A less extreme version of what you said already happened across a lot of North America decades ago, and we're living with the consequences. In most cities, it's illegal to build anything other than detached houses on most of the land. There's an empty lot near me that's been undeveloped for a decade because the previous house burned down and the finances of building another detached house there didn't work out for the guy who owned it, but the city wouldn't let him build a duplex with the same footprint because it was "too dense for the character of the neighbourhood."
Get involved in your local government. Tell your city council to stop living at the whims of landlords and to start legalising housing.
Jesus, that’s infuriating. I really hope some petty rich guy builds that type of home anyway and hires lawyers to handle the resulting lawsuits until all the awful landlords and their allies are insolvent.
Not likely to happen, because those zoning codes are generally on a solid legal footing.
In my own city we're slowly starting to make progress, but it's taking a long time. Minneapolis is one of the places that's doing really well on this front.
A less extreme version of what you said already happened across a lot of North America decades ago, and we're living with the consequences. In most cities, it's illegal to build anything other than detached houses on most of the land. There's an empty lot near me that's been undeveloped for a decade because the previous house burned down and the finances of building another detached house there didn't work out for the guy who owned it, but the city wouldn't let him build a duplex with the same footprint because it was "too dense for the character of the neighbourhood."
Get involved in your local government. Tell your city council to stop living at the whims of landlords and to start legalising housing.
Jesus, that’s infuriating. I really hope some petty rich guy builds that type of home anyway and hires lawyers to handle the resulting lawsuits until all the awful landlords and their allies are insolvent.
Not likely to happen, because those zoning codes are generally on a solid legal footing.
In my own city we're slowly starting to make progress, but it's taking a long time. Minneapolis is one of the places that's doing really well on this front.