Mary Jane's Last Dance

That will have worse long term consequences for the economy.

NIMBYism is definitely something that has to be struggled against, especially in inner cities, however lots of planning regulations have good reason for being there because there are a whole range of infrastructure considerations.

Conservatives were never in favor of states' rights; that was merely pretext to push their own agenda and ensure voters would line up at the polls like unthinking zombies (no pun intended in regards to @Zombie).

States' rights are at least one area where libertarians tend to be consistent.

There is where we disagree. He ignores defense briefings because not only does he not know but he also doesn't care. I think he has an ego the size of mountain and thinks he knows everything. Hell, he doesn't even know what he does not know yet he thinks it is all easy and he doesn't need those fancy pants subject matter experts.

So how do you suggest speeding up the process without throwing everything out the window? If there is a middle ground I would love to hear it. Right now it is a cluster fuck in city after city after city where demand for new growth is like 20,000 yet maybe 2000 get built with 30,000 proposed yet 28,000 get killed or delayed for a decade or longer.

Hell, in Vista (a city in Northern San Diego county) a developer proposed an eight story mixed use misuse with retail on the first, office space on the next two, then five stories of apartments above and it was even in an area zoned for that. NIMBYs attacked it whining about traffic and generally just being resistant to anything new at all. Eventually, it got built after a decade of waiting for permits but now it three stories with only 25 apartments instead of 125 and only one story of office. Then the politicians dare to claim they know there is a housing shortage but they are studying why? The reason is those fuckers don't let the needed supply get built!

The result? Prices continually skyrocket on all categories because supply never reaches demand.

For every example of something that was blocked unnecessarily you can probably find one of something that was knocked back justifiably.

To use my own state as an example, due to loose planning regulations the suburbs have sprawled out incredibly. Greater Adelaide has a population of around 1.5 million, yet the suburbs sprawl around 85km from one side to another.

So more people can afford to buy houses out on the fringe, but still expect metropolitan quality of services. That means inefficient and distribution of public transport. Expensive road infrastructure built and maintained at public cost. Lost efficiency in the economy due to high commute time and traffic jams on roads which can't be easily upgraded and were never designed to carry as much traffic as they are...

The opposite case of too much density is happening in parts of Melbourne. Investors keen to cash in on a growing market have financed a vast number of apartment buildings that meet the bare minimum legal requirements for construction. The result is there are entire apartment towers barely occupied because no-one actually wants to live there.

Balance is important.