Harris’ plan to destroy suburbia, NY job recovery still lags and other commentary

Housing beat: Harris’ Plan To Destroy Suburbia

Kamala Harris’ ideas on housing “reflect an increasing desire among the populist left and right to federalize policy despite increasing public distrust in federal institutions,” laments Robert Showah at The Wall Street Journal. At a North Carolina rally, Harris vowed to “take down barriers and cut red tape, including at the state and local levels.” Her promise of a $40 billion fund to “encourage local governments to remove the regulations” that prevent new development would “assert federal control in shaping what your neighborhood looks like.” Those proposals “would disrupt housing policy and lay the groundwork for further federal meddling.” Beware: “Federal policies that undermine local democratic processes — including on land use — might save renters a few bucks, but they will cost Americans dearly in the long run.”

Eye on NY: Empire State Job Recovery Still Lags

“Since the COVID-19 outbreak of 2020, most regions of New York have yet to recover the private-sector jobs lost in the wake of pandemic lockdowns,” warns the Empire Center’s E.J. McMahon. Though “the nation as a whole recovered its pandemic job losses within two years of the March 2020 outbreak, New York didn’t match its pre-pandemic employment level until March of this year.” This “job recovery has also been among the weakest compared to other states.” Texas and Florida outpaced the Empire State and “even California, whose pandemic restrictions rivaled New York’s, has experienced three times New York’s rate of job growth.” And: “New York’s recovery has been notably unbalanced on a regional basis” as all of the state’s net job gain “occurred in New York City.”

Immigration Watch: Afghan Allies Deserve Our Help

“Hundreds of thousands of Afghan nationals fled their homeland in search of a safe place to raise their families and rebuild their lives” after the Taliban took over in 2021, laments Jennie Murray at The Hill. Back home, “threats of violence and persecution are woven into daily life.” Amid the US bugout, “70,000 people were brought to the U.S. to begin the resettlement process.” But Congress’ failure “to create a path to permanent legal status for this community” has hurt those who “risked their lives working with the U.S. military.” It’s beyond time to pass the Afghan Adjustment Act, which “allows Afghans to fully resettle” in America, and “shows the world that when it comes to our allies across the world, we keep our word.”

Conservative: Where Liberal Hate Has a Home

When Sen. J.D. Vance’s family moved into a ’hood in Alexandria, Va., after the 2022 election, fumes The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway, “the supposedly quiet, charming, and tolerant neighbors of Del Ray put signs in front of his house letting him know that he and his family were not welcome.” Some “knit kitschy signs promoting abortion, bisexuality, transexuality, and homosexuality and placed them on poles outside the Vance home” and “posted on Facebook their delight at the attack on the family, calling them ‘not so welcome signs’ ” — and the “yarn bombing” continues. “For security reasons,” the Secret Service just closed a small park next to the Vance home, sparking “a political protest.” “Local media covered the event, saying Del Ray citizens struggle to balance their self-conception as welcoming of all people with their unbridled hatred for Republicans.” 

Campus watch: Killing Quotas Boosted Diversity

When the Supreme Court banned “race-conscious [college] admissions policies, many observers have wondered what would happen to the racial makeup of elite universities”; now MIT reports “that the percentage of underrepresented minorities enrolling had precipitously dropped,” while Asian-American enrollment rose “from 40 percent to 47 percent,”  observe Peter Arcidiacono & Tyler Ransom at City Journal. “Both MIT and the media advertised the changes in the racial makeup of incoming freshmen as reducing diversity,” but “Asian Americans are a diverse group, representing many different cultures and ethnicities.” Notably, “compared with the classes of 2024 through 2027,” both “the number of first-generation college students” and “the number of students eligible for Pell grants increased.” That is: “MIT actually became more diverse based on socioeconomic measures.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board