96. The Key to the City

Sara Bronin is an architect, attorney, policymaker, and professor at Cornell University. Born and raised in Houston, the only large US city without zoning, previously served as the Chair of the Planning and Zoning Commission of Hartford, Connecticut. Her book is called Key to the City: How Zoning Shapes Our World, and she joins Unfrozen to demystify the why and wherefore of what you can, cannot, and “must” build in cities all over the US.

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Intro/Outro: “Elevator,” by The Cooper Vane

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Discussed:

-         How large-lot mandates contribute to the epidemic of loneliness

-         YIMBY prevails in Arlington and Alexandria, VA

-         Re-zoning in Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland, OR, and Hartford

-         Supreme Court ruling on Shelley vs Kraemer, 1948, outlawing racially restrictive covenants

-         Houston’s affordability comes at the cost of flood zones and unpleasant adjacencies

-         Gulfton neighborhood

-         El Principe Azul nightclub

-         Effects of Parking Provision on Automobile Use in Cities: Inferring Causality

-         Albany Avenue rezoning and corridor improvements, Hartford

-         Denise Best

-         Form-based code

-         Washington Commanders’ new DC stadium

-         Code overhauls in Hartford, Charlottesville VA, and Boston

-         Bronin trashes Boston’s zoning code

-         Pittsburgh spends $5.8 million on zoning consultant