Affordability is ‘Relative’ in Smart Growth Cities
Vancouver, Canada, has out-paced cities like Seattle and Portland in promoting crowded and congested living, which Smart Growthers term “livability.” Critics like Randal O’Toole and Wendell Cox often note that one of the casualties of Smart Growth is housing affordability as artificial constraints on land supply drive up the price of housing.
An architect and planner from Vancouver, Michael Geller, writes that affordability is “a relative concept” in his city. This is true wherever Smart Growth is embraced.
In Tysons Corner, Virginia – built as a high density, transit oriented community - people with a six-figure income still qualify for housing aid. That’s not because they’re rolling in dough in Virginia but because housing costs are extremely high. One of the claims of Smart Growth is that it diversifies housing choices and stabilizes prices. This is absolutely false.
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