Speaking presumably from her prespective as a District Council community
organizer, I would like to underscore Tait's point that "undesirable" land
uses and buisness operations always cluster in locations where they are
legal (or were when they sited there) and where there is the least
powerful/organized community resistance. This is easily documented using a
variety of data sources here and around the world. Think industry (including
GSE), landfills, garbage dumps, as well as porn shops, high-traffic retail
of any kind, gas stations, etc. -- they do NOT show up next to expensive
residences owned by influential people.
Zoning was invented to separate incompatible uses, and commercial arterials
such as University, Snelling, and Grand help cluster such uses that need and
generate traffic, produce noise, and so on along those linear corridors and
generally keep them out of neighborhoods. (Contrast this with the situation
in Houston, TX without zoning that produced the vibrancy of mixed-used
neighborhoods with great blues and jazz clubs nestled between single-family
houses on a regular residential block...yet bringing with them the
accompanying community challenges.)
Following landmark legislation in the early 70s that deinstitutionalized
thousands of people whose conditions did not merit such exclusion in light
of contemporary mental (and physical) health treatment regimens, many group
homes were built, typically in what's known as the "twilight zone" in
cities. This is the mixed-used area between the downtown core and the dense
residential areas in most cities where such uses are legal, the buiding
structures are well-suited to the residents, they're close to public transit
and support services generally located in the downtown core, and the larger
number of more mobile renters generally results in less persistent and
organized resistance. Note, too, that smaller group homes (6 and under
residents, as I recall), are legal and protected uses in single-family
neighborhoods.
"Undesirable" means different things to different people. Land use/zoning
codes were designed to address community impacts like traffic, noise,
lighting, odors, etc., as well as safety issues, such as keeping what are
deemed higher-risk uses such as bars/nightclubs X-hundred feet from school
entrances (when they are built). Communities have tried numerous and more or
less successful strategies to regulate the existence or location of porn
shops, gun shops, liquor stores, bars catering to certain types of
clientele, and so on. But overlaying issues of morality on land use/zoning
regulations or through licensing is difficult to do legally, as definitions
and interpretations vary considerably and such regulations must be both fair
and enforceable.
Just some food for thought...
-- Anne Carroll
------------------------------------------------------------
Anne R. Carroll
Carroll, Franck & Associates
Public Involvement, Strategic Planning, Communications
1357 Highland Parkway
St. Paul, MN 55116 USA
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
651-690-9162 School Board: 651-690-9156
"The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice." -- Martin Luther
King, Jr.
"...You will be more credible and you will be more powerful if you do not
separate the lives you live from the words you speak." -- Paul Wellstone
"A politician worries about the next election. A true states[wo]man worries
about the next generation, and children yet unborn." - e.e. cummings
-------------------------------------------------
JOIN the St. Paul Issues Forum TODAY:
http://www.e-democracy.org/stpaul/
-------------------------------------------------
POST MESSAGES HERE: [email protected]
To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit:
http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul
Archive Address:
http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/
