If the cities want affordable housing, then subsidize it, subsidize rents, and make the development of these projects economically justified. It is not the job of CRE to subsidize social engineering. That is the role of government. Why should CRE be the bearer of the burden. If there is some social good to be achieved then let all the citizens of the municipality bear the cost, not developers. Why not demand that grocery stores have to open in certain locations, or why not force doctors to open offices in crappy neighborhoods to provide badly needed quality medical services. There is no difference. CRE is a profit making business just like doctors, grocery stores and other services that a neighborhood needs. They target us because we are “greedy landlords.” Doctors open Medicaid mills in these low income areas and game the system, and give lousy medical care, but they are not attacked by the left.

Everyone in CRE needs to wake up to the coming wave of misinformed, spoiled brat college kids who have been indoctrinated to believe the minority rules if they yell louder and disrupt council meetings, and make uneconomic demands as they did when in college. Since few take economics, or business courses, and history is a verboten topic that is no longer taught in many schools, these kids have no idea what the real capitalist world is really all about. All they know is the rich guys need to give their money to the poor guys because that is what they were taught in school. White people “owe “ blacks, so we should redistribute our money to them because their ancestors were mistreated. If we are to follow that logic, then Japanese descendants of interned families, women, Jews and Indians should all receive money and subsidies for their suffered discrimination. You can all thank Obama and Holder for what is now going on. This is why Trump won. The white guys are tired of being accused of all sorts of bad thoughts and actions which they are not guilty of. CRE is in that same boat. We are all considered bad, greedy and too rich. If you develop in a sizable city, this sort of zoning nonsense is coming your way so head it off now.

The views expressed here are the author's own.

Last week I ended my Rant with the warning that the left, and the kids being turned out of universities with the belief that they can yell and scream and get their way, despite what the majority thinks and wants, are impacting zoning and development. On Friday, the Wall Street Journal published an article reporting that development in LA, San Francisco and some other left-leaning cities is grinding to a halt on the demands of the screaming left to shut down market demanded projects unless there is a 20%-25% “affordable housing component.”

This simply once again demonstrates the utter lack of any understanding by the left of what is required in terms of costs and return on equity to incentivize anybody to develop, or provide equity for a project. They seem to think developers and real estate investors are here to serve the interests of the left and the minority view. They are completely devoid of any understanding of risk, return, or what it really takes to get through entitlement and development. Having developed major brownfield projects, and having had to endure hostile community meetings, I have a good understanding of how uninformed most people are as to what development requires to be successful, and the returns required to justify the time and risk.

The current generation of kids come out of school believing we in CRE are all greedy scoundrels, and that we should be charged huge fees, and should be told to include affordable units, even if that makes the project untenable. We all know San Francisco is a far left city and that developers built to meet demand. That is the way CRE and capitalism works. If affordable housing made sense we would build it, but it does not, and the demand and money to buy units is demanding luxury or high priced rentals. Now LA is about to hold a vote on requiring the city to suspend any changes to existing zoning for two years. That means no zoning changes to allow high rise luxury projects. Portland, another left wing city, is on the same track. So new residential development will grind to a halt. Then the cities will wonder why the money and jobs are not happening and will blame us.

These people seem not to understand that the luxury developments bring in people with high incomes, that brings new restaurants and stores and other retail that hires the lower wage workers who are now claiming these projects are bad. So, OK, we will not have redevelopment of crappy neighborhoods, as we have seen in San Francisco and LA downtown, and the high paying construction jobs, and the ongoing jobs in new retail and food service will not be there, old run down housing will remain, and higher crime will remain. That is the trade off.

If the cities want affordable housing, then subsidize it, subsidize rents, and make the development of these projects economically justified. It is not the job of CRE to subsidize social engineering. That is the role of government. Why should CRE be the bearer of the burden. If there is some social good to be achieved then let all the citizens of the municipality bear the cost, not developers. Why not demand that grocery stores have to open in certain locations, or why not force doctors to open offices in crappy neighborhoods to provide badly needed quality medical services. There is no difference. CRE is a profit making business just like doctors, grocery stores and other services that a neighborhood needs. They target us because we are “greedy landlords.” Doctors open Medicaid mills in these low income areas and game the system, and give lousy medical care, but they are not attacked by the left.

Everyone in CRE needs to wake up to the coming wave of misinformed, spoiled brat college kids who have been indoctrinated to believe the minority rules if they yell louder and disrupt council meetings, and make uneconomic demands as they did when in college. Since few take economics, or business courses, and history is a verboten topic that is no longer taught in many schools, these kids have no idea what the real capitalist world is really all about. All they know is the rich guys need to give their money to the poor guys because that is what they were taught in school. White people “owe “ blacks, so we should redistribute our money to them because their ancestors were mistreated. If we are to follow that logic, then Japanese descendants of interned families, women, Jews and Indians should all receive money and subsidies for their suffered discrimination. You can all thank Obama and Holder for what is now going on. This is why Trump won. The white guys are tired of being accused of all sorts of bad thoughts and actions which they are not guilty of. CRE is in that same boat. We are all considered bad, greedy and too rich. If you develop in a sizable city, this sort of zoning nonsense is coming your way so head it off now.

The views expressed here are the author's own.