There is a difference between zoning and planning. There are examples of planned cities such as the Roman colonia (coloniae?) and Hausseman's Paris....modern zoning is a response to the rapid growth of industrial cities and an effort to keep residential areas separate from ugly, noisy, polluting factories...in the post-WWII era it became a way of locking in the status quo in middle-class residential neighborhoods....more recently, zoning has a lot to do with cars , parking and big-box-style retail shopping than factories....for instance, I've heard of some suburbs that require two and 3-car garages.
The stated idea of requiring 2 and 3-car garages is that it keeps cars out of view on the driveway in front of the house...but it's unstated reason is to keep people who can afford only a one car garage (or none) out of that community. I find it interesting that this thread began with the observation that more people in Minneapolis are paving over their yards for parking. There was an article in the NY Times about this nationwide phenomenon...I suspect the reason for paving over the backyard has to do with the high price of housing and increasing number of people moving back into their parents' home or doubling up....also the increasing sprawl and the growth of low-wage jobs out in the burbs requires more lower income people to keep a beater or two in the back yard ( in case the primary beater doesn't start). Lower income neighborhoods bear the worst of the automobile's danger, ugliness and pollution. The Central neighborhood for instance has more than its share of smelly autobody shops, car washes, filling stations and acres of asphalt. Linden Hills has much less of this stuff. If every residential Minneapolis neighborhood had to accept the full impact of the automobile's environmental effects.....no NIMBY...I'd bet we would once again have the finest streetcar system in the world. I would prefer to see environmental problems taken care of at the source, and that takes planning. When we restrict filling stations in our neighborhood, unless we agree to drive less or give up driving...those stations will be located in neighborhoods that wield far less political clout. I agree that a paved over back yard is ugly ( I live next to one) but I would prefer to see long-range city-wide and regional planning to address this problem...with greater emphasis on transit.....not just zoning. Ken Avidor Kingfield _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
