Our city is on the verge of adopting rent control — not because the data supports it, but because it “feels right” to some elected leaders. One councilmember has shown no interest in evidence showing rent control’s failures, relying instead on personal memories of growing up in a rent-controlled apartment. Honest sentiment, perhaps. But it is a dangerous way to make public policy.
As Walter Lippmann warned in 1955, “If what is right and wrong depends on what each individual feels, then we are outside the bounds of civilization.” Today, emotion is often treated as equal to — or superior to — objective reality. Complex issues are reduced to vibes, and that cultural drift has now reached our city hall.
Housing policy is too important to be guided by anecdotes or comforting narratives, because the facts on rent control are overwhelmingly clear. Rent control feels compassionate, but everywhere it has been tried, it ends up harming many of the very people it claims to protect. Our city deserves better than a policy chosen for its emotional appeal rather than its actual results.