I don't really have to propose solutions, actually. My point was the problem, and its inconvenience for many assumptions many Americans have about housing, cities, markets. I don't have to have a ready-made policy prescription on hand to recognize that.

Here are some potential solutions anyways.

Some of these would be unpopular, but we could consider;

1. National standardization of zoning (like Japan) 2. Federal funding for local rail instead of highways (this would probably be the biggest one) 3. Municipal incentives for densification 4. Federal laws regulating the lobbying power of neighborhood associations 5. Beheading local gentry at the guillotine before inevitably being placed in its open maw ourselves (vive la révolution!)