Land-Use Horseshoes: News Miner 51
Land reg bedfellows, progressives and guns, Salzman on the Independence Institute, abortion bills, schools, and more.
Odd Land-Use Bedfellows
Colorado conservatives Natalie Menten and Krista Kafer, along with the Colorado House Republicans and others, have come out swinging against the land-use reform bill, 213. I acknowledge the bill as introduced has problems from an economic liberty standpoint, but, as I argue in a column and first and second follow-up, the main thrust of the bill is to better-respect individual property rights to use and develop property by curbing local controls.
This issue has created some interesting “horseshoe” alliances both for and against.
In an April 8 Tweet, Democratic activist Joe Salazar writes, “Colorado needs more TRULY affordable housing, but state preemption isn’t the answer. I fear this bill is developers’ jackpot.” To this, Elisabeth Epps, the Democratic state rep. endorsed by Denver Democratic Socialists, added, “exactly. when the same $$$ blocking basic renter protections like just cause for eviction are poised for a major windfall, it’s wild how folks act like our only option is to accept whatever crumbs the wealthy toss our way—then they blame us for not being more grateful. foh.” Elsewhere Epps has expressed “serious reservations” and “concerns” with the bill but suggested she might support it anyway.
The conservatives’ concern with the bill is it limits “local control,” which in my book is a good thing in this context, because local control (i.e., control by local governments) is violating people’s property rights and screwing up the housing market. My concern with the bill is it limits economic liberty in some of its details, but I think it’s on balance good.
A concern on the left is that someone, somewhere, might make some money by actually building new housing. Obviously I see that as a good thing! The fundamental problem we face is not enough housing. We can’t get more housing without (drum roll please) building more housing. No one is going to build more housing unless they make money doing so. Building housing is hard work and (almost) nobody’s doing it for free or at a loss!
Further, as I have argued (contra Bedrooms are for People) the controls on rental properties that various Democrats have proposed, such as rent control and limits on out-of-lease evictions, would unjustly burden owners of rental properties and further discourage the supply of housing.
Denise Maes worries that density may not translate to affordability: “If density just means more $1m duplexes or condos, we’ve done nothing.” A lot of people on the left seem to have the idea that greedy capitalists only want to build houses for rich people. That’s crazy! There’s plenty of money to made in housing for all income levels. The basic difference between a modest home and an expensive one is the amount of skilled labor that goes into it. Sure, we’ll probably end up with more million-dollar units too—and that’s great! That either means that someone able to afford that is moving out of other housing, opening it up for someone else, or moving into the area from elsewhere. How exactly is it a bad thing for rich people to move into Colorado, providing jobs (and contributing to the tax base) in the process? Ask Colorado’s construction workers, plumbers, electricians, restaurant owners, and others if they think it sounds like a horrible idea to build a bunch of new million-dollar housing units, along with units for smaller budgets.
Despite the strangeness of some of the alliances, we need more housing, and I am very happy to work with progressives serious about lifting the legal impediments to building it.
As Ilya Somin summarizes for Reason, “A broad consensus of experts agree that zoning restrictions on the construction of housing are extremely harmful, and need to be cut back.”
Matt Yglesias points out—Republicans should take note—that a lot of people blame “capitalism” for the horrendously overpriced housing market, even though land-use political controls are to blame.
Unfortunately, many of the people who claim to be capitalist have made common cause with those who are overtly anticapitalist to oppose freer markets in housing. As a consequence, many people are stripped of their financial security by high housing costs or else priced out of housing altogether.
Progressives and Guns
The same Colorado progressives who are always telling us that crime is complicated, that we have to look at root causes, that a bigger police state is not the answer, that we shouldn’t needlessly arrest and imprison people, and that we should not always trust the police (never mind the military), now often tell us the solution to gun violence is to restrict and ban guns rather than focus on the people misusing them, to legally harass peaceable gun owners and threaten to imprison them over paperwork violations, and to work toward a society in which only those with the police and the military are armed.
The same progressives who tell us to “follow the science” often cite gun-related crime statistics while ignoring that non-gun-related violence in the U.S. also is relatively high and that criminals often can substitute one method of violence for another, cite gun-related suicides without mentioning that people can substitute methods of suicide, discuss gun laws as though criminal gangs who run illegal drugs and guns would follow them, and cite the harms of guns while completely ignoring the large number of defensive gun uses as well as the deterrent effect of gun ownership against certain types of crime (such as home invasions, and arguably we can include democide).
The same progressives who claim to find an absolute right to abortion in the federal constitution, which does not mention abortion, pretend that the Second Amendment, as well as the Colorado Constitutional provision saying "the right of no person to keep and bear arms in defense of his home, person and property . . . shall be called in question," allow state government to completely disarm an entire category of peaceable adults based on their age.
The same progressives who tell us to tolerate and welcome differences of beliefs, behavior, and self-identity often go out of their way to demonize rights-respecting gun owners and to scapegoat them for the violent crime that they did not cause.
Salzman on the Independence Institute
I begin by (again) pointing out that I write a (paid) column for Complete Colorado, a project of the conservative-libertarian think tank Independence Institute (not to be confused with the Independent Institute of California).
Jason Salzman, editor of the left-leaning Colorado Times-Recorder, has out a new piece blasting the Institute. Here are Salzman’s specific complaints:
The Institute hosts (allows in its building) a monthly barter market where some people might evade sales taxes and that features some items and services of dubious effectiveness and legality. The market is associated with Ammon Bundy.
The Institute also allows in its building meetings claiming (in Salzman’s words) “that American citizenship is a fiction.”
In 2021, the Institute’s Rob Natelson said there were “irregularities” with the 2020 presidential election and he had “no idea” who won.
“Senior Fellow Paul Prentice . . . supported a slate of Trump-aligned conservatives who control the El Paso County Republican Party and hoped to win GOP primary elections for various offices representing parts of El Paso County. The group had the backing of FEC United, an election conspiracy group with a militia arm.”
In 2021, the Institute’s Kathleen Chandler “liked” a comment suggesting that some of those who assaulted the Capitol were “part of the ANTIFA group.”
Here’s a peculiar part of Salzman’s article:
[Institute head Jon] Caldara was adamant that I quote him saying that “no employee of the Independence Institute has ever called for violence,” and he asked me to defend Colorado Times Recorder reporter Heidi Beedle’s statement in support of violence in unspecified situations, which I have already done. I told him you don’t have to be a pacifist to work at the Colorado Times Recorder — I’m not a pacifist—and, in any case, Beedle renounced violence last week and became a pacifist.
Here’s where I’m at. Do I always agree with the stances and policy positions taken by others associated with the Independence Institute? No. Do I think the Institute should tighten up its affiliations? Yes. Do I think it should vocally condemn election conspiracy mongering? Yes. Do I think the Independence Institute generally does good work? Also yes.
Here are my basic choices. I can get paid by the Independence Institute to write about Colorado politics, I can write about Colorado politics for pennies on the hour (which means I’ll just stop writing about Colorado politics), or I can find some other fantastical being to replace the revenues (which seems not in the offering). So it is what it is.
Meanwhile, if Salzman has published details of his financial ties, I have yet to read the report.
The blunt fact is there’s no competent conservative outfit subjecting people on Colorado’s left to the sort of treatment to which Salzman’s outfit routinely subjects people on the right. Don’t get me wrong: I think Salzman’s outfit produces some outstanding and useful work (although it often plays games of guilt by association). I just wish is was not self-delimited by partisan blinders.
Quick Takes
Denver Elections: The leftist candidates ended up doing better in late vote counts, Axios reports. In an April 4 Tweet, Denver Democratic Socialists endorsed Lisa Calderón, Timothy O’Brien, Sarah Parady, Ava Truckey, Tiffany Caudill, Tony Pigford, Shontel Lewis, Candi CdeBaca, and Shannon Hoffman. Calderón remains in third place in the mayor’s race, so Mike Johnston and Kelly Brough will move to the run-off. Reminder: Denver’s election system for mayor is profoundly stupid and profoundly anti-democratic. The city could fix this simply by implementing approval voting. Then it wouldn’t need run-offs. Also, voter participation is up to 33%.
Abortion: Krista Kafer and the Gazette continue to speak out against a bill that forces people to subsidize abortions via their insurance premiums. As I’ve said, you have a right to get an abortion, but you don’t have a right to force others to pay for it. Kafer has out a column also discussing Bill 190, regarding deceptive practices at anti-abortion care facilities. I don’t see any problem with the language about deception, but the bill also forbids “abortion reversals,” which I think women should be free to take whether or not they are medically approved. Your body, your choice, right?
Restrooms: Bill 1057 would require that new public buildings include gender-neutral restrooms. Sounds reasonable. This is already pretty standard.
Police: “A federal judge last week refused to dismiss an elderly man’s excessive force claims against a Westminster police officer who pushed him to the ground and tased him inside a Walmart,” Colorado Politics reports.
Subsidies: From the WTF Files, via CPR: “Colorado has spent nearly $300,000 in taxpayer money on private weddings in the state as part of an incentive program meant to lure event planners to spend money here and bolster local economies after the pandemic.”
Mental Health: Bill 1003 which “specifies that a student 12 years of age or older may consent to participate in the mental health [screening, as established] even if the student’s parent opts out.” Offhand that sounds like some bullshit. I was alerted to this bill by an April 7 Tweet by Kristi Burton Brown. Unfortunately, as Heidi Beedle reports, at a rally against the bill, some speakers also railed against vaccines and transgender recognition.
Democrats: Morgan Carroll, outgoing state Dem chair, joined Craig Silverman’s podcast. The talent gap between the state Democrats and Republicans is enormous. One thing Carroll points out is that the self-induced insanity of the Republican Party is bad for American democracy.
Schools: “The former principal of Gateway High school in Aurora and an office assistant, who work alongside him, are under investigation for embezzling more than $100,000 from the school,” CBS reports.
Schools II: Suzanne Morris-Sherer, “a professional educator in Aurora, Cherry Creek and Denver for nearly thirty years,” has “never been more frustrated or disappointed by a school district’s leaders as I am now with Denver Public Schools,” she writes for Westword. She claims the district is hostile to “innovative schools.”
EV Charging: Who should we expect to know best how to wire up apartment complexes: Those who build and operate them and have a direct financial stake in how they perform, or politicians and bureaucrats who have never run apartment complexes and who do not have to bear the costs of wasteful spending? In a sane world, the question answers itself. In our world, it’s an open question.
Image: ii Mull