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.
If we truly care about affordability, the real solutions are well known:
• Build more housing, especially workforce and middle-income units.
• Provide targeted rental assistance to those who genuinely need help.
• Expand vouchers and emergency support to prevent displacement without distorting the market.
• Encourage ADUs and gentle density.
• Partner with nonprofits to expand true below-market housing.
These approaches may not offer the symbolic drama of rent control, but they actually lower rents, help families, and avoid shrinking the housing supply our community relies on. We all want to support our neighbors who are struggling. But good intentions are not a substitute for sound policy. Feelings cannot replace facts.
We should expect more from our leaders than decisions based on nostalgia, personal stories, or political comfort. We should insist on evidence, clear trade-offs, and solutions proven to work.
The pressures on our housing market are real — and so is the damage rent control has caused everywhere it has been implemented. We cannot repeat those mistakes simply because a policy “feels right.”
Compassion and competence are not opposites. The most compassionate thing we can do is insist that policy be grounded in reality. Our community deserves a future built on facts, not feelings.
Let’s demand nothing less.
