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    BCP’s vision is that free-market municipal policy solutions are broadly available, widely acceptable, and regularly employed, enabling American cities to achieve their full potential as engines of economic prosperity. We reject the idea that cities are lost to free-market principles or policies.
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    304 S. Jones Blvd #2826
    Las Vegas NV 89107

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    (702) 608-2046‬

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    Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.

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    info@better-cities.org

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Home Community, Growth and Housing

The perils of snob zoning

Exclusionary zoning, he argues, undermines diversity and opportunity

Patrick TuoheybyPatrick Tuohey
October 29, 2024
in Community, Growth and Housing, Economic Prosperity
Reading Time: 1 min read
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The perils of snob zoning
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In a recent interview over at Metropolitan Abundance Project, Richard Kahlenberg, a prominent education and housing scholar, detailed how “snob zoning” policies sustain class-based segregation and prevent affordable housing from entering affluent neighborhoods. This exclusionary zoning, he argues, undermines diversity and opportunity.

This exclusionary zoning, he argues, undermines diversity and opportunity. Kahlenberg explains that even in progressive states, restrictive zoning remains “fundamentally designed to separate people by income,” effectively creating walls that hinder mobility and economic equality. He points out, “If the cardinal sin of the right is racism, the cardinal sin of the left is elitism,” noting the contradiction in liberal communities that embrace social justice ideals while rejecting affordable housing policies.

Kahlenberg also emphasizes how tightly housing and education are intertwined, arguing that residential segregation drives educational inequality. He highlights research from Montgomery County, Maryland, where low-income students in economically integrated schools significantly outperformed peers in high-poverty schools despite added investments in the latter. Kahlenberg states, “Housing policy is school policy,” stressing the moral imperative to address zoning’s barriers to opportunity. As he puts it, exclusionary zoning does more than separate people—it blocks access to better schools, safer neighborhoods, and essential resources.

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Patrick Tuohey

Patrick Tuohey

Patrick Tuohey is co-founder and policy director of the Better Cities Project. He works with taxpayers, media, and policymakers to foster understanding of the consequences — sometimes unintended — of policies such as economic development, taxation, education, and transportation. He also serves as a senior fellow at Missouri's Show-Me Institute and a visiting fellow at the Virginia-based Yorktown Foundation for Public Policy.

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