The Lively & Liveable Neighbourhoods that are Illegal in Most of North America

one of the things I really like about Amsterdam is the shops and restaurants that are dotted throughout residential areas in the city these patios and local shops provide a lot of interesting destinations that are always within a very short walk or bicycle ride this is different from a high street or Main Street where the shops are all along one major street cities in the Netherlands like most countries have high streets too but these retail pockets bring an interesting character and liveliness to residential neighborhoods and are a more quiet and enjoyable environment to sit in or shop in then along a busy Main Street in many ways these pockets of retail and restaurants remind me of the alleyways of Taipei which were my favorite part of the city as they provided liveliness while also making what would otherwise be a dark alley into a location that was inviting and interesting so these pockets of shops and restaurants are in no way unique to the Netherlands but what is interesting is that they are illegal to build in almost all of the US and Canada North American cities follow an approach called Euclidean zoning if you've ever played Sim City or City skylines this will be familiar to you Euclidian zoning will come up in future videos because it's a big source of problems with North American city design but I'm not going to go into too much detail of the history here if you want to learn more the exceptional urban planning Channel City Beautiful has made some good quality videos about zoning in US cities I'll put links below but for our purposes now here's the quick summary during the Industrial Revolution cities were pretty horrible places someone could literally open a steel mill in the middle of a residential neighborhood and this led to horrible pollution and a terrible living environment so zoning was introduced to separate incompatible land uses this was probably the single most significant contribution that urban planners made to public health in the history of the profession and likely save millions of lives which is why almost every country has some kind of zoning ordinances unfortunately some countries took this a step too far and decided that absolutely everything should be separated from absolutely everything else this means that in most North American cities if an area is zoned as residential then literally nothing else can be built in that area here is a typical zoning map in this case of my hometown of London in Canada it is illegal to open a shop or restaurant anywhere within the yellow shaded area now admittedly it is important to keep a residential area quiet and comfortable to live in and that's not always compatible with other uses in the Netherlands there are sometimes issues with noise crowds garbage and other problems related to living right next to or above a commercial property but like all things in City Planning there is a balance to be achieved modern North American Planning takes a very extremist view that there is no value to having shops and restaurants within a residential neighborhood but North American zoning is extremists in general for example if a neighborhood is zoned r1 for single-family homes then nothing else not even townhouses or apartments can exist there I'll talk about that in more detail in the future but in the meantime you can watch the city beautiful video the case against single-family zoning what's interesting to me is that this was not always the case in our former neighborhood in Toronto built about a hundred years ago there were several commercial buildings built within the neighbourhood these areas have been grandfathered into the zoning code and are some of the most desirable and expensive neighborhoods in the whole city but despite their appeal new neighborhoods will never be built this way again beyond the liveliness that these places bring to a neighborhood the fundamental issue here is walkability if there's a local shop grocer restaurant or pub in your neighborhood then you can walk there but if your residential neighborhood is separated from every other use then it means you have to drive to do anything you want to do and so does everyone else that results in a lot of car traffic because it doesn't matter if you're driving across town or just need to buy a bag of milk you have to get in your car and yes where I'm from we buy milk in bags and we like it that way but once you go into the trouble of getting into your car you're much less likely to drive to several small shops meaning most people skip local businesses and drive to the power center with a giant parking lot shops and walkable areas are more likely to be run by local entrepreneurs who contribute significantly to the local economy in a way that big-box stores do not and I will talk about that in a future video about the twisted economics of big-box stores in North America by comparison a walkable neighborhood has enough people living within walking distance for small shops to stay in business and parking lots are not required making space available for patios park hats and places for people to live thankfully there is a realization in many US and Canadian cities that Euclidian zoning has gone too far you'll hear urban planners talk about mixed-use development which is what the rest of the world calls the way you build things however I find these developments are still highly localized such as at a transit hub or along an arterial road I rarely hear about bringing back low-impact commercial spaces like restaurants cafes and retail shops into existing residential neighborhoods and far too much of the area in North American cities is still zoned as exclusively r1 single-family homes in Toronto for example this is called the yellow belt because despite downtown Toronto being one of the most urbanized areas in North America it is still surrounded by a sea of yellow on zoning maps where only single-family homes can be built so I'm happy to live again in a place with sayings owning laws that allow beautiful urban environments like this to exist places that reduce car traffic support local entrepreneurs encourage diverse retail and promote walkability because honestly I have absolutely no interest in going back to live in a place like this and speaking of supporting small businesses I've had several people ask if they can contribute to the future of not just bikes so last week I set up a patreon account if you'd like to support the channel check out patreon.com/crashcourse [Music]

Channel: Not Just Bikes

Views: 1,402,709

Keywords: amsterdam, netherlands, urban planning, zoning, mixed-used development, mixed use zoning, mixed use development architecture, residential zoning, euclidean zoning, taipei, residential zoning toronto

Id: bnKIVX968PQ

Length: 7min 18sec (438 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 29 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/theredcameron]

!ping YIMBY

[u/Nokickfromchampagne]

He had a pretty good take on “mixed use development” in the US. At least anecdotally, most of the development in this style I’ve seen is still tailored around high traffic residences. The areas aren’t particularly walkable, and since public transportation is so lackluster in the majority of cities, there is the need to use cars even within short distances of where you may live. To any urban planning peeps, do you think there is a reasonable chance of city adaptation to neighborhoods such as these, or is the ship already effectively sailed on American urban zoning?

[u/TDaltonC]

Could we convince Trumpers that single family zoning is a plot by Soros and Gates?

[u/code_and_theory]

Oh. I live there (in Amsterdam). Around 0:39 is literally down the street from my apartment. I sometimes read in the cafe on the right of the frame (Anne & Max).

This is hands down the most liveable city I’ve ever been in — and I’ve been across the US, EU, and Asia. Moving through the city is a real pleasure. I live within a 2-minute of 3 grocery stores, two bakeries, several cafes, and more. The neighbourhood is dense with small apartments, but it doesn’t feel dense. The streets are lively. People drink wine and beer in the evenings on patios or by the canal near my home.

Also, thanks to all the walking, cycling, and other physical activity that this kind of urban environment promotes, everyone is in great shape and really attractive — as you can see in the video.

[u/[deleted]]

As someone ignorant of the ways of zoning but who worked in Europe for 5+ years and then came back, this video really summed up what I miss about living in Berlin... The thought literally never occurred to me that I might need a car living there, I bicycled to and from work, to restaurants, bars, clubs etc.

I really do hope cities start catching on and bringing more mixed use zoning laws into effect, I would love to see Canadian cities adopt this, it really creates opportunity to beautify space that isn't being used for anything good.

[u/TY4G]

Thanks for introducing me to this channel. I am obsessed