What’s The Next Vegetable In The Nimby Summer Salad?
I never realized increasing housing supply and vegetable supply were at such odds. And yet this is what urban America has come to.
In March, I learned that avocados are why Millennials like me can’t afford housing. Once the vegetable is put on toast and served in restaurants, we are left to choose between the two luxury goods (one day I hope to have an avocado of my own to call home).
And at a recent meeting over a proposed development in Berkeley, CA, one neighbor brandished a zucchini from her garden. She claimed that it wouldn’t exist after construction of a new apartment building that allegedly overshadowed the garden.
Where would our zucchinis and avocados be without such valiant protectors or the wonders of zoning, which ensure that society will always put the interests of voiceless vegetables over those of people? And what will be the next ingredient in this Not In My Back Yard summer salad?
I can’t say, but let’s at least hope that salad’s organic. Because it will surely be sold at Whole Foods prices.
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Market Urbanism
Market Urbanism is the cross between free-market policies and urban issues. Market Urbanists believe that if cities were liberalized, they would provide cheaper housing, faster transportation, enhanced public services, and a better quality of life.
