i’m not trying to blame Biden. i’m pointing out why the economy he superintended did not feel as great as upscale Democratic partisans imagine it should have felt. 1/

the Federal government is not at all helpless on housing. The 20th C is full of examples of state-led mass housing expansions, almost always by developing new districts will rather than infill of already desirable places. 2/

i don’t blame Biden for the political impossibility of embarking on this path under his term, though i’d have loved it if he conspicuously tried. i think we might not have Trump if he had. no, under 2022-24 politics it would not have happened, not yet, but it’s the only road out of here. 3/

eventually we will have state-led housing expansions. the only question is whether it will be crisis-provoked, slapdash, likely crime-ridden barracks or favelas, or whether it will be the near utopias someone like @holz-bau.bsky.social could help organize and design. /fin