Updates

“Every incidence study I’ve read says the same thing: the people who drive into a priced zone in a mid-size city are poorer than the people who don’t drive at all. Providence is not London. We should stop borrowing London’s answer.”

“You keep saying politically unworkable. The Alaska Permanent Fund has paid a dividend every year since 1982 under both parties, and New Mexico’s two permanent funds are written into the state constitution. What is the property those two have that a federal version couldn’t?”

v2: “Among people who actually study this, the disagreement is much smaller than the public argument suggests.”

v3: “Of the eleven I spoke to, four would close early and hard, three would not close at all, and four said the honest answer depends on ventilation and staffing numbers nobody collected. I had been quoting the four who publish.”

v5: “Stabilisation is the only instrument that reliably keeps people in the neighbourhoods they already live in.”

v7: “Stabilisation keeps current tenants in place and makes the next tenancy harder to find. The people it protects and the people it costs are different people, and I wrote five versions without saying so.”

“My objection isn’t that the bill goes too far. It’s that it hands a standing override to whoever holds the office next, and I’d be making the same argument if my own side were holding it. If you can write me a version with a sunset and a supermajority to renew, I’ll support it and say so publicly.”