Can't Afford Your Rent? - Blame Herbert Hoover.
Reason magazine|May 2020
THE FEDS PUSHED CITIES TO IMPLEMENT ZONING RESTRICTIONS. HIGH PRICES AND SOCIAL INEQUALITY WERE THE INEVITABLE RESULTS.
JONATHAN ROTHWELL
Can't Afford Your Rent? - Blame Herbert Hoover.

AT THE BEGINNING of the 20th century, there were virtually no zoning laws in the United States. By 1921, zoning had come to 48 large U.S. cities, representing a fifth of the country’s population. By 1932, 1,165 municipal governments had adopted zoning, covering more than two-thirds of the urban population. By 1968, nearly every metropolitan government had zoning, as did large swaths of rural America.

It was a revolution, and a rapid one. Property owners were once allowed to use their land for the most profitable or desirable use: live on it, sell it to a commercial or industrial business, sell it to a developer. Now nearly every municipality has rules that dictate how a piece of land can be used and what kinds of housing, if any, are allowed on it.

This wasn’t a spontaneous shift: The federal government made a concerted effort to promote the comprehensive regulation of local land use through zoning. That hasn’t just meant a decline in Americans’ liberties. It has meant sharp increases in the cost of housing and a country much more segregated by class and race.

ZONING AROSE AT a time of rapid urbanization: The percentage of Americans living in urban areas jumped from 14 percent in 1880 to 54 percent in 1920. One source of this swelling was the Great Migration of African Americans out of the South and into Northern cities. Another was the large-scale migration of Eastern and Southern Europeans to the United States: The foreign-born share of American residents peaked at 15 percent around 1920.

Esta historia es de la edición May 2020 de Reason magazine.

Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.

Esta historia es de la edición May 2020 de Reason magazine.

Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.

MÁS HISTORIAS DE REASON MAGAZINEVer todo
Libertarianism From the Ground Up
Reason magazine

Libertarianism From the Ground Up

ARGUMENTS FOR LIBERTARIANISM typically take two forms. Some libertarians base their creed on natural rights-the idea that each individual has an inborn right to self-ownership, or freedom from aggression, or whatever-and proceed to argue that only a libertarian political regime is compatible with those rights.

time-read
5 minutos  |
January 2025
Lawlessness and Liberalism
Reason magazine

Lawlessness and Liberalism

THE UNITED STATES is notorious both for mass incarceration and for militarized police forces.

time-read
5 minutos  |
January 2025
Politics Without Journalism
Reason magazine

Politics Without Journalism

THE 2024 CAMPAIGN WAS A WATERSHED MOMENT FOR THE WAY WE PROCESS PUBLIC AFFAIRS.

time-read
10+ minutos  |
January 2025
EVERY BODY HATES PRICES
Reason magazine

EVERY BODY HATES PRICES

BUT THEY HELP US DECIDE BETWEEN BOURBON AND BACONATORS.

time-read
10+ minutos  |
January 2025
The Great American City Upon a Hill Is Always Under Construction
Reason magazine

The Great American City Upon a Hill Is Always Under Construction

AMERICA'S UTOPIAN DREAMS LEAD TO URBAN EXPERIMENTATION.

time-read
10 minutos  |
January 2025
Amanda Knox Tells Her Own Story
Reason magazine

Amanda Knox Tells Her Own Story

\"OUR CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM RELIES UPON OUR OWN IGNORANCE AND THE FACT THAT WE DON'T KNOW WHAT OUR RIGHTS ARE.\"

time-read
10+ minutos  |
January 2025
Trade Policy Amnesia
Reason magazine

Trade Policy Amnesia

WHILE HE WAS interviewing for the job, President Joe Biden demonstrated an acute awareness of how tariffs work. It's worrisome that he seems to have forgotten that or, worse, chosen to ignore it-since he's been president.

time-read
2 minutos  |
January 2025
Civil Liberties Lost Under COVID
Reason magazine

Civil Liberties Lost Under COVID

WHEN JOE BIDEN was sworn in as president in January 2021, he had good reason to be optimistic about the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic.

time-read
2 minutos  |
January 2025
Bye, Joe
Reason magazine

Bye, Joe

AMERICA'S 46th president is headed out the door. After a single term marked by ambitious plans but modest follow-through, Joe Biden is wrapping up his time in office and somewhat reluctantly shuffling off into the sunset.

time-read
1 min  |
January 2025
Q&A Mark Calabria
Reason magazine

Q&A Mark Calabria

IF YOU HAVE a mortgage on your home, the odds are that it's backed by one of two congressionally chartered, government-sponsored enterprises (GSES), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

time-read
3 minutos  |
January 2025