When I got my business license in a suburban city, I was chagrined to see that home-based businesses are allowed only in the single-family residential zone — sorry, apartment-dwellers. I'm sure many cities are the same, because why not? Who's going to complain if you say no, the existing residents or "that guy" who wants to do something unconventional? So just keep everyone happy by saying no.

And really, that "no by default" is what zoning laws are all about. City administration is only faulted for not preventing some land use that people will get up in arms about, so zoning laws are their set of hidebound insurance policies.

I think "It's a Wonderful Life" deserves a good deal of blame for this, because of how Capra illustrated the moral derangement of Bedford Falls becoming Potterville. Its main street was full of dime-a-dance saloons, floozy-filled nightclubs, billiard halls and pawn brokers. The implication was that any city with wise and moral leaders would have prevented it, which has struck fear into the heart of American cities ever since.