# The Dwellers

*Neighborhoods determine so much*

By [The Dwellers](https://paragraph.com/@dwellers) · 2022-12-17

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The design of our neighborhoods, our streets, our yards, our homes dictate so much about our lives.

I was grabbing coffee the other day with a mentor from college. We were chatting about my experience working in politics, talking to voters all over Miami-Dade County. Everyone was so concerned about traffic. It made it miserable to do anything for almost everyone. But it made it even harder for workers who had to wake up 3 hours before their shift, then spend 20% of the money they would make that day on the bus just to get to work on time.

Then voters cared about housing costs. Demand was so high but there simply were not enough units for people to live near job centers — Downtown. Only affordable places were 1 - 3 hour drives with traffic.

People were concerned about the environment, destruction of nature, the paving of green areas.

What I eventually realized was how our neighborhood's were designed was determining how we got to work every day. The single-family homes in suburbia were economic deserts. Families had to use a car daily. For groceries. For school. For work. Everything. You had to burn fossil fuels.

Zoning laws prevented denser housing. So you have to pave over beautiful green areas to house people rather than building up.

I learned how zoning law and urban planning determined so many outcomes of people's lives.

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*Originally published on [The Dwellers](https://paragraph.com/@dwellers/the-dwellers)*