Solving the Housing Crisis Will Take More Than YIMBY

YIMBY stands for “ Yes In My Backyard ,” the opposite of NIMBY .

David Frum : The housing shortage is massive, and curing it will take a lot more than YIBY.

Frum says the era of mass cheap housing after World War II was exceptional, and that repeating it will be impossible.

He says the Las Vegas Principle : What starts out as social housing stays social housing.

New York City recently passed a law that will allow the development of some 82,000 new units of affordable housing at a cost of $5 billion .

Frida Ghitis : No housing that starts out as government-subsidized social housing should ever be converted to market-rate housing.

She says commuter rail needs to be more affordable and more convenient to commute to major cities.

Ghitis says there is a plan to extend high-speed commuter rail to Worcester , Springfield and Springfield .

Massachusetts recently completed a long-awaited billion-dollar South Coast Rail project to facilitate commuting between the depressed city of New Bedford and Boston .

The ride still takes too long at 90 minutes each way, and there are no express trains.