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All politics may be local, but the local seems to be going national this year.
‘America is not a museum’: Why Democrats are going big on housing despite the risks
This marks a major contrast, in a race full of them.
Trump's gone full NIMBY.
Whereas the Dems are amping up the YIMBY rhetoric.
Build, baby, build.
‘America is not a museum’: Why Democrats are going big on housing despite the risks
CHICAGO — Democrats are trying to turn a political vulnerability, housing affordability, into a winning issue for November. The strategy carries significant risk: It’s likely to spark a host of fights across blue cities and states.
At the Democratic convention, leaders including Kamala Harris and Barack Obama built on existing momentum in both red and blue states — including Harris’ home state of California — and called for an overhaul of local zoning laws that act as barriers to new and cheaper housing. But the federal government has limited influence on these rules.
Instead, if the pleas work, it would send cheering mayors, city councilmembers and party chairs back to their hometowns to pick battles with Democrat-run planning boards and Legislatures in major metro areas and small towns alike in an effort to fulfill Harris’ pledge to build three million new homes.
The “YIMBY” pro-housing movement, or Yes In My Backyard, hasn’t had a natural political home with its center-left and center-right appeals. But with top Democrats from Obama to Harris to Polis to House Financial Services ranking member Maxine Waters devoting substantial time to the issue at the DNC, the push from the national ranks to apply pressure for more and cheaper housing is unmistakable. There could be wide appeal, from younger people disillusioned by the housing market to more conservative-leaning voters who are also feeling squeezed.
This marks a major contrast, in a race full of them.
Trump's gone full NIMBY.
Whereas the Dems are amping up the YIMBY rhetoric.
Build, baby, build.