GETTING A NEW building project through New York’s state environmental approvals can feel like a bureaucratic game of snakes and ladders. Even though projects are also signed off(批准，正式认可) locally, the state process requires an analysis of their effects. After about two years of study, if a builder is lucky, he can hop up a ladder(跳上梯子（比喻快速推进）) towards the end of the game. Others must go through a more-exacting(更加严格的，更加苛刻的) report, moving one square for a public hearing and then another for each of the 20 technical analyses that must be done in New York City. This takes closer to three years. If the plan changes in that time, the builder lands on a snake (or a chute, in the American version) and goes back to the start. A lawsuit(诉讼，法律诉讼) can create a whole second round.
让一个新建筑项目通过纽约州的环境审批，感觉就像玩一场官僚版的蛇梯棋。尽管项目也会获得地方批准，但州级流程要求分析其影响。经过大约两年的研究，如果建筑商幸运的话，他可以跳上梯子直奔游戏终点。其他人则必须经历更严苛的报告流程，每参加一次公听会前进一格，然后在纽约市必须完成的20项技术分析中每完成一项再前进一格。这需要接近三年的时间。如果在此期间计划有变，建筑商就会落到蛇头（或美国版本的滑梯）上，回到起点。一场诉讼则可能引发整整第二轮流程。
Now New York is on the brink of(濒临，即将) throwing away the game. The state is set to pass the first big reform of its environmental reviews for housing in 50 years. Even though many developments are found to have little environmental impact, the convoluted(复杂的，费解的) process slows building and becomes a blocking tool for would-be-neighbours. Scrapping it “is going to be a real transformational moment” boasts Kathy Hochul, New York’s governor. But the Empire State(帝国州（纽约州的别称）) is not alone: in an effort to get building, Democratic states across the country are rethinking their environmental reviews.
如今纽约州即将抛弃这套游戏。该州即将通过50年来首次住房环境审查重大改革。尽管许多开发项目被认定对环境几乎没有影响，但复杂的流程却拖慢了建设速度，并成为潜在邻居的阻挠工具。废除它“将是一个真正的变革时刻”，纽约州州长凯西·霍楚尔夸耀道。但帝国州并非孤例：为促进建设，全国各地的民主党州都在重新审视其环境审查制度。
In 2024 New York state ranked fifth in the nation for cost burdens(成本负担) for housing, with more than a third of residents spending more than 30% of their household income on it. The state’s population has fallen, and it is projected to lose one or two congressional seats in the next reapportionment(重新分配（国会席位）) in 2030. For Ms Hochul, this is a crisis. “We’re losing residents to neighbouring states that have more ambition and willingness to not be thwarted(受挫，被阻挠) by the NIMBY culture,” she says, referring to Not In My Backyard campaigners.
2024年，纽约州的住房成本负担位列全美第五，超过三分之一的居民将其家庭收入的30%以上用于住房。该州人口已经下降，预计在2030年的下一次重新分配中将会失去一到两个国会席位。对霍楚尔女士而言，这是一场危机。“我们的居民正在流失到周边那些更有雄心、更不愿被NIMBY文化阻挠的州，”她说，这里指的是“别在我后院”运动。