New Haven, CT, has been governed for years by restrictive zoning that made it physically impossible to build tall buildings downtown, even for housing. That is, until the local government finally aligned to overturn it.

In this week's episode of "Your City Could Be Better", City Cast CEO David Plotz sits down with Eli Sabin, a New Haven native and one of the alders (aka city council members) responsible for passing this change in recent months. Eli spent years working toward this goal, getting all the stakeholders — shopkeepers, residents, developers, lawmakers — on the same page, and he talks with David about what now needs to happen to fully realize its potential and make New Haven more affordable for locals.

I'll confess, y'all, before producing this episode, I had no idea what F-A-R meant in the context of urban planning, and now it's all I see when I'm walking around town. Listen and you'll know what I mean.

And this week's Word On The Street segment is also super fun, about the downsides of living in a town with an outsized college presence. Yale has such a big influence over New Haven, and in many ways that's good! But there are also some major cons I'd never thought about. I haven't lived in a true college town since I graduated from undergrad, but if you do, I want to know if Eli's perspective resonated!