Planning Cities with Young People and Schools: Forging Justice, Generating Joy

Abstract

bakeries were not only permitted land uses, but virtually unrestricted in terms of their operations. “Arbitrary Lines: How Zoning Broke the American City and How to Fix It” balances technical language with non-technical language rather well and would make a good supplement to any university curriculum in planning. Critical readers will no doubt be tempted to see Gray’s argument as a libertarian Trojan Horse, meaning that if cities are quick to discard zoning, they may inadvertently be supporting the interests of private capital, whose rapid deployment in densification projects would no doubt upset the existing urban fabric. Maybe this is a good thing in addressing the ills that Gray has expounded, but maybe not. Surely the issue of zoning remains a complex one, and this book will undoubtedly catalyse salient conversations of this nature in the policy world, piquing the interests of YIMBYs and NIMBYs alike. I would recommend this book to the interested public, or to planners grappling with many of the issues that Gray recounts: sprawl, segregation, affordability, or overly restrictive land use rules. After reading the book, I too find myself partially convinced: maybe it is high time to reconsider zoning in our cities?