3 ms·

Not sure why you're being down-voted, other than that the evidence you provided isn't very compelling. For people who think this is hyperbole, it is not. Zonin

Not sure why you're being down-voted, other than that the evidence you provided isn't very compelling. For people who think this is hyperbole, it is not. Zoning codes also exist for a lot of other (good) reasons, but there are large sections of zoning codes (esp. regarding the type of housing allowed within a residentially zoned area) that were absolutely created with explicitly and openly racist intent. Sometimes those sections of code are still with us today. Sometimes they've been removed. But in both cases, the effects of those zoning laws on communities reverberates today: http://reason.com/archives/2014/04/02/zonings-racist-roots-still-bear-fruit http://reason.com/archives/2014/04/02/zonings-racist-roots-s... http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/05/the-racist-housing-policy-that-made-your-neighborhood/371439/ http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/05/the-raci...

throwaway_911 10y ago
Residential segregation is the large scale observable effect of small biases. http://ncase.me/polygons http://ncase.me/polygons. To end residential segregation is to either end the biases themselves or the freedom to express them. Either approach is rather distopian, with strong reverberations in the worst abuses of the Soviet regime.
- throwaway729 10y ago
  Massive false dichotomy. First, there's a huge amount of space in policy design between "zoning laws with racial segregation as an explicit goal" and "Soviet regime restriction on personal choice re: where to live". Second, a lot of people's preferences are a much more nuanced than toy game theoretic models assume.
- vkou 10y ago
  What? Eliminating ass-backwards zoning laws that enforce 'aesthetic character' is a Soviet dystopia? How? And here I always thought that the best example of a Soviet dystopia in housing was the row after row of cookie-cutter prefab Krushevkas [1]. That and the constant lack of housing. In fact, restrictions on aesthetics, driveway sizes, etc, only exacerbate the problem. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHdFd2RKRSI&ab_channel=IneseStrupule https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHdFd2RKRSI&ab_channel=Inese...
  - throwaway_911 10y ago
    Look at the data. How many cities around the world have an utopian mix of people, where millionaires live next to homeless tent encampments and [insert ethnicity here] live mixed with [insert another ethnicity here]. The uniform cities I can think of are Soviet cities. Soviets worked hard to Harrison Bergeron their populations, and also to eliminate any shred of social cohesion other than the prescribed love for the Party. And even in Soviet cities, the Party leaders live in their own nice segregated neighborhoods, far removed from the Krushevaks the forcibly uniformized rest of the population is forced to inhabit.
Symmetry 10y ago
Sometimes selfish rather than racist. I've had a discussion with a coworker from a suburb who was against a referendum on a state affordable housing law. He was worried it would let poor people move in and use his town's good schools without "paying their fair share." So there are lots of bad reasons for these rather than just racism.
- TazeTSchnitzel 10y ago
  That's just classism rather than racism.
  - DiabloD3 10y ago
    When most of the lower class in a certain area in the US is non-white, they're both the same thing.
    - mzw_mzw 10y ago
      No, they really aren't. If I told you I don't like clowns, would you accuse me of being sexist against men, because most clowns are men?

throwaway_911 10y ago

Residential segregation is the large scale observable effect of small biases. http://ncase.me/polygons http://ncase.me/polygons. To end residential segregation is to either end the biases themselves or the freedom to express them. Either approach is rather distopian, with strong reverberations in the worst abuses of the Soviet regime.

throwaway729 10y ago
Massive false dichotomy. First, there's a huge amount of space in policy design between "zoning laws with racial segregation as an explicit goal" and "Soviet regime restriction on personal choice re: where to live". Second, a lot of people's preferences are a much more nuanced than toy game theoretic models assume.
vkou 10y ago
What? Eliminating ass-backwards zoning laws that enforce 'aesthetic character' is a Soviet dystopia? How? And here I always thought that the best example of a Soviet dystopia in housing was the row after row of cookie-cutter prefab Krushevkas [1]. That and the constant lack of housing. In fact, restrictions on aesthetics, driveway sizes, etc, only exacerbate the problem. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHdFd2RKRSI&ab_channel=IneseStrupule https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHdFd2RKRSI&ab_channel=Inese...
- throwaway_911 10y ago
  Look at the data. How many cities around the world have an utopian mix of people, where millionaires live next to homeless tent encampments and [insert ethnicity here] live mixed with [insert another ethnicity here]. The uniform cities I can think of are Soviet cities. Soviets worked hard to Harrison Bergeron their populations, and also to eliminate any shred of social cohesion other than the prescribed love for the Party. And even in Soviet cities, the Party leaders live in their own nice segregated neighborhoods, far removed from the Krushevaks the forcibly uniformized rest of the population is forced to inhabit.

Symmetry 10y ago

Sometimes selfish rather than racist. I've had a discussion with a coworker from a suburb who was against a referendum on a state affordable housing law. He was worried it would let poor people move in and use his town's good schools without "paying their fair share." So there are lots of bad reasons for these rather than just racism.

TazeTSchnitzel 10y ago
That's just classism rather than racism.
- DiabloD3 10y ago
  When most of the lower class in a certain area in the US is non-white, they're both the same thing.
  - mzw_mzw 10y ago
    No, they really aren't. If I told you I don't like clowns, would you accuse me of being sexist against men, because most clowns are men?