Nathan Newman makes some excellent points about how liberals, too, can work against their own self-interest. In this case, by opposing efforts to build more local high-density housing in New York City:
while I understand the nostalgia for Brooklyn’s low-rise housing and it is lovely for those who can continue to live there, the reality is that blocking higher density there condemns others to homelessness and the rest to increasingly long commutes. And while quaint neighborhoods are preserved in Brooklyn, it means more people will be driven out into the suburbs to create more strip malls, SUVs, environmental degradation, and Republicans.
And don’t forget sucky commutes, too. The NYC area has some of the best commuter mass transit systems around but even so, trying to get to a job in Manhattan from the affordable-housing zones in New Jersey, Long Island, or further out is no picnic.
I used to live in a three-bedroom apartment in Soho. It was a sweet deal — the apartment had previously been the building superintendent’s, so it came into the market at the low end of the rent spectrum ($1200), and being rent-stabilized rent increases were less than $50 a year. Despite its being a sixth-floor walkup, I hung onto that place for a decade, knowing damn well I’d never find a deal like that again. I shudder to think of what that place is being rented for today – I would not at all be surprised to find that it’s been decontrolled and renting for $2600 or so.
At any rate, call me a hypocrite for supporting more housing out of my own self-interest, but I’m all for it.