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Comment by fooqux | Hacker News Reader

Personally I feel we need more of this. Turns out that unchecked growth isn't all its cracked up to be.

Growth should be checked by (reasonable) zoning, not by constant one-off meetings that make the de facto rules stricter than the on-paper ones.

Laws and code should be transparent.

What cities have unchecked growth in the last fifty years?

It's all unchecked, aside from capitalism itself. Obviously a Target isn't going to open in a bad location. But that wasn't the point I was trying to make.

I suppose I should have said "a desire for unchecked growth." Listening to the politicians, every single one would happily invite every fortune 500 company, every datacenter, every mall, every everything to set up shop in their town/state and are happy to entice with tax breaks to get them there.

I'm fine with what we already have. I disagree with the premise that if you're not growing, you're dying.

Anyone who has tried to build apartments without an ocean of parking, or even sought to convert a suburban home into a 4 unit building, knows housing growth is severely checked

Yes. Agreed. I liked the civic engagement. With the Target thing though, opponents were just a bit hypocritical. Davis residents were already going to a Target: they were driving to Woodland or Vacaville for their serious shopping.

It should be an option. You pay higher prices. But the community gets more control. And for a smaller city, that’s a fair choice to make. For a metropolis, it’s not.

That assumes there even is unchecked growth, and that’s very much not true. I think you missed the point of the game.

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