The suburbs don't have to be bad. We can improve them by looking at what makes them problematic in the first place and what we can change to create the subur...
Zoning lets us banish hazardous or noisy industry from where people live, it lets us specify features like sidewalks and trees, it lets us size development appropriate to the area and to the infrastructure. It lets us protect society and future citizens by specifying minimum standards for health, safety, livability.
While it’s up to the market to decide, local government can’t abdicate its responsibility for shaping the market to best serve the citizens
I totally understand, but thinking that more deregulation would be fixing any of that is a mistake. What you want (and need) is simply better regulations. You need experts with a plan for the city. Companies are not experts on city planning.
Zoning lets us banish hazardous or noisy industry from where people live, it lets us specify features like sidewalks and trees, it lets us size development appropriate to the area and to the infrastructure. It lets us protect society and future citizens by specifying minimum standards for health, safety, livability.
While it’s up to the market to decide, local government can’t abdicate its responsibility for shaping the market to best serve the citizens
I don’t disagree, but where I live zoning is a large part of the problem
The zoning in my area perpetuates unwalkable, uncyclable, parking lot infested sprawl, because single family houses take up 84% of the available land.
I don’t want industry to move into neighborhoodseither , but I wouldn’t mind commercial or retail, currently prohibited.
I totally understand, but thinking that more deregulation would be fixing any of that is a mistake. What you want (and need) is simply better regulations. You need experts with a plan for the city. Companies are not experts on city planning.
The US already has a highly deregulated zoning system, while European countries often have national laws and regulations (e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_General_de_Ordenación_Urbana ) that have to be implemented by the communities, and even above the national level you have things like the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Spatial_Development_Perspective
That would ne ideal, but sadly city planning in the United states is too political.
We’ll never get anything done relying on city planning, so the only thing that seems possible is to improve the city organically, through markets.