Three ways you’re not as free as you think you are, thanks to North America's built environment: 1. We can't use our neighborhood streets to their fullest potential. Our roadways are designed to move high volumes of vehicles at high speeds. These engineering standards put pedestrians and bikers in danger, as well as making the roadways unpleasant to walk along. This reduction in foot traffic stifles local businesses, as people are less likely to give a small business a chance when they have to pull over and park instead of just stepping inside. Most people don't realize they can do something to change all this. 2. Strict zoning laws and federal loan standards limit people's choices to a single type of housing. Many are pushed toward large, single-family homes that plunge them into a lifetime of debt, when they might want smaller, multifamily, or mixed-use housing. Even if their area's zoning laws would allow them to build a different kind of housing, financing that housing without federal loans is often impossible. 3. You're not free to choose the amount of parking that best serves your business. Parking minimums force you to either abandon your dream, go through a long and sometimes expensive process to get a variance, or find the money to buy out your neighbors and replace them with parking lots. These laws drastically favor big box stores, which have access to far more resources than the average local business. What can you do to fix this? Get involved on a local level. Connect with your Local Conversation, speak in a public meeting, start a letter-writing campaign. Do something to make your voice heard. It's the best way to drive real, positive change for your community.
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North American road infrastructure signals to drivers that there shouldn’t be any pedestrians or bikers in an area, so they fail to see the people who are actually there. This increases the risk of collisions and prevents reform — why would you make an area more friendly to nondrivers if you think none of them are there? If cities are to have safer streets, they need to start acknowledging the people who use them.
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Regulatory reform doesn’t always mean replacing or changing zoning codes. Great designers are experts at working within existing codes to increase housing options, and this method is often more attainable and scalable than actually changing the code. Check out these step-by-step illustrations (courtesy of @R. John Anderson) of how two basic lots in Durham, NC, can be turned into a five-house cottage court, all while complying with the city's existing regulations. Learn more: https://hubs.ly/Q02CQmNb0
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"I'm a Strong Towns aficionado. I think they have it virtually correct," says Massachusetts Congressman Jake Auchincloss. In this interview, he went on to discuss the importance of abolishing parking minimums, allowing incremental development, and improving local housing affordability. Making these things possible on a local scale should be a priority for all policy-makers. Check out the whole interview on Brookline News: https://hubs.la/Q02DMr0m0
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A strategic thinker for community wealth and health; aspiring to be analogous to a medical doctor for a range of community level challenges; PhD, MUP, MPA.
2dI agree: Local levels of government (counties, municipalities, and neighborhoods/villages) are where all policy choices make contact with the rest of the society beyond the governmental system. However, I think it's important to recognize the possibilities that "higher" levels of government organization (states and nations) can unlock at the local level *if* the officials in those "higher" levels of government can effectively attune their policy choices and actions with attention made to the consequences that are experienced on the local level. To put more concretely, how can federal and/or state policies improve conditions experienced by private citizens at the local levels *with* the local governmental systems as coordinated colleagues? What could they do for the unique conditions that underpin local housing market conditions to reduce the cost of living for greater numbers of people? How about workforce development programs, so people can have higher wages and add greater value to the local economy? Or public transit+social service delivery systems+utilities? Investments of resources, effort, and time in local economies by state and federal governments can net back returns for the whole through benefiting more individuals.