Political power? Numbers. How else did you think development gets canceled in city planning meetings? When one person turns up out of 70 to impede development or when 50 do?
Hm I'd never considered that angle. I buy that it is an effect, but I'm not confident it's general or stronger than other effects (often in the other direction).
For instance, in my neighborhood, (market rate) landlords generally want new residential development, because it's seen as something that will have a gentrifying effect on the area and bring up property values in general. That mentality presumably doesn't apply to neighborhoods that are already rich, though.
