the problem is that zoning is a bad hack to solve the problem of how a neighborhood feels. we know that we don't want it get too big or loud - no 50 story offi

the problem is that zoning is a bad hack to solve the problem of how a neighborhood feels. we know that we don't want it get too big or loud - no 50 story office building, or vape shops and bars on every corner - so we write blanket rules restricting certain kinds of construction and grant power to the people already living there for changes to the code itself and approval over all buildings matching the existing code this puts all the power in two types of people - those entrenched in this process with political and financial power, and existing homeowners. Both of these groups then use their power to preserve what they already have and impose their ideal of a neighborhood over everyone else and because we live in America not only do the people in power act knowingly in the interest of preserving their wealth and power but also incorporate their biases - especially against members of a class or race - into exclusio this is so fundamentally broken and yet as a fundamental construct American cities lack any mechanism for questioning the concentration of power in homeowners and it is crazy. in a transit starved stretch of Brooklyn, homeowners blocked a bus lane from going up just because they wouldn't let go of a hundred parking spots during weekday business hours. entire communities suffer because people who own homes and cars refuse to compromise