Bikes = Freedom
Happy Belated Independence Day!
Thanks to my neighbor and Bike Bus volunteer Jon, our bike bus crew was a part of the 4th of July parade. While we haven’t yet reached 100 riders, we roll deep. Riding a bike is a fitting way for kids to celebrate freedom and independence!
Freedom Zoning
Last Fall I wrote about why Halloween is so good in my neighborhood:
Trick-or-treating works well in our older neighborhoods here. We have decent sidewalks. The houses are close enough together that you can hit a bunch of them just by walking down one short block. The old, narrow streets mean that cars drive a bit more slowly, meaning it’s more comfortable and safe to walk here.
The same things that make trick-or-treating work here also make it a great place for the 4th of July parade. It’s a great Independence Day habitat. And yet, through restrictive zoning originally intended to “protect” it (from what or from whom wasn’t always clearly articulated) we’ve banned building this type of habitat and made it endangered. That’s right, our most patriotic, flag-waving neighborhood patterns are banned in the USA.
For example, look at that empty corner lot in the video above. It’s a part of a larger lot containing a multifamily home off to the right. It’s a small piece of land, but it’s about the same size lot as the one my own home sits on. It’s a fine spot for a SF home, a small multifamily, or (my preference of course) a small corner store with an apartment or two above it. Let’s say the owner of the land (perhaps of his meddlesome neighbor) wanted that little building here. Rather than encouraging this neighborhood-thickening investment in the town, our town bylaws would dictate that this proposal be rejected outright. Even if my neighbor had the time and money to pursue the variances and special permits required, he’d likely have to endure endless meetings dominated by the most shrill voices, whose doomsday proclamations about parking, though not based in any reality (there’s plenty of parking here on the 4th, when we have 3X the number of cars in our neighborhood). The process would add further cost to any project, making already razor-thin margins untenable.
If you think the idea of a corner store on this part of Green Street is nuts, I offer you the highly popular Nook, which sits not far from here on a tinier lot. No off-street parking. No big setbacks. Just a cute neighborhood commercial building that’s maintained its old-school zoning through providing continuous value to the town for eons.
Under our current zoning codes, building something like this is illegal. The ramifications of banning our most productive building and land use forms are that we make our town poorer, our housing more expensive and our potential parade routes shorter. It’s time that we adopt land-use policy and local zoning that encourages livable streets and better trick-or-treating and that expands our 4th July Parade fun. It’s the most patriotic route we can take!
Summer Hiatus
As I tell everyone I come in contact with, I deeply believe that July in New England should be a month-long holiday (except for ice cream shops). Everybody just stop quasi- and fake-working and get out there and soak it in. In an attempt to walk the talk on this, I’ll be pausing StrongHaven missives until I’m good and ready to get back at it (August sometime).
Thank you to all of you take the time to read these scribblings. I appreciate hearing from all of you here and out in the wild and I’m excited about the real-world developments taking shape in our little town (and elsewhere) that are at least partly the result of these conversations.