Things Out of the Past You Would Like to See Revived

[beechnut79]

(08-01-2019, 10:33 AM)David Horn Wrote:

(08-01-2019, 09:32 AM)beechnut79 Wrote: Thought it would be interesting for all of you to think about some things out of the past you might like to see a comeback in. Perhaps it's the hula hoop, some type of short-lived fashion or food craze, anything nostalgic is fair game.  I shall begin by giving two things I would like to see come back into vogue; rooming houses and dance halls. The former as an antidote to the barbaric cost of housing in many areas; the latter as an antidote to the extremely uptight world we have become.

In a way, both have returned in slightly different form.  The rooming house is no longer viable (mostly due to legal constraints on the practice -- zoning being the most unshakable), but shared accommodations have made a small splash in areas with very high housing costs.   It's more akin to college housing than a rooming house, but the idea is similar.  and today's dance halls are every bar with a bandstand or a DJ and a dance floor.

There has no been discussion on some other forums about relaxing archaic zoning codes. Yet one poster, don't recall which forum it was on, was of the opinion that overly restrictive zoning codes won't go away anytime soon. But said zoning codes and homeowners' association covenants are the true enemy of more affordable housing. In most Chicago suburbs, especially those west of the Tri-State Tollway, overnight street parking is prohibited pretty much on all streets all year round, not just during snow removal season. And almost everyone in the suburbs has a car, and it is true that most traditional rooming house structures were not set up for a lot of cars, and in those that are left in some of your older large cities such as Chicago and New York, no doubt few if any residents own cars, and if they did they really would have no place to put them. But sooner or later I believe these zoning codes are going to have to be relaxed; maybe it would take the modern equivalent of the Hoovervilles to get the job done.  It is also going to take some folks who are passionate on the issue whose desire and ambition help to assert the movement and get the ball rolling. Caution: He, she, them will need to be careful of taking something personally and losing the temper.

Have often wondered whether zoning laws are less strict in smaller cities and towns away from the large urban centers, where the influence of big money isn't so great.