I just wanted to introduce this group to Strong Towns, a non profit devoted to making development make sense. I worked with the founder of Strong Towns years ago when the idea was new.
The issues and framework of Strong Towns transcend partisan politics and instead gathers people under the banner of demanding that our towns be built to upon principles most any reasonable person would want to see enacted. Principles like: development responsive to local needs and financial transparency.
Please check them out.
I’d recommend both books written by the founder, Charles Marohn:
Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity
Confessions of a Recovering Engineer: Transportation for a Strong Town
Those are very good recommendations. I do admire the way he has taken on the engineering profession and called them on their BS.