Yeah there’s just no way

It solves the problem that people in cities have too-high emissions because our infrastructure has made them reliant on cars.

“Your proposal won’t fix anything, so we shouldn’t do it” is the argument on the side that doesn’t have arguments that are actually good.

Cities should be denser

Of course. But you could immediately halt all exurban development and also provide plenty housing to ease the housing shortage if we just upzone inner-ring suburbs to medium-sized multifamily buildings.

There’s way more untapped vertical space in single-family neighborhoods in desirable cities even below five stories than there is housing demand. NYC might be the one exception but even there the surrounding suburbs have a lot of potential. We need high-density housing but we really don’t need buildings above 80 feet tall to achieve it except maybe in NYC.

The climate benefits of building height max out between 5-10 stories anyway.

Eh, green roofs are usually realllllly heavy and require much bigger foundations. Better to limit building to tree-canopy height and get the vegetation benefits from overhang canopy.

Yeah but can trees also provide food and medicine, manage stormwater runoff, create beautiful flowers, and provide habitat for native fauna?

Oh.

OHHHHHH

We aren’t anywhere close to the point where individual owners have monopolistic power over housing supply. Even if an individual company flooded the market with a bunch of units, they’d still have to compete with existing stock.

I’m sorry but I have to ask: what’s your training in economics?

You’re completely ignoring the supply effect in your neighborhood. Apartments don’t just set prices; they take prices based on the demand dynamics and the other options available to renters and homebuyers in the area. More options for renters and homebuyers means landlords and home sellers need to accept lower prices to compete.

I think you’re getting confused by the fact that new apartments are new and people are generally willing to pay a substantial premium for that.

It’s not totally insane to think that amenity effects of development might outweigh supply effects on price at a hyper-local level. Some prior research sometimes showed this. But more housing supply always helps bring down rents at the regional level, so we should be doing it anyway.

Absolutely greenwashing.