to move in (because economic success depends on it but also because it’s friendly and healthy) but we can also make a plan so they don’t squeeze out the locals. I know Silicon Valley utterly failed to do that. Maybe other places could learn from their abject failure.