Paul Fanlund is at it again, using scare quotes around housing “crisis,” as if housing affordability isn’t the number-one challenge facing Madison. (“Rhodes-Conway unveils her latest housing density edict,” June 18).
Since no one has figured out how to amend the law of supply and demand, it’s necessary that we amend our zoning laws to accommodate our rapidly growing population. This is pragmatic policymaking, not, as Fanlund claims, the result of far-left, radical politics.
Apparently, density is a dirty word for Fanlund, though I imagine he’d be hard-pressed to defend sprawl, functionally the opposite in terms of policy. Given it’s not possible to build a moat around the city and tell people not to come, we can either build up or we can build out. And building out — i.e., sprawl — has its own set of undesirable consequences…