Michigan has civil rights. Texas has affordable housing. What if we could have both?

Michigan should be more like Texas.

This is probably shocking to hear, if you like the way Michigan has become a kind of midwestern progressive bulwark under Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the Democratic legislative majority in Lansing: Michigan has enshrined reproductive rights in the state constitution, expanded the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act to protect LBGTQ+ individuals and provides a free school lunch to all Michigan children for what amounts to a rounding error in the state’s $84 billion budget. Michigan’s Democratic majority has also moved forward on efforts to expand renewable energy production, enact gun reform laws, and make childcare more universal — all much-needed steps forward.

The Lone Star State, in contrast, has a long-standing reputation as an ornery, reactionary place. Texan John Nance Garner was an anti-New Dealer as Franklin Roosevelt’s vice-president. Today, Texas gives us Alex Jones’ paranoid delusions and draconian anti-abortion laws. And, to paraphrase Billy Martin, Texas Governor Greg Abbott is a born liar, while attorney general Ken Paxton was impeached.

So, what lessons can Texas offer us, besides the fact that Larry McMurtry is arguably a better novelist than Wyandotte native Thomas McGuane, and Townes Van Zandt is an infinitely better musician than Romeo native son Robert Ritchie?

Quite a bit.

More on Michigan v. Texas: Zillow says Gen Z is moving to Texas, but Michigan is way better

Economics and equality

Texas communities and their state Legislature are leading the way on key policies like housing affordability and transit investment.

Michigan leaders should take note.

In terms of building an attractive state offering a high quality of life, these issues are every bit as important as protecting foundational reproductive rights or expanding Elliott-Larsen. Equal rights are the rock upon which we build our society, but they alone are not enough to make Michigan an attractive place to live. Reproductive rights, for instance, are less useful to someone who lacks transportation to an OBGYN.

All of these issues are complementary, and connected.

It’s one thing to protect LGBTQ+ rights in state law, but for LGBTQ+ families to fully participate in civic life, they (like the rest of us) need livable communities with affordable housing. People of color, historically denied full access to housing opportunities, immigrants and young people deserve the chance to build wealth and live a middle class life that is created by affordable housing.

“We won’t go back” has become a refrain this election season. Holding steady isn't enough; this is how we move forward, toward becoming a more equitable nation.

We talked to Whitmer about her new book and asked about tattoos, Gen X and 2028

Build, baby, build

Amid a national housing shortage, Texas cities are among the few places where housing supply is being built to meet demand. In Texas’ four largest cities (Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, and Austin) average rents have declined, thanks to a spike in new construction.

In contrast, Michigan renters experienced a 12.47% average rent increase in 2023. Metro Detroit has overtaken Atlanta as the nation’s most overvalued housing market. No wonder Whitmer used her State of the State address to tout a plan to build 75,000 new housing units over the next five years, and recently announced an affordable housing development in Traverse City for teachers in that housing-starved community.

Texas has already shown the rest of the country that, to quote our governor, “Build baby build” is the solution to our housing crisis. However, building new housing can be confoundingly hard in the United States, thanks to a myriad of needless regulations, onerous zoning, and vocal not in my backyard (NIMBY) obstructionists lurking in nearly every neighborhood.

In Royal Oak, a group of residents recently organized against a plan to build new apartments on an abandoned bank site on Rochester Road. Royal Oak’s City Council wisely ignored such protests, and unanimously approved the plan.

In other instances, critical housing developments haven’t moved forward, stalled by a cumbersome process that favors a noisy faction of incumbent residents over potential new residents. It’s a burden on the marketplace’s ability to build enough housing for everyone.

In housing-starved Washington DC, a plan to build a mixed-use high-rise with 200 housing units (30% affordable) and a library on the site of an old police station stalled for two years as left-wing activists opposed the plan because the city was selling “public land.” Maybe “ACAB” now means "all condos are bad"?

The view from the Lone Star State

According to the Texas Tribune, the state’s Republican-majority Legislature is considering policies to make the state even more friendly to new housing by reforming local zoning laws and reducing land use regulations. This kind of policy reform (“legalize housing,” as pro-development activists are fond of saying) would be a big step toward removing systemic barriers, and easing the housing shortage.

Michigan’s legislative Republicans, completely in the minority for the first time since Dallas was the top show on TV, should pay attention here. Being out of power can’t be much fun for the GOP. Nor can they enjoy being defined by their leader’s gambling or members eager to defend child marriage. Texas-style housing policies could provide them an opportunity to actually lead on a bipartisan issue — one that the governor has signaled is a priority — with a conservative policy solution (cutting government regulations) that delivers real benefits for Michigan residents. Or they can keep barking about trans kids.

Texas communities are also aggressively repealing parking mandates for new developments. Austin became the largest city in the country to remove regulations requiring a certain number of parking spots for every new unit of housing in 2023. These rules, made unnecessary in the marketplace in dense urban neighborhoods and increasingly car-averse young people, are estimated to increase rents by as much as $200/month. The deregulation of parking in Austin has been coupled with greater investment in public transportation.

Dallas, too, is considering abandoning parking minimums to bolster housing development and affordability. This housing revolution follows a transit revolution in that other city known as “the D.” Once a region as starved for transit as our own, Dallas-Fort Worth has constructed 93 miles of light rail lines since 1993. Only Los Angeles has a larger light rail system. Dallas’ first line opened in 1996, and its fifth line scheduled to be completed in 2026. Dallas also overhauled its bus system in 2022 and operates two QLine-like streetcar services that cover about 7 miles between them.

The Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) light rail system has generated more than $10 billion in economic impact, according to the Economics Research Group at the University of North Texas. Researchers also identified 81 construction projects within a quarter mile of DART light rail stations that have a collective value of more than $5 billion.

Dallas’ transit growth, 0 to 93 miles of light rail in a generation, punctures the conventional wisdom that building out expansive, regional transit systems is something that is too costly or complicated to undertake in our current political environment. It also demonstrates just how good it can be for a local economy if we just fix the damn transit.

If you build it, they will come

The results of Texas’ commitment to housing and transit speak for themselves. Since the 2020 Census, the population of Texas has grown by 1.35 million residents. Meanwhile Michigan has lost about 40,000 residents in that same span. There may be a lot of reasons population fluctuations. However, the notion that people may be choosing to live in Texas because of more affordable housing and accessible transportation is too basic to dismiss.

Texas is demonstrating to the world that, for all the sound and fury of not in my backyard naysayers, building housing doesn’t destroy the character of communities. It helps them grow. Texas also proves that transit investment, rather than a boondoggle, is an economic driver.

Imagine if Michigan, with our other advantages (Lake Huron’s shoreline sure beats the west Texas desert) and our welcoming, inclusive values, also matched Texas on foundational quality of life matters like housing and transit?

Yeah, let’s make Michigan more like Texas.

Jeff Wattrick is a freelance writer who lives in Grosse Pointe Park. Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters, and we may publish it in print and online.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan could take a page from Texas playbook on affordable housing