I recently wrote about the opportunity to visit our Sister City of Isesaki, Japan.  Isesaki has been our Sister City for 24 years and is similar to Springfield in many ways, even though its population of 200,000 is a bit larger than ours.

One of the significant ways in which Isesaki differs from Japan is in its approach to zoning.  For the most part, Isesaki has no zoning laws.  The last two days of our visit, I stayed with a host family. They had a very nice, traditional Japanese home complete with small gardens out every direction and sliding paper doorways.  However, their house was located next to a concrete tubing manufacturer on one side and a martial arts dojo on the other.  Other building on the block included an apartment building, a couple of single family dwellings, a barbershop, and a convenience store.  And this was the norm all over town, from what I could see.

I’m told that in the newer areas of town that Isesaki has been using zoning to build similar-styled neighborhoods.  In other words,they are now beginning to do what we’ve done in Springfield for several decades.

What does this mean for Springfield?  The lesson I took away was that the idea of a mixed-use neighborhood may work in the older sections of Boston or New York or even St. Louis where the neighborhoods—like Alice in Wonderland—“just grew” over time. However, for newer cities and newer sections of older cities, our national narrative continues to be one in which we group similar neighborhoods together in zoned areas.

Single-family dwellings ought to be located around single-family dwellings.  Commercial sections should have their own space.  Ditto for industrial areas as well as government and institutional.  That’s why the various zoning categories exist.

Now, there are those folks who want to live in a mixed-use environment. Our downtown area and the Commercial Street area are perfect examples of this.  These types of areas should exist and this is why we have a “mixed-use” zoning category.  However, most of us don’t—at this time—want to live above a restaurant or a retail shop.  That may change, based on age, availability of elevators, demographics, petroleum prices, and location of amenities.

Most of us don’t want to live next to or above a concrete plant, or a convenience store, or a furniture shop.  For those who do, fine.  And, if there is enough of a demand for those types of residences, the market will provide them.  If there is not enough of a market,just think back to downtown Springfield about 15 years ago--lots of empty buildings, trash, and no development.

So, when I hear the arguments supporting a return to “the old days” of mingling residential and commercial sites as the new “new days,” I’m a bit inclined to discount those arguments.  Perhaps I’ll change my mind, but I’ll need to hear and see more than I have to date.  And Isesaki—even though it’s a wonderful city—is its own city with its own identity. It’s not, however, how I want Springfield to look.