We don't NEED to build something. Maybe NYC is big enough and people need to consider going elsewhere with better policies. We need to stop this narrative that growth must continue indefinitely.
If they're not there, they're probably somewhere more sprawly, that uses more energy and cuts more space out of the environment.
If dastardly "newcomers" have to move elsewhere, they chalk that up as a victory for degrowth, as if those people poof out of existence as soon as they leave the metro area.
How do you make cities denser, larger, and more compact without.. building things?
There's a lot of well-intentioned regulations that had the cumulative effect of making it really hard to build things, and people have gotten used to this. Many even feel entitled to randomly stop new construction for whatever reason they feel like, and many planning boards are all too happy to go along with them.
The people who suffer most from not enough new housing, after all, are potential residents, and potential residents can't vote.