Some guy will post a picture of a pretty standard looking pepperoni pizza and say: "Imagine not living in new york." And then there's the whole bodega discourse, which is also funny. "For you non-new yorkers, let me explain: a bodega is not a corner store. It's a place where you can buy gatorade, toilet paper, AND eggs." Thank you sir for explaining that to a slack-jawed yokel such as myself.
I think that's probably true in the general sense, but I also think that if planning was ever relaxed in the US then Raytheon will start building nuclear waste dumps near preschools to save a buck.
Yeah that's sort of where I'm at. Zoning is a major tool of landed capital associated with real estate, but abolishing zoning would be a dream for so many big players in a lot of sectors including real estate.
I think the relaxation has to be very specific - for example, large residential lots and big belts single family homes should be allowed to be come missing middle housing, or two or three story buildings with small commercial on the bottom.
It'd be much better if this was all just implemented publicly of course.