Exclusionary zoning really pays off for people that already had enough money to buy a home. A new mapping project shows exactly where that's true int he area around Minneapolis.
Nick Magrino, planning commissioner for the city of Minneapolis, has published a blog post that includes a map of the increasing wealth of property owners in the county of Hennepin.
Magrino worked with Scott Schaffer to create the map, finding radical disparities depending on which part of the county property owners bought their homes.
Magrino's motivation for sharing this post, with the map, is to make clear that the whole system is highly exclusive: only people that have money the money to buy a house get to make money by buying a house. "The parts of Minneapolis you think about as being more expensive and exclusive have accumulated quite a bit of wealth in their houses, and it’s largely because…it’s exclusive," writes Magrino.
Magrino also voted to approve the Minneapolis 2040 comprehensive plan, which sets the city of Minneapolis on the process of rolling back some of the exclusionary zoning practices in the city by allowing for three units on every residential lot in the city. Magrino believes that plan could help mitigate the wealth imbalance represented on the map.
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