Building Codes Are Political. We Just Don't Talk About Them. (with Ed Mendoza)

Building Better Cities · Jun 10, 2026 · 35m · transcript

The zoning debate is about what we build and for whom. The building code is supposed to be about how we build it. But the "how" has a way of quietly dictating the "what" and "whom" — making the building code just as political and just as consequential to our cities as anything that happens at a planning commission.

In this episode, host Kate Gasparro talks with Eduardo Mendoza, Policy Manager at the Metropolitan Abundance Project and California YIMBY, about the silent rulebook shaping nearly every piece of city infrastructure around you. They cover what building codes actually are and where…