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Ezra Klein: “The difference between places that construct apartment…”

Featuring: Ezra Klein, Liberal | New York Times Columnist and Podcast Host | National

In-Studio Discussion with Ezra Klein and Gavin Newsom on 'Abundance' and Democratic Governance

Published March 26, 2025 | Video Starts at 39:59

But I just think it's really important to say laws are man made. There are laws of physics, there are technical things we don't yet know how to do. But The difference between places that construct apartment buildings quickly and that don't is that's us 100%. And look. And you highlight some of those successes. I mean, you talk about what happened during the Trump administration and Covid. By the way, a lot of innovation happened during COVID Yeah. (39:59–40:08)

CLAIM

Asserts that the speed of apartment construction is entirely dependent on human decisions and policies.

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.

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Ezra Klein

“Of the 56 states and jurisdictions that were trying to apply for the money, three had made it through.”
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“We built the Empire State Building in a year.”
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“The average environmental review takes four and a half years.”
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“By the end of 2024, functionally, nobody is hooked up to [rural] broadband.”
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“Every major company [Elon Musk] has done is built on government subsidies, government loan guarantees, over 3 billion government demand.”
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“We could see the housing crisis had metastasized into something that was genuinely now a crisis.”
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“California high speed rail has always lit me on fire.”
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“We have to build faster than we have ever built and the laws don't really permit that.”
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“There is something liberalism is good at and knows how to look for, which is where can we subsidize something that people need?”
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“There's something liberalism is bad at because it doesn't know how to look for it, which is how do we create more?”
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“Not only are we not good at pursuing that, we don't even realize how often we are getting in the way of it.”
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“The cost of living crisis is worse in blue states.”
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“All these fast track bills required me to take on a bunch of new standards and requirements.”
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“0 for 3.”
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“Europe builds trains better than we do. They just do. And they have governments, I checked. And they have unions more than we do.”
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“We do government different in this country than they do in Europe. There's a qualitative difference between it, which is they run government…”
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“We are cutting highways all across the country, many of them, though not all of them through marginalized communities.”
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“There is a genuine despoiling of the environment.”
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“Initially cea, it just says, look, when the government does stuff, it's got to produce a report on, you know, what the likely consequences…”
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“The Supreme Court rules. No, no, no, no. Public development is anything that requires a permit by the state of California.”
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“CEQA's power is amplified a lot by courts that interpreted it in a way that was very different than anybody initially.”
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