Joel Kotkin and Wendell Cox recently published a piece in the Orange County Register called, “ California’s housing crisis and the density delusion .” I’m sure you can guess where this is going, even if you don’t follow the work of Joel Kotkin . But if you do, you will know that he is an ardent supporter of suburbia and the single-family home.
Here is an excerpt from the article:
In reality, the YIMBY’s suggestion that new, dense housing will improve affordability for all is patently absurd. Decades of densification in Los Angeles has seen ever higher rents, displacing low-income, especially minority households. Many former transit customers have been driven to lower-rent areas with less transit service, precipitating a massive decline in ridership, even as billions continue to be spent building new rail lines. The Wiener Bill [my link, not theirs] could exacerbate this trend, and likely increase the need for low-income housing, already well beyond the capability of public coffers.
I fully appreciate the argument that high-density housing isn’t for everyone and that we shouldn’t be “forcing everyone back to the ‘glory’ days of the city of tenements.” But I disagree with many of their points, including the argument that density doesn’t encourage transit ridership. Density isn’t everything, but it’s an important something.
The article is definitely worth a read, particularly if you disagree with their positions. That’s how you avoid confirmation bias . I was trying to keep that in mind as I read it. Maybe it worked.