Go to the soft-drink aisle of the supermarket, stand in front of the display for 16.9 oz Coca Cola bottles, and you will see something absolutely amazing.
The level of the beverage inside the bottles is almost identical. You’ll probably never find a bottle with exactly 16.9 ounces, but all of them—millions of them—will be between 16.85 and 16.95.
A quality control expert used this example to describe a process that is “capable.” Suppose a machine fills bottles to an average of 16.9 ounces but with an excessive spread of 15.9 and 17.9. Some of the bottles will have less beverage than advertised, and some bottles will overflow on the production floor. That machine is not capable, and cannot be used in a Coca Cola factory. If you swap out the current machine with a new machine of the same spread, you’ll have the same outcome. The only way to fix the situation is to improve the process, such as buying a better machine.
Process improvement equally applies to decision making in the public sphere, including housing policy. In MoCo and throughout the Western world there is a shortage of affordable housing. How did that happen? All of these cities and suburbs were designed by committees, councils, and planning departments. There were informational sessions, public hearings, and back-door deals. The result is that housing prices are double or triple what they were in 2000.
Council Members Friedson and Fani-Gonzalez are leading More Housing NOW, an effort to deliver more affordable housing, particularly for essential workers. They deserve huge amounts of credit for taking the political risk of rezoning. Their effort shows that they acknowledge there is a problem with affordable housing and they are willing to do something about it.
However…
Look at the summary of the NOW package. There are numbers, thresholds, pathways, and corridors. There are dates for informational sessions and public hearings. This is exactly the same process that went on in the 1940s and 1950s when designing our current housing nightmare. Will we have a different result this time? No, we will have mostly the same result, because the entire process of zoning mandates is incapable of delivering affordable housing.
For some reason almost everyone has a smart phone, toothbrush, clothing, and television. All those goods are delivered by private businesses and without public hearings. If we let the developers do what they do best, such as operating bulldozers and cement mixers, they will be sure to deliver enough housing at all price levels.
