First, don’t worry about it. Just change the zoning and then let people choose what they will. If what you say is true, the market won’t change a thing.
Second, price per square foot in cities is set by demand, and it is several times prices in suburbs. That behavior tells us there are people who would rather be downtown and we aren’t letting them.
> Just change the zoning and then let people choose what they will
But, we already know from the political fortunes of people who have run on those ideas, what they will choose is to replace the people implementing those policies, unless you do a lot of work in advance to convince them of the merits rather than thinking you can just dictatorially change incentives and let that shape behavior without any blowback that undoes the policy.
Oh, I don't think you can do it with the legislative branch of government at all. I think there's a clear path to overturning Euclid and finding zoning unconstitutional. That court case was entirely based on a bunch of racist shit in the appellate decision.
Second, price per square foot in cities is set by demand, and it is several times prices in suburbs. That behavior tells us there are people who would rather be downtown and we aren’t letting them.