U.S. and European Zoning, Compared

Comments · 2.5K

• AW

  @awsomemodels · 4 years ago

  Us city planning will always blow my mind , it's just crazy how you can have a very large residential area without a single store in it .

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• VA

  @VaalerianG · 4 years ago

  American zoning is even weirder than what I thought, discovering that the zoning from Sim City was not a weird oversimplification for the sake of gameplay but actually based on the USA was a shock.

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• GC

  @gchecosse · 4 years ago

  As a UK person, now Sim City makes sense. I always thought that having different zones was just a stylised thing invented for the game.

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• UN

  @unakaposi4215 · 4 years ago

  I can't imagine not having a store, bakery, coffee shop in walking distance from anywhere I live or staying as a tourist, that's horrible. I am Croatian, now living in Ireland, traveled all over the Europe. I just can't imagine it at all.

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• IN

  @incubus_the_man · 4 years ago

  I think that the US system has helped larger companies like Walmart to grow while hurting smaller family owned businesses. It's making it more expensive to become an entrepreneur.

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• WO

  @Wozza365 · 4 years ago

  I'm from England, my Dad was able to convert half our garage into an office when he first started his own business. I was only a kid but we were pretty broke and he wouldn't have had a chance if he was paying rent on even the smallest of office spaces. That business is still going over a decade later with employees in a proper office. To me that shows that the flexibility to run a business like this helps businesses to thrive, particularly small ones. It sounds like this would have been basically impossible in the US, despite there literally not being even a sign for the business outside.

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• CM

  @cmw3737 · 4 years ago

  Sim City taught me how stupid US zoning laws were. Even in that game it was obvious to me that sprinkling the zone squares to create mixed use zones led to better outcomes. Forcing everyone to commute to and from the same zones is mind blowingly stupid and allowing more mixed use is one thing that north america can do now on a local level to reduce pollution and climate change.

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• MU

  @multivitamin425 · 4 years ago

  Imagine a whole district without a single pub in it

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• NO

  @NotJustBikes · 4 years ago

  This is a great summary. I&apos;ll definitely be linking people to this video when discussing alternatives to Euclidean zoning.<br><br>Another fascinating zoning method is Japanese zoning, which is a variation on the pyramid method mentioned in this video. The channel &quot;Life Where I&apos;m From&quot; did a great video about Japanese zoning that I recommend watching, if you&apos;re interested in good zoning methods.

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• NE

  @NeovanGoth · 4 years ago (edited)

  Greetings from Munich, Germany. Here landlords actually advertise apartments to be in mixed zones, as it is seen as a locational advantage. People just expect &quot;Geschäfte des täglichen Bedarfs&quot; (everyday necessities) like supermarkets, hairdressers, pharmacies, doctors and so on to be right around the corner, but also not-so-everyday-things like small hardware stores, bicycle workshops, or galleries, in addition to public infrastructure like schools and libraries, as well as recreational facilities like parks, bars, and restaurants. Basically everything that isn&apos;t very loud and doesn&apos;t stink. Literally everyone who can afford it wants to live in the inner city were almost everything one would need - including office workplaces - can be easily reached by foot or at least in a few minutes bicycle ride. Overall only poorer people and families with need for more space and private gardens can be found in purely residential areas that are considered boring and just not very attractive to many.<br><br>This also allows, as already mentioned in the video, a constant and dynamic transformation of the city to become even more livable. As the city extended over time, it encircled a lot of industrial areas formerly formerly lying in the outskirts. As land value rises, industry gradually moves out and and is replaced by residential, commercial and cultural usage.

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• MA

  @marktrvls1218 · 4 years ago

  In Germany lots of the planning and zoning is focused around public transport too, most of their towns and cities seem to have a large train station around which the city and transport within the city is built

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• GE

  @geografisica · 4 years ago (edited)

  I own a small grocery store in Orlando, FL. As a Venezuelan, a country that inherited the European Zoning Model from Spain, the mixed use are a very common thing for me. My purpose was to open a mini grocery store in a Residential medium density area, I wanted to create what is called in Spanish a “Bodega”, that has been very difficult, I had to rent a space in a strip mall and the retail surfaces are usually bigger and more expensive. The other challenge is that even though some customers live close to my store in 4-store buildings, they always take the car, so they prefer to go to a big box store like Walmart than stop by my store to buy milk and bread. Americans are so used to drive that for them walking around the corner to buy basic stuff is unthinkable. Now I am trying to go through online services, that’s the only way to get more customers because my neighbors are not willing to cross the street and go to my small bodega. So my point is, even though zoning can be kind of mixed in some US cities, the American way of life it’s always by the use of a car, no matter how close you are from your customers, they “need” to drive. Anyways, it’s a cultural aspect that I need to get used to if I want my business to succeed.

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