For Black History Month, Vox is publishing a big series on rethinking policy for Black America.

I wrote 3,200 words on eradicating exclusionary zoning.

It's a 3 step formula: Persuade, incentivize, and if all else fails, SUE THE SUBURBS.

Thread

We know that exclusionary zoning is locking millions out of opportunity.

Work by @OppInsights, Richard Rothstein, Ta-Nehisi Coates, @nhannahjones, @RickKahlenberg, Chang-Tai Hsieh, Enrico Moretti and @ProfSchleich details the economic impact of these discriminatory policies.
51 years after the Fair Housing Act, it's never been seriously enforced. It's time to change that.

First things first, Biden has work to do to convince whoever can be convinced that there is a racial, environmental, and economic imperative to undo residential segregation.
Use whatever explanation works!

For sympathetic progressives Biden should link racial and environmental justice to ending exclusionary zoning.

For everyone else, he can simply make an economic argument.
https://t.co/wHB6roD8nD
Second, there are many tools to incentivize localities that rely on federal dollars to reform their zoning codes.

There is a ton of federal money that can be conditioned on reforming exclusionary zoning laws. @ebwhamilton has some good ideas on this front.
But not everyone can be incentivized. As @jenny_schuetz' research indicates, the most exclusionary places don't rely on popular existing HUD grants.

https://t.co/MLr9t7NN81
As Sara Pratt, an Obama-era HUD official told me: “There’s a group who ... embrace segregation and inequity, and they don’t want to spend a dime in the Black community and they would rather have their Latino population move out of town..." https://t.co/wHB6roD8nD
"...For those people, that’s where enforcement becomes relevant — and good, strong enforcement.”

It's time to sue the suburbs.

For what that could look like, check out the full piece below! https://t.co/wHB6roD8nD
Huge thanks to @baggageclaimed for asking me to write on my favorite topic & editing, @christinamta for the A+ visuals work, and @TanyaPai and Tim Williams, the phenomenal copy editors who have prevented me from making errors more times than I can count. https://t.co/wHB6roD8nD
And my colleagues @FabiolaCineas, @annanorthtweets, and @liszhou who contributed amazing pieces to the collection.

More to come...

https://t.co/4vSgnwAp8X

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