Pre-approved housing plans are a pragmatic, cost-effective way to deliver that. Builders get speed and certainty. Residents get homes. Governments get out of the way.

What’s missing is not just housing but a holistic view of families as integral to civic health. Policies that make urban living compatible with family life—through housing, schools, transportation, and public space—are not just pro-family; they’re pro-city.

Data centers may be part of the future, but they are not a one-size-fits-all solution. Cities will need to balance their role in the digital economy with their obligations to residents.

Each initiative was politically popular and framed as a temporary response to economic pressure. Yet taken together, these measures fundamentally reshaped the rental ecosystem by capping revenues, raising compliance costs, and embedding new procedural asymmetries between tenants and property owners. The paradoxical result is that New York’s rental market has become more expensive.

The core of Baltimore’s reforms is regulatory simplification. By removing a mandated minimum of off‑street parking, the city lowers one of the costliest development prerequisites. Allowing buildings closer to the property line and relaxing stairwell mandates similarly reduce development friction—both in terms of design and cost.