In defense of inequality

Not all our buildings and spaces between need to look alike. There's beauty in diversity.

The suburban landscape is a series of repeatable patterns. Strip malls, big box stores, parking lots, repeat. All the same stores, all the same restaurants, every few miles. Even the residential neighborhoods all look like variations on the same theme.

The American landscape has achieved equality.

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I love music, and was fortunate to grow up in a home where that was encouraged. (I mean we had a grand piano, a drum set, and a stereo in the living room.) In the late 80s into 90s I was listening to hours and hours of radio every day. But I’d get so annoyed hearing a handful of hits repeated every 3 hours. The Top 5 at 5, and the Top 9 at 9. The same songs again and again and again. 

And then of course came the digital music revolution. Here we are today, enjoying a value from Apple, Amazon Prime, Spotify, Pandora that radio never could: the ability to customize our own listening experience because one radio station does not fit all. One music experience does not fit all.

My tastes differed from most of my friends. I couldn’t get enough hard rock, and that stuff only played after 8pm because “hard” music wasn’t suitable for daytime ears. Guns N’ Roses, Def Leppard (don’t laugh!), Rage Against the Machine, Beastie Boys, Motley Crue… Let me tell you, it was not easy recording music on blank tapes when bedroom lights were supposed to be out on school nights. 

Anyway, I'm trying to imagine what my mixtapes would have looked like if they were created by a consensus of my peers. “Here is your class mixtape.” If I had to just suck it up for the greater good, I never would have gotten my fill of music that fit me. There would’ve been a lot more Hootie and the Blowfish, Sugar Ray, and Michael Bolton, that’s for sure.

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I say all this, because…

• What’s the point of central planning?

• When is it appropriate to have a design framework versus design requirements?

• Should your home look like mine?

• Should my neighborhood outlaw corner laundromats because I don’t like them? 

• Should a single-family home in Montana have the same lot size restrictions as a single-family home in Washington, DC?

• Do all the restaurants need to be clustered in the same zone?

It shouldn’t come as any surprise that urbanists face criticism and rejection during public meetings. Central planners are out there deciding if a community should have their front yards stolen by a transportation department so that people living 20 miles away can drive faster through the neighborhood. Planners are enforcing codes that forbid an empty nester from renting out a portion of their now-oversized home.

It sounds silly when you say it in plain language, which is why I rant so much about using plain language. Don’t talk to me about “procedures for non-conforming variances,” talk to me about how diversity is outlawed in most American zip codes.

There’s beauty in diversity. In music, in photography, in food, in people, and in the neighborhoods we plan and design. I think we could use a few more urbanists defending inequality in the planning department if we’re ever going to help people create places that fit them best.