Local governments, NIMBYs don't 'get it'

A real estate consultant makes his argument for more development at Inman News:

There are many homeowners in expensive markets who have been opposing home construction, and then wonder why their children move to Phoenix or Florida. What is most amusing about this, however, is that we have found that many of these homeowners then end up moving to Phoenix or Florida to be near their grandchildren. The questions we need to ask homeowners and their government officials are:

• Would we rather leave our children a $1 million home when we die, or see them while we are alive?

• We plan for our children's education. We plan for our retirement. Why don't we plan for our children and grandchildren's housing needs?

If we think other people's children won't move to our neighborhood, we are wrong. If we expect the city next door to solve our housing needs, we are also mistaken. We all need to support more housing in our city and more infrastructure regionally, or we are going to be spending the next few decades in traffic and our grandchildren won't know who we are.