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The biggest issue, IMO, with a lot of American zoning codes is that they require that retail spaces be specifically zoned to exist at all. This does a lot to prevent the organic growth of small retail spaces that exist in other countries.

Houston has no zoning and it's none the more interesting for it.

Could that be because it's the same people and companies building things in the city, based broadly on what's done elsewhere in America? It's very, very hard to develop a culture completely independent of the rest of the country, especially when large amounts of money (and therefore the need to interact with national entities like banks) become involved.

https://urbanedge.blogs.rice.edu/2015/09/08/forget-what-youv...

That’s true indeed. Many other countries have a lot more relaxed zoning, or accumulative zoning (where, if you zone something as one type, it can be built with that type, or any more restrictive zone – you can always build housing in a commercial district, for example. See Japan).

Or places where zoning is only done for specific developments, and then very generally (only restricting height and noise for the development, for example, instead of building type, or restricting nothing at all. See: Germany).