What if California could encourage developers to replace shuttered big-box stores, half-vacant offices and decrepit strip malls with apartments, condominiums and townhomes, with some or even all of the units being affordable? And what if the construction workers building those projects were paid union-level wages and, in some cases, received healthcare, thus creating lots of good-paying jobs.
It sounds like a win-win, right?
It should be. But in California — despite a housing shortage that has driven up home prices and rents to vastly unaffordable levels — politics and interest groups can often torpedo even the most common-sense compromises.
