Re the July 6 article Housing crunch makes life tough in the Keys: The Florida Keys are a test tube for population pressure and public policies because of high demand and limited supply of land.

Affordable housing has been an issue for decades, but political authority strongly resisted prioritizing land-use development regulations to ensure adequate supplies of low-cost housing. Instead, public policy subsidized intense development to maximize profits for suburban sprawl while shifting the tax and environmental costs to the future. The sprawl industry complains that it's overburdened by regulations.

The development of Key West constitutes sprawl, but the effect of poorly planned development -- of which the lack of affordable housing is one symptom -- is instructive.

Until voters demand political leadership that makes growth management the top priority for public policy and strips power from suburban-sprawl forces, expect more of the same.

Alan Farago