As Johnny Sanphilippo often says - everything has a beginning, middle and end. Societies that become wealthy quite quickly (as our has), tend to formalize more expensive solutions for everything. Because we have the money. But eventually, that has consequences, and one of those is it keeps people from the getting on the first rung or two of the economic ladder. The modern administrative state simply cannot process the DIY culture. Inevitably, that leads to work-arounds for those with the initiative, and a whole lot of problems for those who don't have it.
I've told planners, for example, who are the actual people that have created and will create the missing middle housing we all desire? It's actually the same people who do single-family house flips today. It's the small, local investor class. They do house flips because there's basically no regulatory barriers. If we want the sort of small-scale, incremental world that urbanists dream of, it has to be just that easy to create. The problem is - our administrative state, and our corporate culture as part of a wealthy society simply can't get out of its way to allow that to happen. After all, so much could go wrong!
"But there really is very little you can just up and do in America." Happily, it turns out one of the things you can just up and do is start a blog.
I am reminded of the stories of immigrants who come to New York and want to start a newspaper, but are stymied because they can't find anyone to issue them a permit to do so. At least, until someone explains to them that in America, you don't need a permit to do that.
We have seen some major improvements for cottage food laws in the US in the last few years, it is actually possible to have a supper club legally in may parts of the country now. There is also a political push for making better communities that I hope will continue to push for a more flexible small scale businesses (ACUs). I may write about this topic in the next few weeks, when I have a chance to put my thoughts together.
As Johnny Sanphilippo often says - everything has a beginning, middle and end. Societies that become wealthy quite quickly (as our has), tend to formalize more expensive solutions for everything. Because we have the money. But eventually, that has consequences, and one of those is it keeps people from the getting on the first rung or two of the economic ladder. The modern administrative state simply cannot process the DIY culture. Inevitably, that leads to work-arounds for those with the initiative, and a whole lot of problems for those who don't have it.
I've told planners, for example, who are the actual people that have created and will create the missing middle housing we all desire? It's actually the same people who do single-family house flips today. It's the small, local investor class. They do house flips because there's basically no regulatory barriers. If we want the sort of small-scale, incremental world that urbanists dream of, it has to be just that easy to create. The problem is - our administrative state, and our corporate culture as part of a wealthy society simply can't get out of its way to allow that to happen. After all, so much could go wrong!
"But there really is very little you can just up and do in America." Happily, it turns out one of the things you can just up and do is start a blog.
I am reminded of the stories of immigrants who come to New York and want to start a newspaper, but are stymied because they can't find anyone to issue them a permit to do so. At least, until someone explains to them that in America, you don't need a permit to do that.
We have seen some major improvements for cottage food laws in the US in the last few years, it is actually possible to have a supper club legally in may parts of the country now. There is also a political push for making better communities that I hope will continue to push for a more flexible small scale businesses (ACUs). I may write about this topic in the next few weeks, when I have a chance to put my thoughts together.