Short Circuit

It’s a Short Circuit Live from YIMBYTown! We travel to the Yes-In-My-Back-Yard conference, held this year in New Haven, Connecticut. Our guests discuss recent cases and controversies related to efforts to build more homes and also, unfortunately, do the opposite. First up is David Schleicher, aka “Professor YIMBY,” of Yale Law School. David updates everyone on a case we’ve talked about before, a lawsuit in Montana to try and throw out the state’s “miracle” housing reforms passed a couple years ago. The case is now before the state supreme court after a rocky initial ride. David focuses on the issue of private covenants and how that might affect reforms elsewhere in the future. Then Andrew Fine of Open New York tells the sad tale of a long battle to build low-income housing on a lot—the “Elizabeth Street Garden”—in the middle of New York City. Led by Hollywood celebrities, the effort to prevent the project for “environmental” reasons dragged on for over a decade. Although that act of NIMBYism ultimately lost a