By Miro Weinberger
Editor’s note: Weinberger is currently the executive chair of Let’s Build Homes. He was raised in Hartland and served as mayor of Burlington from 2012-2024.
If you’ve turned on a podcast, watched a late-night show, or scrolled social media in the past month, you’ve probably heard something about “Abundance,” the new book by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson. The thesis is simple yet powerful: America, especially in blue states, has, over decades, created systems that prioritize stopping things rather than building them. We’ve become experts at saying no.
“Abundance” has struck a nerve—for good reason. “Abundance” is a call to action, a challenge to break free from what the authors describe as “the politics of blocking.” It’s about a country that’s forgotten how to build homes, transit, clean energy, and the infrastructure of opportunity.
Sometimes Vermont can seem insulated and removed from national political conversations—it can be easy to think some of these discussions don’t apply here. We pride ourselves on being a little different, a little apart.
But this one? This conversation is 100% about us.
When Klein says we’ve built a political system that’s better at stopping things than getting them done—he could be talking about Vermont’s housing shortage because we’ve created a system that makes it incredibly hard to build the homes we need. Our state faces a critical housing shortage, yet the pathways to develop more homes are gauntlets of redundant state and local rules, costly government mandates, and permit appeals systems that enable obstructionists.
As a result, the average Vermonter experiences soaring rents, impossible home prices, and a growing number of neighbors without secure housing.
That’s why we started Let’s Build Homes—to ensure this isn’t Vermont’s future. We are working to transform our state from one that excels at blocking to one that prioritizes building in the right places—and we are already having an impact.
In this legislative session, we’ve supported a bill that will make it easier to finance and build the infrastructure—like water, sewer, and roads—that makes new housing possible. And thanks in part to our testimony and the coalition members who contacted their legislators, this bill has now passed the Senate. We are also working directly with municipalities to modernize zoning and allow more housing in the places where it’s most needed.
Next, by engaging the process launched by the legislature a year ago, we’re taking on one of the most significant barriers: reforming the outdated maps and rules under Act 250 that limit where and how we can grow.
This isn’t going to be easy. Already, we can see new groups forming that want to continue the politics of blocking. We must push ourselves to grow in a way that respects our cherished natural landscape, which is better than the development we have seen in other parts of the country.
Vermont’s future depends on finding this balance.
Make no mistake: if we are going to end homelessness, be a state where young families can get a start, provide all our kids with a good education, and enjoy high-quality health care throughout the state—if we want a future of abundance, not scarcity—we are going to have to grow.
The alternative is a Vermont that becomes increasingly unaffordable, where only the wealthy or those receiving aid can live, where our schools continue to empty, where our rural communities are hollowed out, where our workforce shortage worsens, and where more Vermonters find themselves without homes. That’s not the Vermont any of us want.
The politics of abundance requires courage. It means standing up to voices that reflexively say no. It means embracing change while being thoughtful about how we manage it. It means creating new systems for government decisions and actions that prioritize results and speed over undue process.
Let’s Build Homes is committed to leading this transition from a state of blocking to a state of building. Join us in creating a Vermont where everyone can find a place to call home.
For more information, visit: letsbuildhomes.org.
