Zoning! or "I am smarter than you are"

I had to go to dinner with some really smart people this week. Well, let me rephrase that. I had to go to dinner with some people who would describe themselves as very smart of pressed. They would also describe themselves as Democrats (and democrats), and egalitarian, and concerned with the common man, and wanting to do good for the world. And by my observation, at least one of them grew up extremely wealthy (beyond all normal person’s comprehension) and the other two had achieved a certain level of fame and comfort in their professional lives.

These people consider themselves so smart, they are sure that they know what is best for you. And for me. Well, for everyone, as a matter of fact. Me, I am not so sure. I tend to believe that given a choice, your average Joe would act mostly in his best interest. (I am not naive enough to believe FULLY in the “economic man”, but I think that he sort of exists out there)

So you can imagine that as the topic veered towards cities, and my own beloved Houston, one subject that came up was zoning. I am not fan of government interference in my life. I believe in the 5th amendment (prior to the Kelo v. City of New London (04-0108) case of last month) and I don’t like the idea of a local board of yahoos and political appointees telling me what I can do with my property.

My argument for the evening, however, was more along the lines of “Zoning institutionalizes poverty” I believe that without a flexible set of rules that cities cannot change. And if they cannot change they inevitably fall into disrepair as the residents of the city move away.

The howls of protest could be heard outside! How dare I, I mean how DARE I even SUGGEST that zoning was not the answer to all the problems that Houston faced! How dare I suggest that a learned board (of course, peopled by folks like themselves) would have anything but the best interest of the poor residents in their hearts!

But then, of course, one of the people did admit, that, yes, the zoning board in Philadelphia was shot through with corruption. And yes, there was a possibility that getting the right people into those jobs may be problematic.

But heaven forbid! That would not happen here!

It was interesting.

Then, by happenstance, I was looking at Slate today and say this article.about how zoning increases housing costs. There is a very rigorous analysis done here that explains how costs go up because of zoning. Good stuff.

Too bad I didn’t have those statistics at my fingertips earlier in the week.