Exclusionary zoning is a way of preventing those who come from different economic incomes from living with each other. When I think of exclusionary zoning, my first vision is the children’s book The Big Orange Splot by Daniel Manus Pinkwater. Although this neighborhood does not have the wealth restrictions that exclusionary zoning has, it has the same root idea as exclusionary zoning: neighborhoods should all have the same type of housing—be it architecturally pleasing mansions with expansive, just groomed lots, or haphazardly constructed apartments—they should remain separate. The neighborhood in the book has houses that have looked alike since the neighborhood began. This changes when a bird spilled orange paint on Mr. Plumbean’s house, spurring Mr. Plumbean into painting his house to resemble his dreams. This led to disagreement around the neighborhood over the altered state of his home.
Source: Daniel Manus Pinkwater, 1977
The Big Orange Splot takes a stand against conforming, because, at the end, Mr. Plumbean convinces his neighbors to follow his footsteps and paint their houses how they like them, instead of confining to the same as everyone else. 1
With exclusionary zoning, there are more problems than Pinkwater’s children’s book includes—it isn’t just about being different. Neighborhoods with exclusionary zoning can include laws that require not only single-family homes, but those that are a certain square footage and lot size. This creates limited access for lower-class families that cannot afford to live in a luxury sized home. On the surface, this just prevents a mixture of different types of housing in neighborhoods, but when looking further into how this method of zoning pans out, there are many consequences. This results in limiting a variety of things, including the prevention of lower-class individual’s ability to attend the schools in these areas and class mobility. These two problems go hand in hand, as a good education in a school with a variety of resources can greatly increase a person’s chance of rising out of poverty. A child who attends school in an area where 80 percent or more of the attendees are living in poverty scores 13 to 15 percent lower than those who attend a school where 80 of the kids come from middle or upper class backgrounds. 2 Not only does education play a role in class mobility, but also when poor communities are shut off from other areas of the city (often, surburbs) because of exclusionary zoning, this creates concentrated ghettos, areas where there are little mixed-class interactions.
Pinkwater shows in a very simplified way that people are afraid of something different. When people live in a neighborhood where the houses all look somewhat alike, it is easy. But that does not help society progress into what it could be since it silences the voice of a large chunk of the population by pushing them into the only place they can afford—places that have continually mediocre schools to teach their kids.
Works Cited:
Pinkwater, Daniel Manus. The Big Orange Splot. New York: Hastings House, 1977. Print.
“Exclusionary Zoning.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 09 Aug. 2012. Web. 17 Sept. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exclusionary_zoning>.
“Inclusionary Zoning.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Apr. 2012. Web. 17 Sept. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inclusionary_zoning>.