There is always a But

I love it when someone, Nathan Newman in this case, posts fairly coherently on something like Rent Control and then ends up with something really profound such as being against "anti-development zoning."

When there are no more homeless families in the shelters and working families aren't paying half their wages for housing from where they then have to commute an hour on the train to their jobs in Manhattan-- then I'll have some sympathy for preserving "context" zoning or other NIMBYish gentrification programs. Until then, I basically oppose all anti-development zoning in the City.

I know NIMBYISM at its most hypocritical and I too detest its holier-than-thou attitude, its attempt to seize the high moral ground and speak for "the community." Bosh.

Bands of neighbors get together to defend their property interests from perceived loss of value from "incompatible development" etc etc and boring etc. Such folks have an absolute ethical, legal right to protect what they believe is theirs. But it galls me when they get on their moral high horse and claim to speak for "the community." Technically speaking, bosh!

But --- and here is the rub --- there is such a thing as incompatible development and it's reasonable and even fair for individuals and their governments to try to re-form it. "Unleashing the market" (Newman is too smart to fall for that one) is one of the favorite solutions. But unless you get rid of ALL local zoning --- right, Congress can handle that too --- the preferences of neighbors is just as real a factor in development as is gravity.

Comments

[Ian]

From monitoring USenet and the like it seems to me that the US does have similar planning controls to the UK, if not even stricter, but not exercised by any democratic bodies as in the UK. Instead residents associations and the like apply very strict regulations. No local government body in theUK would ever tell you what plants to grow in your front garden, that you have to have a metal shed not wood, or that you have to park your car behind the bulding line not in front of the building - all complaints I've seen in alt.planning.urban.

Privatising planing controls doesn't make them go away - it makes them even more inequitable in their impact

[Ian]

Sorry - that is a typo not a comment - USENET!!

[Murph]

Ian,

Strictness of community regulations varies widely in the US; some of them are set by local government, and some by community associations.

Local government restrictions tend to regulate things like how close to the property line you can build, or how high you can build, or whether you can turn part of your house into an apartment for your grandmother to live in when she gets too old to live by herself.

Community associations are where the truly petty restrictions come in; what color you can paint your house, or what your mailbox has to look like, or what kinds of flowers you can plant. Most neighborhoods, thankfully, are free of these sorts of associations.

[Tenants Association]

For some background on rent controls you might want to check out Rent Control in New York and a page from Canada on Rent Control

[Tenants Associations]

I see that one of those links have changed.

It is now at Rent Controls in Ontario Canada