Urban renewal left the U.S. too scared to build

Scope of the Problem: Why the U.S. “Can’t Build”

• Many argue the U.S. has swung from overly aggressive top‑down building to a system with so many veto points that even modest projects stall for years.
• Permitting, environmental review, lawsuits, and overlapping jurisdictions increase time and cost, often without clearly improving outcomes.
• Others say this is a tradeoff for strong individual rights and local control; the issue is overcorrection and poor design of protections, not protections per se.

Urban Renewal, Highways, and Displacement

• Several comments highlight highways and “renewal” projects that destroyed minority and low‑income neighborhoods (e.g., Cross‑Bronx, Seattle Chinatown, SF Western Addition, Baltimore’s “Highway to Nowhere,” St. Paul’s Rondo).
• Counter‑argument: routes often followed existing major roads, cheap land, and areas where buyouts cost less; minorities were there because of prior segregation and urban decline.
• Disagreement over whether this is active “targeting” or structural economics with racist effects either way.

Cars vs. Rail and Urban Form

• Many argue highways physically split cities, entrenched car dependence, and privileged those who can afford cars.
• Strong pro‑rail camp: rail needs less space, has much higher capacity, and could have replaced many urban highways if the U.S. had invested similarly.
• Skeptics cite U.S. size, lower average density, and cultural preference for single‑family homes and cars; others counter that relevant density is in metro corridors, where rail would work well.

Housing Politics, NIMBY, and Landlords/Homeowners

• Homeowners and landlords are frequently criticized as rent‑seekers: blocking new housing, manipulating zoning, benefiting from restricted supply and property‑tax regimes (e.g., Prop 13).
• Some say that’s a small subset of owners; core driver is demand far exceeding legal supply in high‑growth metros.
• Processes meant to protect vulnerable communities are described as routinely hijacked by affluent NIMBYs to stop infill and multifamily housing.
• Low‑income housing is seen as both necessary and often poorly implemented, with “missing middle” options (small homes, townhouses, modest apartments) underbuilt.

Institutions, Capital, and Culture

• 2008 crash is cited as making builders and lenders cautious; capital and skilled labor never fully rebounded before COVID, then hit high rates.
• Others stress that in truly liberalized local markets (some Texas cities, Minneapolis, Raleigh) supply has responded to demand.
• Some frame U.S. stagnation as cultural: complacency, fragmented politics, and car‑centric ideology; others see it as an inevitable byproduct of democracy and property rights compared to more authoritarian models (e.g., China).