Why big cities and blue states are rapidly eroding under current (and quite possibly future) leadership *Newsom's skipping environmental reviews, because: developer money.
"Progressives are trying to drive more people to live in cities even as their policies make them unlivable, which is driving people who don’t share their politics to leave."
The Progressive Paucity Agenda—From Mamdani in New York to California
Forget the chatter about ‘abundance.’ The left hopes to solidify control of cities by driving the middle class out.
July 6, 2025 1:15 pm ET
Not that long ago, the “abundance” agenda was all the rage among liberal elites. Rather than wage class warfare, they called for easing regulations to boost the supply of housing, energy, jobs and more.
Then along came democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, who won the New York City Democratic mayoral primary on a paucity platform that calls for higher taxes on the rich, greater income redistribution, and expanding government control over private business—or, as he put it in 2021, “seizing the means of production.”
Despite the tension between the two camps, both believe government should re-engineer the economy and society to their desired liberal ends. They simply differ in their methods. One favors government command and control like Mr. Mamdani’s proposed rent freeze. The other prefers a gentler form of government coercion.
Consider the phony permitting reforms that California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law last week. The legislation, he said, embraces “a transformational abundance agenda focused on building more of what Californians need.” It does no such thing. While easing permitting for some apartment buildings in cities, the legislation reinforces regulatory barriers to building single-family homes in suburbs and exurbs.
The California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, requires an exhaustive environmental review of all building projects. Green groups and unions use the law to tie up projects in litigation and extort developers—say, by demanding they agree to use unionized construction workers or build electric-vehicle chargers in return for dropping lawsuits.
Environmentalists oppose building more homes in suburbs and want to cram people into cities, which Democrats control. The result: an acute shortage of single-family homes and sky-high prices.
California’s rents are on average about 50% higher than in the rest of the country, and the typical home in the state costs more than double. The Golden State’s homeownership rate is the second lowest in the country, after New York. The monthly mortgage payment on a two-bedroom house is nearly double the state’s average rent.
But few families want to live in cramped apartments or two-bedroom town houses. Mr. Newsom’s nonreforms won’t help them because they exempt housing projects from CEQA only if they are built in urban areas, meet strict density requirements and comply with local zoning rules.
The legislation also exempts “affordable housing” only if contractors pay prevailing union wage rates that raise costs. That’s how a new taxpayer-funded apartment complex in Los Angeles for homeless people ended up costing nearly $600,000 per studio to build. The development also boasts a café, gym, art room, community garden, computer labs and pet care.
Mr. Newsom last week announced more funding for similar projects. According to the governor’s “Housing First” philosophy, free housing and government services, which apparently includes free kibble for pooches, will help the homeless get sober and find work.
Urban housing projects that don’t meet all of the law’s requirements for a CEQA exemption can still qualify for streamlined permitting—but only if they ditch gas stoves and heating. Housing developers will also have to pay into a state fund for affordable housing and public transportation to “mitigate” a project’s carbon emissions. Want a permit? We’ve got a $120 billion bullet train we want you to finance.
The legislation may expand housing for yuppies and vagrants, but it won’t help the young families who have been fleeing the state owing to its high cost of living and lousy schools. Between 2020 and 2024, California’s population under 18 shrank by 523,000, according to Census Bureau data. Texas’ grew by 199,000 and Florida’s by 219,000.
Might the flight of middle-class families be driving California’s political culture left? Same in New York City, which has lost 163,000 children since 2020. The hipsters who have taken over Brooklyn and Queens no doubt vote differently from the families who left. Mr. Mamdani was the ironic beneficiary of population flight caused by progressive policies.
Progressives are trying to drive more people to live in cities even as their policies make them unlivable, which is driving people who don’t share their politics to leave. Whether they use nudges or brute force, the goal is the same: Expand liberal government control over how people live. You either put up, or get out.
The sands in my hourglass are on the move. I can’t wait to be, too.
There should be population based laws. The dense populated areas (cities over 40,000) can enacted laws loosening criminal penalties, prohibiting self-defense and tools, allowing recreational pharmaceutical use, allowing squatters rights, normalizing g deviant behavior, etc.
Rural areas can live by the Constitution.