Three entirely affordable housing developments in Redwood City totaling 217 units are one step closer to breaking ground after the City Council signed off on funding strategies earlier this month.

Housing is a big part of America’s story of innovation, productivity, and economic growth. For much of the industrial 20th century, housing helped to drive the economy by stimulating demand. Building more housing—especially in the suburbs—stoked the demand for more cars, washing machines, and other durable goods from America’s factories, creating good jobs for American workers and setting in motion a virtuous circle of economic growth.

New data shows Santa Rosa received more applications to build “granny units” last year than it had in the entire preceding decade, evidence that the city’s efforts to spur housing just about any way it can is starting to yield results.

San Francisco is often unfairly parodied as a haven for NIMBYs– a place where everyone claims to want more affordable housing, just not in their own community. But, as I always tell visitors, the issue is more nuanced and the outcomes often more positive. There are more YIMBYs than NIMBYs...