When Mixed Use Goes Too Far

"If city councils would learn that their inevitable mistakes would be an order of magnitude less harmful to their communities if they stuck to prohibiting uses rather than mandating them, the architectural landscape would be littered with far fewer carcasses," argues John McNellis at the beginning of an article examining the "sometimes mixed results of mixed use."

McNellis goes on to examine the history of Euclidean zoning, which has now given way to a "back to downtown" fad. Writes McNellis: "And it’s not your downtown that planners are talking about. It’s a cool, chic Manhattan, Paris, San Francisco downtown where all uses—save industrial—are mixed together, placed side by side and atop one another."

The problem, according to McNellis, is that in trying to achieve urban characteristics similar to those famous locales is that "too many cities are insisting on mixed uses in locations that are, at best, suitable for a single use: cities are jamming retail space into quiet residential quarters and demanding residences atop noisy stores."

"In short, cities are making the socialist mistake of dictating supply rather than responding to demand," adds McNellis.