NIMBYISM AS A VARIANT OF THE “CURLEY EFFECT:” Study: NIMBYism Makes States More Liberal.

A coalition of left-wing interest groups appears to have killed California Governor Jerry Brown’s plan to cut back on land use regulations so as to allow the state’s housing supply to catch up with surging demand. . . .

Many of the results of this NIMBY victory are predictable: Rents will continue to rise faster than inflation; upper-middle class communities will continue to pull the ladder up for upwardly-mobile young families; and the state’s economy will continue to be artificially suppressed because it is difficult for workers without means to move places where the job market is hot.

But California’s failure to curb its overweening land use regulations might also have another, less obvious, consequence: It could make the state even more homogeneously Democratic than it already is. According to a recent study from Jason Sorens of Dartmouth University (h/t Tyler Cowen), states’ land use regulations don’t just affect their economies; they affect their political complexions as well. In particular, Republicans seem to leave states as they tighten their zoning laws . . . .

Regardless of the precise mechanism, Sorens’ study drives home an important point: Coastal blue state NIMBYs aren’t just exacerbating segregation by income; they are exacerbating segregation by political affiliation as well. These patterns continue in a vicious cycle, and America keeps coming apart.

As Rhett Butler said, there’s as much money to be made in tearing a civilization down as in building one up. Today’s Democrats seem to be putting that to the test.