“Charles Besser, a man with lots of money to strike a small blow against multitudinous multi-family-ism,” has purchased a 16-unit apartment building on Dearborn in the Gold Coast and plans to build a single-family house there. Never mind that, less than ten years ago, he tore down a four-flat to build his current house.

S-T columnist David Roeder makes some more snide remarks about how useless, unloved, and passe multifamily housing is:

Single-family living is under attack from the right, the developers who want to stack people like pancakes, and the left, dewy-eyed planners who think the stacking preserves precious resources.

Well then, I guess we have our coalition cut out for us.

Again, let’s reiterate that gentrification is economic growth combined with population decline. Deconversion and much larger living spaces result in fewer residents, except when there’s plentiful new construction.