I find it ironic that critics call walkable communities unaffordable from one side of their mouths, and undesirable or unmarketable from the other. Which is it, guys? Are cities and walkable neighborhoods only for the arugala-eating upper-crust, or only for the frozen hot-dog hoi polloi? Do you look down on me for not owning a car, or, despite earning more than me, consider my lifestyle a bourgeois indulgence? Aren’t high prices a strong signal indicating unmet demand?

I don’t know much about commercial lending, but as far as home mortgages, I know of more than one family that had to work for months to find a bank that would correctly appraise the house they wanted to buy, a prerequisite to getting a loan. The banks were simply incapable of properly assessing “non-standard” real estate. And that was in Brooklyn in the early 90s. The buyers, in retrospect, got an incredible deal on the houses, but their banks initially refused to lend, saying the houses weren’t worth the bargain price that the buyers and sellers had agreed upon! What nonsense.