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Landlords Are Pushing the Supreme Court to End Rent Control

jacobin.com

51–60 of 81 posts

Re: Landlords Are Pushing the Supreme Court to End Rent Control

#51

Rent control is dumb policy anyways. Now how can we get rid of nimby rule? Local governments have way too much influence on development, for better or worse. Perhaps sufficiently large development proposals must be entertained by the entire city or town rather than being unilaterally decided by a board - that seems like a sufficient compromise (at the expense of speed, but development is slow anyway given the appeals…

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Anyone who does this will get unelected in the next election, so that’s where the lack of will comes from. You have to sell these ideas to the people first somehow, the politicians aren’t going to commit political suicide to enact them, we are really problem.

Re: Landlords Are Pushing the Supreme Court to End Rent Control

#52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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- "Remove planning rights from local/city government entirely" - "use the government to essentially take land and repurpose it" These are third world tactics.

Ya, that’s basically how China does it.

Re: Landlords Are Pushing the Supreme Court to End Rent Control

#53
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the government should serve the interests of those that aren’t residents to the detriment of those that do?

Yes, if you want to address the issue. Whether you should is another question. That is what the higher levels of government do. When the majority of citizens need something, you essentially use threat of violence to take it by force. You will never fix the "nimby problem" any other way.

Communist governments used the threat of violence to take by farmland by force. How did that turn out?

Re: Landlords Are Pushing the Supreme Court to End Rent Control

#54
Rent control probably should be banned.

But by the same token, proceeds from rent should be taxed at the full land value of property, so that the only profit from rent is from improvements. The tax proceeds should then be used to subsidize rent, if necessary.

Re: Landlords Are Pushing the Supreme Court to End Rent Control

#55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know why the local government is the best government? It's the government I can fire through voting. If the state had more power my votes would also have more power to change my community. I don't mean to imply abolishing the federal government in favor of local government. Just a redistribution of power that favors the local government more than the current status quo.

I’m not sure what your point is.

I think the point is local government is more accountable to its citizens than state or national governments and therefore removing something inherently local from its purview, like land planning, would be stupid.

Re: Landlords Are Pushing the Supreme Court to End Rent Control

#56
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

California basically did this[1]. Sadly though the desirable coastal areas are literally full and all spoken for and even without any real zoning anymore there’s nowhere to actually build. So you’re gonna need to eminent domain some Malibu mansions to make room for the non stop line of 1+5s from LA to SF. It’s also interesting to me how many people propose increasing supply when there is nowhere to build, but can’t e…

As someone who also lives in California, can you point out the parts of the state where there's nowhere left to build? It certainly isn't any of the places I've lived (Beverly hills, SF, East Bay), each of which has seen significant commercial redevelopment in my lifetime. None of them are dense by global standards either. SF only has 25% the population density of Paris, for example.

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Re: Landlords Are Pushing the Supreme Court to End Rent Control

#58
post #57

Do the arguments against rent control also apply to affordable housing unit construction mandates? Seems like they would.

Yes.

In general for something to be optimal supply must meet demand. Usually if demand is high supply will eventually follow. Demand for construction (creating supply) is there, but for reasons we don’t need to get into, it’s not allowed.

So affordable housing is throwing the relative poor a bone, but the thing is those mandates change profit margins if the non-affordable housing cannot effectively eat the cost, changing the demand for construction.

Re: Landlords Are Pushing the Supreme Court to End Rent Control

#59
Man they're really hammering away at this "billionaire benefactor" line, as if the public debate on this topic is over and national consensus has been reached, as if this whole narrative wasn't contrived in the last 6 months.

The article doesn't go into detail about the claims of the plaintiffs (called "lobbyists" as if the court can he lobbied), I wonder why. I really want to know what their constitutional argument is, because I don't see rent control by states and cities being unconstitutional. Unfortunately this article is devoid of substance and is just a propaganda piece to normalize the "billionaire benefactor" narrative.

Re: Landlords Are Pushing the Supreme Court to End Rent Control

#60
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Local governments have finite power given to them by state and federal government. So, the argument is more that state and federal government should actually exercise their authority to fix the underlying problem. Abstractly hyper local optimization is suboptimal.

Strong statement. Got any proof of that? All governments get their power from the people who they serve. As soon as they do not serve the interests of the people the represent they should be dissolved. Local government gets its power from the local people and no one else.

> Got any proof of that?

Most obviously their form and powers vary based on the state.

Several hundred years of court cases make there limits clear. Local governments regularly get overridden on all kinds of things.

Local governments are also completely dependent on outside help for all kinds of things. It’s common for them to even lack local police forces let alone a court system. Outliers like major cities seem extremely powerful, but for the most part they have similar powers to HOA’s.

PS: As to getting authority from the governed… Some let people outside the area vote, and a few that give corporations a say.

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