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This group of voters, so named for the phrase “not in my back yard,” are known for their rejection of L.A.’s growing urbanism and their preference for neighborhoods composed of single-family housing. They are a vocal and active group at both city and state levels.

As we near the final phase of the election cycle, issues like terrorism, taxes, immigration, and gun regulation have been widely discussed. But housing policy has mostly failed to work its way into stump speeches, debates, and other political pit stops on the road to the White House.

Last week I stepped back in time a bit to revisit the idea of NIMBYs (Not In My Back Yard opponents to development) and consider anew whether their tenacious aversions earn them the lauding of heroes or the disdain we reserve for villains and scoundrels. As I said then, in many cases, NIMBYs have kept the world from becoming a worse place, and that’s no small feat.

Near Mayor Ed Lee’s desk sits a roughly 150-page report spelling out exactly what to do if the Big One hits. It’s a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency guide, if you will, in the event that a major disaster like the 1906 earthquake and fire or 1989’s Loma Prieta quake strikes the city. Joining it at the beginning of next year will be a similarly wonkish report on what to do when the next economic or tech crash jolts the city’s economy from its Icarian heights.

California is facing an unprecedented crisis in housing affordability for a one simple reason: Nearly every community in the state has been failing, for decades, to build enough housing. And not just by a little bit, according to a new McKinsey Global Institute report released this week.

The cost and availability of housing is one of the Bay Area’s biggest headaches, and everyone seems to have an opinion about how to fix it. It’s more important than ever for policymakers to choose the right ones. What’s at stake, after all, is the region’s future.

The Bay Area’s wages are getting higher, far outpacing most of the country, but more residents are finding their paychecks can’t keep up with the region’s skyrocketing cost of living.

There’s growing recognition that aggressive housing development regulation — like the kind found all over the Bay Area — is terrible for the whole country. It’s a sign of how important zoning — once the most local of issues — has become to the U.S. economy that the Obama administration is now weighing in.