> This article sounds somewhat socialist and left leaning The only hint of anything socialist in this report is that Japanese zoning is based on centrally plan

> This article sounds somewhat socialist and left leaning The only hint of anything socialist in this report is that Japanese zoning is based on centrally planned guidelines. However, the author reports a key downside of this: that there are fewer possibilities for experimentation- so I don't get that this is left-leaning. > just because there is an open area available, should we really develop everything The author makes the point that whitelist-based zoning results in urban sprawl. So, IMO, if you are going to develop an area, make it dense, convenient, and creative. And then you can leave the rest undeveloped. I don't know about the zoning laws in Seattle, but it's pretty dense with residential towers, pretty mixed use downtown and in Capitol Hill, but hikes and waterfalls are like a 20 minute drive away.