New York strikes a more sustainable urban balance than San Francisco. We embrace social programs, but not at the expense of quality of life or development.<p>A lot of the balancing comes from development. It&#x27;s rare for <i>e.g.</i> a city block to come together to demand better policies. When they do, it&#x27;s often a NIMBYist backlash against productive policy. Developers, on the other hand, care about the impact of policies on their aggregate holdings. Since they&#x27;re typically developing a pipeline, their NIMBYist instincts tend to be relatively dulled.<p>Everything seems to point in the same direction. Cities which refuse to grow, instead transferring the fruits of growth to a land-owning elite, fail.