> Rent control stifles new construction...

San Francisco's Sangiacomo ("AKA 'The Father of Rent Control'") and his tenants came up with a really great solution for this:

1) Buy a rent-controlled building.

1a) If there's no room for the first phase of your building plan, destroy some of it it and displace the affected tenants.

2) Build the first phase of construction as quickly as humanly possible.

3) Move the displaced tenants back in at the rate that they were paying when they were displaced. These tenants also retain their rent control privileges for as long as they stay in that unit.

4) Build the remainder of the building and rent it out at "market rate".

This works, and works well, as Trinity Place (1190 Mission) has shown us.