cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/28348030
I think most old European cities have stores and people living above the store. Houses are way to expensive to not use them, and lots of small stores don't need 2 stories.
this post was submitted on 17 Apr 2025
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North american cities had these too, many even had public transit street cars (basically a tram) running down the streets. Then the street cars were ripped out in favor of buses and cars then most of the buildings destroyed so people could park their cars, which everyone had now because the transit was demolished.
I am passionate about this subject even if I don’t belong in this community.
Zoning is important. It’s what prevents a nuclear power plan next to your house.
The isn’t is that they don’t allow multi-use zoning. There’s very little reason you can’t have commercial below residential.
Zoning is important. It’s what prevents a nuclear power plan next to your house.
When looking at the Netherlands, you can both have a store at a house, AND a nuclear power plant that's not built right next to a village (it'll be a small kilometre away, since my country is rather densely populated).
I see mixed-use zones in most of the towns in NJ, where a chunk of the work I do is in land use. I am assuming it must be different outside of NJ, because this is certainly not the first time I've heard this criticism of zoning.
Hmmm just got back from lunch at a brew pub that had condos above it.
But did the owner live there?
Japan has a lot of these.
Zones belong in Sonic games and nowhere else.
(I'm joking btw)
The real estate prices in Green Hill Zone have gotten out of control so a lot of people can only afford a small apartment in Chemical Plant Zone.
The one between the koreas is fairly interesting
Still not as bad as some of the zones that got cut from the game.
We do not talk about
what the fuck was sega thinking
Genocide City Zone
I guess they were thinking that they were going hard on selling Robotnik's characterization as an evil overlord, LOL. I mean, the whole plot of the game was that he was genociding all the animals by turning them into cyborg slaves, after all.
"Sega does what Nintendon't," indeed!
I feel like it might've been a translation issue. Had the level actually made it into the game, someone probably would've realized that the name was a bit much for a video game about a blue hedgehog taking on an egg themed villain.
Hmm... maybe it's my 2025 perspective talking, but as someone who played Sonic games as a kid I think they should've gone for it. As a name for a level conceived as a mix of Metropolis Zone and The Machine from Sonic Spinball, the name seems entirely descriptive and appropriate.
Maybe it would have been interesting if it did happen... But even if SoJ really had intended for that to be the name and STI didn't simply mistranslate it when they picked up the project -- The name would have never made it to the western version of Sonic 2 either way. It'd be changed.
Sega was dragged out in front of US Congress because they published a game where goofy-ass FMV goons stalk some ladies trying to use syringes on them. Imagine if the actual word "GENOCIDE" appeared in their flagship game for that same year. Video games in the early nineties were very much seen as being for kids and only kids.
The pearl clutching would have reached such a level that I'm fairly sure video games would still be illegal in the US of A almost 40 years on.
The word "Genocide" has been watered down a lot lately and that's not a good thing. Calling everything genocide has an effect of normalizing it. Using it in a video game played by children, after those children grow up they hear the word and have the vibe of a video game level and don't feel like genocide is anything important.
Sovl.
What
Not in many places in the US anymore, but in many other countries you still can.
Not exactly the same but 5 over ones are getting more popular to build in the US. So you could own an apartment/condo over your shop.
5 over 1: 5 stories of apartments/condos over one story of retail space.
Think it's still allowed here in the UK. As a kid me and my family lived in a flat above the take away (take out restaurant) that my mother worked at.
We've got a whole area of my Australian suburb dedicated to a bunch of these, all adjacent to a beautiful park and I believe they're all subsidised by our council if I recall correctly.
I'm actually jealous of Bob. He has a wife that he loves, 3 kids that he loves, a rival across the street that easy to hate, because he went to the Jan 6th riot, another rival in the food inspector who's just mad at him because Bob stole his girl. He owns his own business doing what he loves, and has 2 close friends that visit him near daily.
Sure his finances aren't the best, and his resteraunt is struggling, but he's living his dream!
On top of that, he has sworn allegience from a biker gang. Plus Marshmellow loves him, and Marshmellow is awesome!
It's a little worrying that he has full delusional conversations with food and cooking tools though. That may be something he should see a therapist about. But hey, nobodys perfect.
No more Chad, is now Bob.
You forgot one of the most important things, he loves his job and wouldn't change it for the world.
P.S. Is anybody else disappointed by the new Marshmallow voice actress?
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Like yes, zoning is used for a whole bunch of bullshit, but the second you get anywhere even remotely urban this is extremely common. This sounds like it’s from someone who grew up in suburbia hell and really just wants to move into a city but doesn’t know that.
A big part of the problem is in North America, they won't build that type of development anymore. New developments are almost exclusively either residential SFH or commercial strip malls. Prevously a building was flexible enough to go from a grocer with apartments above it then to a financial office then to full residential with relatively minor renovations in between. Now walmart has rules saying another big box store cant buy their abandoned big box store to prevent competition.
I live in Jersey, and mixed use is very big just about everywhere (not including South Jersey, I don't know anything about South Jersey). The idea of a walkable downtown made a very big comeback in the last decade or so.
A lot of those buildings were put in before the more strict zoning laws. In a lot of places, the good buildings are grandfathered in for mixed use or even just for existing. Besides, there's plenty of places that would benefit greatly from little micro downtowns built this way, but it's illegal to do so. Zoning that makes efficient housing and commercial development impossible is the devil.
Lots of shops like that in the Europes...
And the rest of the world too.
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