Say it Ayn So! A Randian View of the Boston-Area's Housing Supply

Boston and nearby cities' very rich citizens have no problem finding housing and the region's cities make laudable efforts to house the poor. However, housing is increasingly difficult to find for the area's enviable supply of talent who are just entering the work force upon graduating from its many top academic institutions, writes architect and fan of Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, Francesca Gordini.

While careful to disclaim Ayn Rand's more controversial statements on the respective value of people, Gordini quotes The Fountainhead's Howard Roark: 

Nobody can afford a modern apartment – except the very rich and the paupers.

. . .

I’d have no desire to penalize a man because he’s worth only fifteen dollars a week. But I’ll be damned if I can see why a man worth forty must be penalized – and penalized in favor of the one who’s less competent.

She notes that area cities' only answer seems to be to approve ever-smaller micro-units. Cambridge recently approved basement units with ceilings as low as 6'11". However, she observes that these smaller units invariably are rented at exorbitant rates. She opines that area cities need to find a way to provide reasonably priced and sized housing to keep its young talent.