The biggest myth about the YIMBY movement
Today’s must-read: There’s nothing centrist or conservative about the push to lower housing costs.
 

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The fight over housing has been framed in a way that splits the Democratic coalition, Ron Davis argues. But some of these factions are natural allies.

(Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Getty.)

 

Over the past year, the conversation about housing affordability went national. Unfortunately, it brought with it all the contentiousness of a local-zoning-board meeting. The Democratic YIMBY movement argues for reducing restrictions on building in order to increase the number of homes and lower housing prices. This has inspired a furious backlash within the liberal coalition. These critics paint the YIMBY vision as a centrist, pro-business scheme that betrays progressive values. Some of the loudest complaints have come from anti-monopoly advocates, who warn that the abundance agenda is a stalking horse for libertarianism. The fight has been framed in a way that is almost perfectly designed to split the Democratic coalition.

But this fight shouldn’t even be happening.

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