The problem isn’t the powers that be. A lot of regular homeowners fight new developments tooth and nail. And many blue states unfortunately give them a lot of tools to do so.

It's typically local residents who fight this. There's a "fuck you, got mine" tendency to pull up the ladder once you've made it.

Well, it's easy! Just get the majority of voters to hate each other enough that it's a moral boundary to vote together on any law, effectively limiting any meaningful change.

Over 60% of Americans are homeowners. In any functioning democracy, they ought to be the people in power.

After a few decades in California, I'm pretty sure there are no "people in power".

There are a lot of people with some power, which they use as they see fit. It all adds up to marginal and pseudo-random changes, as the state drifts toward... wherever it's going.

Trump explicitly said he wants to keep prices high [0]. This is the problem with a culture that views housing not as a need or a home, but as an investment. Pathological.

[0] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-trump-says-he-wa...