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The 2024 presidential election saw the country take alerts to the right and left liberals asking themselves,

why? I made the post-election wave of think pieces and podcast commentary, one issue began to take center stage, the condition

of liberal cities. Thinkers like Ezra Klein and even politicians like California Governor

Gavin Newsom are making the case that if the Democratic Party wants to win back voters, they need to examine why and how liberal strongholds like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York have become so unaffordable for working class people and families.

They say Democrats need to build more housing and infrastructure faster in these cities.

Klein has called it the politics of abundance.

He and Derek Thompson co-authored a book called abundance.

And despite the book being about wonky policies,

his ideas have captured the attention of even mainstream outlets, like the late show with Stephen Colbert.

The left has a complicated relationship with actually letting government act. You think about high-speed

rail in California. You think about the Second Avenue subway in New York City. You think about the

Big Dig in Boston. You think about the shortage of housing in a bunch of the places where liberals govern. And it's simply got to say

something is wrong. You have to break processes. You have to change them. We don't revisit

enough of our institutions. Journalist Alexis Madrigal has also been thinking a lot about liberal cities, but one in particular, Oakland.

...