Mar
10
Blog Post #6: Zoning
March 10, 2015 | Leave a Comment
I found these readings very interesting since each article brings up different views on income inequality and zoning. Restrictive zoning is one of the biggest factors that lead to racial and economic segregation in NYC. As an effect, it creates very distinguished poor vs rich neighbors. It’s a big problem since zoning only allows single-family homes instead of apartments and it restricts how much housing can be constructed. This isn’t a problem for most wealthy people since they can freely move from place to place without any financial drawbacks. However, for the majority, social and geographic mobility is a struggle.
In the Washington Post article, it was shocking to read “segregation was a good thing: that people who lived in apartments were “parasites” who were trying to “take advantage of the … attractive surroundings” wealthier people could afford.” This treats the moderate to low income tenants as second class citizens. What’s even more shocking was to read how buildings have completely separate entrances, elevators, and electrical wings. They even have separate buildings for residents that own or rent apartments. This is unfair that the low-income residents are excluded from using the same amenities and having the same opportunities.
Zoning increases housing prices and the separation between the rich and the poor. It becomes more apparent that there is not enough affordable housing for the low-come families. The moderate-income families are also struggling as housing becomes more expensive and the standard of living increases. As people move out of buildings, they lose the affordable housing and rent will increase. The poor are pushed out into undesirable neighborhoods with poorer education, higher crime rates, and fewer amenities just because it’s more affordable to live there.
It’s interesting that they bring up the fact that there’s “local inequality” because it affects where we choose to live. We choose where we live mostly on the amount of local resources and local education. If the poor are forced to live in places with no resources and poor education, it’s harder for them to mobilize or find new opportunities because they’re stuck where they are. It’s harder for them to get a better education, a higher wage, and a better skill set.
Some solutions posed are to create looser zoning laws or deregulation, expand housing subsidies, and create affordable housing. It’s going to impossible to make all housing affordable or even majority of the housing affordable; therefore it’s only a temporary situation. What are the zoning laws like in other countries compared to the US? Maybe we can take what’s working and integrated into the laws we have now. If not, we need to find an innovated way to create more housing for an affordable price.
-JanYing He
