David A. Smith Author Archives

Death should always be mourned, the more so when that death is of a loved and valued one which happened slowly, through inattention. So it is with as-of-right zoning, an aspect of development that over roughly three decades has softly and suddenly vanished away, taking with it our control over affordable housing costs and our ability to execute a national housing policy – and raising preservation from afterthought to national imperative.

Sometimes a revolution happens not with a blare of trumpets but through a thousand small actions in the same direction. Without actually sensing movement, one suddenly realizes the world has become quite different than it was – and is never going back.

Throughout my career, my affordable housing colleagues and I have avoided all mention of the Mortgage Interest Deduction (MID). Whatever we might have thought about it privately, in public our lips were sealed.

A hundred years ago, it was unremarkable to be born at home, and to die at home. Fifty years ago, it was unremarkable for a doctor to make house calls, and the equipment he brought was nothing more than a mysterious black bag, a stethoscope, a tongue depressor, and hands as cold as if he kept them permanently in a freezer.