Historical conservationists are the bad guys

 Economist:

[Cambridge, MA] is “becoming a barbell society,” ...The poor got help and the wealthy lived well, but ... young families leave for cheaper places. “One of the biggest signs that something was going wrong,” says Mr Azeem, is “when you can’t create space for the next generation.” 

But now, they are relaxing zoning to allow " six-storey residential buildings citywide ... People are waking up to the fact that land use regulation has something to do with housing costs”. 

But: “The minute someone tries to put a six-storey building in a residential zone that has historically been no higher than 35 feet, there’s going to be immediate negative pushback,” from "powerful historic conservationists"