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This may or may not be true, and it doesn't matter because single use zoning in most American cities makes it illegal to build walkable cities. It's pretty hard
by jppope 5y ago
This may or may not be true, and it doesn't matter because single use zoning in most American cities makes it illegal to build walkable cities. It's pretty hard to establish what Americans prefer when the alternative what they have isn't allowed.
- inglor_cz 5y agoWhy should a neighbourhood consisting of single family homes not be walkable? This is such a neighbourhood from the early 1920s not too far from where I grew up. Take a stroll through it with Street View. It is perfectly walkable. https://goo.gl/maps/kKqhtNbKDy6oycSi9 https://goo.gl/maps/kKqhtNbKDy6oycSi9 The lots are smallish compared to the American standard, though. This is a crowded continent.
- nottorp 5y agoIt's not a single use zone if stores are allowed in it. The OP means that you need a car to get anything you need because the nearest store is 2 hours of walking away.
- inglor_cz 5y agoAh, this is something I did not know. A residential area that allows no stores is really a weird, weird concept.
- oblio 5y agoSmall stores draw criminals, you see?
- inglor_cz 5y agoSo does big business :)
- nottorp 5y agoOh, I'm also in Eastern Europe and it's similarly foreign to me. Even the new suburbs they're building here now with all identical houses, Edward Scissorhands style, have corner stores(tm) within walking distance everywhere.
- tptacek 5y agoSingle family zoning isn't simply a car thing. I live in a small, walkable, transit-friendly neighborhood full of crunch eco-liberals, and it is entirely hostile to upzoning for reasons having nothing at all to do with cars; it's a central tool of NIMBYism.
- couchand 5y agoOh my yes: whatever height is currently built is perfect, every currently vacant lot is a prize, etc. etc. But the GP spoke of single-use zoning, a slightly different cudgel. I understand the abstract appeal of dividing up a map into neatly-separated areas, a la SimCity, but that just doesn't accomodate real life.