In our recent blog, “What Governments and Cities Get Wrong About the Trades,” we discussed how permitting rulings and delays can play havoc with building projects—and can even impede a local government’s stated desire to improve infrastructure and add affordable housing.

The blog also noted that some state, local and tribal authorities were looking to remove obstructions and streamline the permitting process. An example recently appeared in the New York Times opinion section.

Conservative columnist Bret Stephens interviewed Congressman Jake Auchincloss, a Massachusetts Democrat whose district extends from the wealthy Boston suburb of Newton to the working-class area of Fall River. In that interview, Mr. Auchincloss says: “State and local land use laws have inhibited the construction of the several million units of housing that we need in this country.”

He cites the city of Cambridge, MA as an example of change. Cambridge, a liberal enclave, overwhelmingly voted for former Vice President Harris in 2024. Yet the city has made an aggressive push to deregulate. 

As the Congressman describes it, “Cambridge just passed, under the leadership of a very progressive city councilor, Burhan Azeem, land-use reforms that might actually be the most muscular land-use reforms in the country. Of that 100-page bill, Burhan told me that 92 of those pages were crossing out regulations.”

It’s an interesting development; one that could well have implications for the trades beyond housing. It will also be interesting to see how deregulation plays out in Cambridge, if other communities adopt similar tactics, and if this strategy begins to build bipartisan support.

The full interview (paywalled) can be found at https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/05/opinion/jake-auchincloss-democrat-massachusetts.html