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Put tiny businesses back into residential neighborhoods

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Re: Put tiny businesses back into residential neighborhoods

#171

Post by Cogito »

unishark wrote: post #144
bezmenov wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A greater shock for many is the complete lack of footpaths/sidewalks virtually anywhere outside of commercial districts or inner-most metros. The idea of walking anywhere is insane. To get from a typical suburb to the nearest business district or strip mall would usually require walking several miles along the shoulder, with frequent illegal crossing of arterial roads.

This isn't my experience. I lived in a few different suburbs and there were always sidewalks. The only place I've been to where I really noticed their absence is smaller cities in New England. I always assumed it was due to the fact that the weather precluding walking so much of the time anyway. And of course in other places in the world where cities are old and streets are too small for sidewalks. Back streets in su…

When I was consulting in Oaks PA I tried to walk from my hotel to the local pub. It wasn't particularly far, but walking along unlit and unpaved tracts of land wasn't particularly appealing.

I would have walked if there were any affordances at all, but ended up driving more often than not.

Re: Put tiny businesses back into residential neighborhoods

#172

Post by opportune »

all_blue_chucks wrote: post #133
madamelic wrote: post #2

Mixed use zoning is just about the best case situation for everyone. - Less reliance on cars, which results in less parking, which results in less traffic... it becomes self-perpetuating. - Better walkability - Knowing your corner store clerk or at least having a rapport with them - Healthier citizens, due to them walking everywhere (Go to NYC and see how few overweight people you see... not many unless they're touri…

Restaurants, accountants, lawyers, and such may do fine with mixed use zoning, but retail simply can't compete without economy of scale.

Mixed use zoning is good for specialty retail like niche/designer clothing. Also even for things like groceries people (like me) will be willing to pay a slight premium for being able to get those goods from a short walking distance.

Re: Put tiny businesses back into residential neighborhoods

#173

Post by goda90 »

When I lived in Chile, I really enjoyed the little tiendas everywhere, particularly the ones that were bakeries. I have a hard time imagining how well something similar would work in my suburban neighborhood where everyone has cars. Maybe a destination like a cafe, but it just makes more sense for people around here to get a bunch of shopping done at the grocery store 5 minutes away in their car.

Re: Put tiny businesses back into residential neighborhoods

#174

Post by JamesBarney »

kilroy_jones wrote: post #63
Spooky23 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In theory sure. In reality, the financial system is oriented towards big capital. My aunt ran a coffee shop that was established by grandparents in 1939. It was in the lobby of a office building in he central business district of our little city. The building was bought by a Chinese investor. Like other similar stores, her rent went up 5x and she shuttered. I live in a mixed use urban neighborhood. 50% of he storefro…

Assuming you're in America, most areas are not dense enough to accommodate mixed use zoning unless they start building up. The other half is getting priced out like your grandma.

Why do you need high density for mixed use?

I live in Houston which is by no means very dense, and I love the lack of zoning laws.

Re: Put tiny businesses back into residential neighborhoods

#175

Post by lotsofpulp »

jackcosgrove wrote: post #88
aahhahahaaa wrote: post #13

How did we slip away so far from this being fairly obvious? Cities have worked well this way for hundreds of years. Maybe the industrial revolution made cities too unpleasant? Were we too spoiled by the automobile industry and government roads? White flight from cities into the suburbs?

The suburbs grew because of some legitimate reasons. In the mid-20th century cities were very crowded. It's one thing to live alone in a 1000 sq ft condo in a city now. 70 years ago that equivalent space was housing a family of five. More space for less money was enabled by automobiles, and it was a great improvement for many. That said many suburbs botched their expansions with tract housing and poor urban design, b…

>However there is nothing intrinsically wrong with a sprawling urban area enabled by cars. You just need to take care to design it well enough.

Optimizing for individual transport in cars and public transport are not compatible goals. The first reason being that if individual transport is made available to most people, they will opt out of public transport and therefore all political will for maintaining and increasing quality of public transport will disappear.

And optimizing for cars means you can't optimizing for walking or other forms of transit.

Re: Put tiny businesses back into residential neighborhoods

#176

Post by bananamerica »

Spooky23 wrote: post #30
madamelic wrote: post #2

Mixed use zoning is just about the best case situation for everyone. - Less reliance on cars, which results in less parking, which results in less traffic... it becomes self-perpetuating. - Better walkability - Knowing your corner store clerk or at least having a rapport with them - Healthier citizens, due to them walking everywhere (Go to NYC and see how few overweight people you see... not many unless they're touri…

In theory sure. In reality, the financial system is oriented towards big capital. My aunt ran a coffee shop that was established by grandparents in 1939. It was in the lobby of a office building in he central business district of our little city. The building was bought by a Chinese investor. Like other similar stores, her rent went up 5x and she shuttered. I live in a mixed use urban neighborhood. 50% of he storefro…

Why is karate dojo death business? Do they kill a lot of people?

Re: Put tiny businesses back into residential neighborhoods

#177

Post by nitrogen »

PakG1 wrote: post #154
ashtonkem wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tangentially related, but a colleague just got their replacement of kitchen cabinets shut down by the local government for not having a permit. It’s baffling to me that the government requires that you get permission to do significant modification to the inside of your own home, especially for non structural work.

What the heck? How would they even know? Neighbours reported seeing them carrying new cabinets in? The store reported it to the government? That's just weird.

Neighbours reported seeing them carrying new cabinets in?

Something like this actually happened to a former colleague of mine. They installed a safety rail on their front porch. Someone complained.

Re: Put tiny businesses back into residential neighborhoods

#178

Post by Hnrobert42 »

moltar wrote: post #127
AnthonyMouse wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is people want to call it "mixed zoning" but still have Karens on the central planning committee making stupid rules, e.g. they'll have "businesses" next to "residences" but a given plot will be explicitly designated as one or the other. What you really want is the small businesses which start off being operated out of the proprietor's residence. A hair salon in a converted living room, a restaurant servi…

Yup see “shop houses” [1] in Southeast Asia for how it should be done. Shop house is a flexible creature. It can be a business, but is also easily converted into living quarters, if necessarily, or a parking garage, or whatever you want. It’s just a flexible, convertible space. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shophouse

Exactly. That’s partly why I love living in Vietnam. The neighborhoods are so vibrant and full of life. Everyone is out on the stoop. Neighbors all know each other and buy from each other.

Of course, from my apartment I hear karaoke late at night, roosters early in the morning, and construction, always construction.

So there are drawbacks. It would be disruptive, especially in suburbia. But I would love some middle ground between crazy Saigon and cultural desert suburban Atlanta.

Re: Put tiny businesses back into residential neighborhoods

#179

Post by goda90 »

dhosek wrote: post #36

This was once common in the inner ring suburbs of Chicago. There used to be a small grocery store in the middle of a residential block near where I lived and a bar in the middle of another residential block close to my elementary school. There are houses whose former mixed use (shop in the front, house in the back) are still obvious. Here's one surviving neighborhood grocery in Berwyn, IL: https://goo.gl/maps/NCd45gh…

Its interesting that that neighborhood could be defined as low density, but it's at least twice a dense as my neighborhood, and I can quickly drive to neighborhoods that are half as dense as that without even hitting millionaire neighborhoods.
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