Get Your Government Hands Off My Single-Family Zoning!

When radical government programs become the status quo

There may or may not have been a sign at some Tea Party rally circa 2009 that said “Get your government hands off my Medicare!” That possibly apocryphal sign has become an expression in political analysis. It refers to the fact that government programs that at one time might have looked radical come to be seen as normal or expected, even among the very people who might have opposed them back when they began.

People who defend zoning today are probably people who would have supported it at its inception, but I’d bet there are some who wouldn’t have. Given how zoning messes with private property rights and makes it more difficult to locate a business, there’s an obvious business lobby/property owners angle to oppose it.