Ten years ago, the big threat to our much ballyhooed revitalization of cities was NIMBYism—the familiar kind. “Too dense! Too tall! Not enough parking!”
That hasn’t gone anywhere, but in recent years a new potential threat seems to have become taken hold.
For Chicago, at least, that threat is increasingly emboldened minority groups digging in to fight gentrification. City Aldermen, under community pressure, are taking actions and, often, even abusing their powers which were originally intended for other purposes to effectively stop the influx of higher income people into their wards.
Steps being taken include downzoning, spot zoning, changing zoning arbitrarily from residential to manufacturing (knowing full well that nobody is going to build an industrial building there). Zoning is going from administrative tool to a weapon against gentrification. Ultimately, these actions are unlikely to be successful in the long run, but by God it’s nasty and it sure feels wrong.
Here is just one tiny example of something going on in a Chicago lot in a very hot part of town. An Indian property owner was blindsided and effectively prevented from even building a decent sized home for himself and his family:
https://www.chicagobusiness.com/greg...test-lightfoot
Is this kind of stuff happening in your city?
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