Community Housing Provision

William Marble and Clayton Nall in the Stanford University Department of Political Science wanted to see what it would take to change people’s minds on development. They surveyed people in the 20 largest metro areas and found that people formed attitudes toward new development independently from their overall political ideology.Urban voters aren’t likely to embrace a strategy of getting out of the way and letting the market do its magic. Many are inclined, instead, to stand in the way to keep the market from doing harm. But if we were more honest about the limitations of the market, it would be easier to convince people that local governments can hold private development accountable for delivering benefits to people who are being left out.