The Freeman 1972 - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

440 THE FREEMAN Julyimage of the ideal city was heavilytinted by their memories of amore bucolic and less populouscity of their youth. They wereconstrained to project the futureas a virtually straight-line extensionof the past. They simply couldnot (nor could anybody else) anticipateand plan for the tumultuousevents of the next 23 years:United States entry into WorldWar I, the virtual cessation of immigration.after 1924, the GreatDepression, the ubiquitous andferocious automobile, airconditioning,the supermarket, penicillin.Clouded Crystal BallThe planners' cloudy crystal ball,focused on the presumed unhealthinessof the towering officebuilding, engendered the zoningziggurats, the wedding-cake buildingsthat mar the horizon withoutlessening congestion in any meaningfulway or adding to the comfortof office workers. The zoners'fondness for and familiarity withrow houses and their evident an..tipathy to tenements promoted theconstruction and the retention ofsmaller houses. Dwellings adequateaccording to the standards of 1919or 1925 but decrepit and dilapidated30 or 40 years later oftencannot be restored to livabilityand economic usefulness becauseof zoning restrictions. Inner cityareas are thus condemned·~to totaldevastation before rebuilding canbegin. Neighborhoods that mighthave survived in changed but recognizableform are totally obliterated,their diversity and theirhumanity trucked away with therubble.Lack of FlexibilityThe consequences of the inherentlack of flexibility of zoningare multifarious. Some land staysidle awaiting industrial use thatnever arrives. The assemblage ofeconomically buildable parcels ismade unnaturally expensive becausebuilders must pay not onlyfor the inherent value of land butalso for the value conferred byzoning. Tax rolls are permanentlymaimed and the economic viabilityof the city endangered because taxconcessions can be extracted forlarge scale development wheresmall scale and piecemeal rebuildingis hampered by zoning restrictions.Long after neighborhoodshave been thoroughly run downand all but abandoned they continuezoned for residential use, thenonresidents thereof protectedfrom industrial incursion. Wherezoning's mortmain prevails, soundresidences now too large for single-familyoccupancy will often decayto total uselessness before anew use as shop, store or multifamilyresidence is permitted bygrant of variance or rezoning. The