2 ms·
Your comment reminds me of the Strong Towns concept of "built to a finished state". The idea that, say, a suburb gets built and it must stay in the form it was
by davidw 7y ago
Your comment reminds me of the Strong Towns concept of "built to a finished state". The idea that, say, a suburb gets built and it must stay in the form it was built in forever and ever, rather than, say, gradually gaining a few businesses, or some denser housing in more desirable locations.
- beerandt 7y agoI mean, this is basically what zoning was designed to do. For the most part, it's working as intended.
- davidw 7y agoYeah, unfortunately, for values of 'working' that signify huge costs for people, cities and the environment.
- gowld 7y ago"Working as intended" is often a euphemism for "broken as designed"
- beerandt 7y agoWhat do you suggest? Houston has its own set of problems.
- davidw 7y agoHouston, like many American cities, massively subsidizes sprawl and an auto-centric (or auto-only) lifestyle. They may not have zoning, but they do have things like parking minimums throughout much of the city. And in their favor, it is a place where many people can afford to live, something that can't be said of places like the San Francisco bay area. Where I lived in Italy, I could walk to: * My kids' schools * A small grocery store * A cafe * A takeout pizza place * Our doctor * A tram stop * A small park With a bike, many more places were within easy reach. How many places in the US allow so many different things so close together?
- taurath 7y agoMost towns downtown area, and most major metro areas. The real problem - they were seen for over 50 years by white americans as an undesirable place to live (high amount of minorities, crime), and are just now catching up and moving in. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_flight https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_flight Its a big part of racial politics in the US - and now as all the current tech workers move back into the cities, there's a problem of gentrification where minorities are being pushed out of their neighborhoods due to cost increases. Affordable, with a nice walkable downtown, low crime, and access to well paying jobs is the holy grail for almost any town - there are very few that achieve it. Generally as downtown gets nicer it gets less affordable. If we had a good way to actually spread out wealth and jobs, the smaller towns could improve and there would be many desirable local places to live. Until then, people will enclave themselves away in their suburbs. There will also always be those who want to live in more rural, large spaces.
- davidw 7y agoMost downtowns were built up before they got zoning laws: that's part of why they tend to be a bit better from that point of view. Also, where I lived in Italy was a suburban area and it still managed to have all those amenities.
- taurath 7y agoTowns and villages in Europe are almost always highly compact compared to the US - I put it to that auto ownership was a bit lower and trains could be more efficient. Plus the relatively homogenized cultured meant there was less of a need to have sub enclaves on things other than economic class.
- davidw 7y ago> Towns and villages in Europe are almost always highly compact compared to the US That's a political choice. I mean, yes, the US has a lot of land and fewer people, but there are plenty of places that might be more compact if it were legal.