4 ms·
The main reasons for zoning are cultural. For some reason or another, US households and governments have a greater preference for income segregation (keeping ap
by iambenrussell 11y ago
The main reasons for zoning are cultural. For some reason or another, US households and governments have a greater preference for income segregation (keeping apartments away from wealthy neighborhoods) and "quiet" residential areas.
The fears are/were that the natural beauty of certain types of development would be spoiled by low-income housing, factories, and commerce. Of course, as you say, it's very any I - market. People already tend to naturally cluster based on income, level of education, desire for public goods, etc, so it shouldn't be necessary to have such restrictions.
It inevitably comes down to money, too, where minimum lot size restrictions shut out potential tenants/owners who can afford the per square foot cost in low quantities but not a large property. These restrictions are supposed to ensure a high enough tax yield per dwelling, but it's in the name of beautification.
You could say it all goes back to the car. When it suddenly became much cheaper for low income people to move out of the city center and commute from traditionally rich suburban areas, the rich got scared. Some moved further away, but governments also used zoning laws to make sure to poor stayed in the city, where they belonged.
- jdavis703 11y agoA lot of zoning restrictions were an attempt to circumvent anti-segretation laws for schools and housing through policies such as redlining.
- unclebucknasty 11y agoBingo. A lot of the configuration is rooted in our racial history. Even sans zoning, black people have chased white people to the suburbs, back downtown again, and basically all over the map. You can't understand American city structure without the context of race relations here.
- michaelbuddy 11y agoYou also can't say its all about race either because that would be trying to deliberately mislead.
- unclebucknasty 11y agoHence the phrase "a lot" vs. "all about".
- srtjstjsj 11y ago"chased" is a strange choice of words here.
- unclebucknasty 11y agoNot to be taken literally. A word chosen to parody the ridiculousness of the overall dynamic. Hoping to evoke a Keystone Cops-on-a-map style mental image.
- GFK_of_xmaspast 11y agoThat's an "interesting" phrasing, but I find it less convincing than the usual "white flight" interpretation.
- unclebucknasty 11y agoFlip sides of the same coin. Didn't mean the phrasing literally, as much as in parody. That said, there is an element of upwardly mobile African Americans seeking opportunities for their children. While they are not explicitly "chasing white people", this search frequently lands them in the same suburban locales.
- michaelbuddy 11y agoYou're ignoring the lions share of zoning which is really about safety and conforming to standards. People like the money they spend to mean stability. And that means nice neighborhoods of houses don't want certain businesses because of trucks, unfamiliar traffic which equal danger to pedestrians. Some don't care about lawns or flags or color as much but it turns out the most insufferable people end up being drawn to the hoa boards.
- Throwaway23412 11y agoWhat's interesting is that the word "safe" doesn't show up once in the "Zoning" Wikipedia article. However, words like "business interests", "income segregation", and "racial segregation" seem to show up quite a bit. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoning#Functional_zoning_-_categories https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoning#Functional_zoning_-_cat... - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoning#Criticism_of_zoning_laws_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoning#Criticism_of_zoning_law...
- PhantomGremlin 11y agothe word "safe" doesn't show up once in the "Zoning" Wikipedia article Then that Wikipedia article needs to be amended. Look at an example from the real world. This is happening right now, in Portland Oregon. http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/two-portland-glass-companies-lack-pollution-controls-on-their-chimneys/Content?oid=17577339 http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/two-portland-glass-c... The problem is that glass factories are "adjacent to a 100-child daycare facility, two public schools (Cleveland High School and Winterhaven K-8), and a city park." These factories have been emitting metals such as cadmium and arsenic into the air. As you can imagine, this being Portland, everyone is quite upset. And rightly so. You can argue about the quantities of emission that any given plant should be allowed. But you can't argue that, for any given emission level, society as a whole is much better off if these factories aren't adjacent to daycare facilities and schools. Keeping schools and factories separated is a very legitimate "safety" goal of zoning.
- ajmurmann 11y ago