We examine pervasive opposition to building market-rate housing and relate it to localism: a perspective that grants moral authority to incumbent residents. We argue that localism has become prevalent in housing planning in the United States and that its seeming equality—allowing all communities the right to define themselves—conceals profound imbalances that favor the affluent. We use survey data from California to measure localism, using opposition to state land use preemption as a proxy. We find that localism is concentrated among white, affluent homeowners. This suggests that localist beliefs are less prevalent in the population than they are in planning practice.

我们研究了对建设市场价住房的普遍反对，并将其与地方主义联系起来：这种观点赋予了现任居民以道义上的权威。我们认为，地方主义在美国的住房计划中已变得十分普遍，而且它的表面上的平等性（允许所有社区定义自己的权利）掩盖了有利于富裕阶层的严重不平衡现象。我们使用来自加利福尼亚的调查数据来衡量地区性，并以反对州土地使用权的反对为代表。我们发现本地化集中在富裕的白人房主中。这表明本地主义信仰在人口中比在规划实践中不那么普遍。