Mayoral Decrees vs Housing Markets

Mayors can promise sweeping affordability by executive fiat, but cities operate within market dynamics (demand from many cohorts, regional supply constraints, and private developer responses) that blunt or reverse such proclamations. Effective municipal affordability requires aligning permitting, supply composition, regional planning, and fiscal tools rather than relying on rhetorical redistribution alone. — This reframes city politics as a structural puzzle: symbolic promises matter politically but only institutional and supply‑side reforms produce durable affordability, affecting voters, developers, and intergovernmental policy design.