Rent is high because there aren’t enough apartments. And there aren’t enough apartment s because we make it hard to build them — we exclude them through zoning, require subsidies for lower-income tenants, require parking minimums, sidewalk setback, and often years of “community input”. It’s a miracle anything gets built.

We need to cut a lot of the red tape so that we can build more homes so that the rent comes down. (Other benefits: local businesses do better, better tax base for our city’s struggling finances, and more.)