It’s time to move on. Huntington Beach continues to lose its battle with the state of California over housing mandates. My fellow veteran and Huntington Beach resident, Russ Neal, made several claims in his opinion article, “Huntington Beach is Standing Up for You,” that aren’t grounded in the economic and social realities of California in 2025. As the journalist H.L. Mencken said, “For every complex problem there is a solution that is clear, simple, and wrong.
Russ’ argument may sound appealing, but it crumbles under even modest scrutiny. He draws a hyperbolic equivalence between the Soviet Politburo and the RHNA housing plan, which I find disappointing. There are no billboards of Marx and Engels on the 405, and no one’s singing The Internationale at Caltrans meetings. The RHNA plan isn’t collectivism; it’s capitalism clearing its regulatory throat. Market forces continue to drive private-sector developers to build housing in California.
The housing crisis and affordability issues stem from the cumulative effects of decades of collective municipal zoning policies across our great State that have interfered with free markets by inhibiting capital flows to meet consumer demand. The State is not forcing developers to build, nor does the State own the means of production. California has reduced local barriers (regulations) for developers to meet market demand and break local path dependence…