Hacker News Reader

Comment by yuliyp | Hacker News Reader

That sounds awful. An apartment where you have semis pulling up at all hours delivering cargo? This is why we have zoning laws to avoid people building warehouses in residential districts.

View on HN

How is this really that different from city centre multi use buildings where there are stores on the ground floor and living space on the upper floors? Especially if some of those are served by gig-economy delivery couriers.

Those stores get stocked somehow- usually not by semis.

I think you underestimate the traffic a warehouse gets versus stores in the ground. Also recently in the Netherlands they’ve decided that the 10min delivery grocery stores are actually distribution centres and are no longer allowed to set up shop in the housing areas, because of the excessive amount of truck traffic.

It wasn’t the truck traffic only. It was also the activity at all hours. Plus the deliverers on their bikes making lots of noise. Plus these stores being boarded off or closed becoming very ugly and shady.

Plus bored drivers being a noisy nuisance and starting fights with residents

That should be a matter for local government regulation or workplace safety authorities - a company should not be able to not provide adequate break rooms for their staff.

It probably wouldn't be a full amazon warehouse. It would probably be no more traffic than having a Target on the ground floor of your apartment, which is increasingly a common thing.

The most charitable reading of your comment implies you’ve never visited a large scale warehouse and/or mixed used buildings.

Surely you don’t actually believe the lack of a difference?

A distribution center generates hundreds of truck trips a day. A good sized supermarket generates ~15 a week, but may vary based on the company and methodology.

Denying mixed use because it might be noisy for hypothetical residents is how we wound up with the current disaster that is American urban/suburban planning

Are mixed use buildings a problem? I thought the normal problem in America was that zoning tends to prohibit mixing uselage types.

Here [0] is a random street i picked in Paris with mixed use buildings - looks pretty nice tbh-lots of accommodation & amenities, easily walkable, some shops and restaurants.

[0] 61 rue de Passy https://maps.app.goo.gl/14Kxyd9SwARyT79s8

My point was that denying mixed use is what creates the American suburbanization mess. Most cities have limits on delivery hours anyway, making the parent comments concern moot.

Which cities restrict the hours when _warehouses_ can accept or dispatch deliveries? I've never heard of that. Don't many warehouses operate around the clock?

It'd be funny to take that picture and redo the neighborhood a la "Microsoft Re-Designs the iPod Packaging" [0].

  1. Straighten out that street
  2. Repave those cobbles
  3. Add green lane bike path
  4. Parking meters
  5. ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUXnJraKM3k

Mixed use is a winner in urban environments. London has a lot of it, and it makes for good, local living.

Mixed use is not a problem as long as the uses are compatible, shops and housing work well together. Industrial and residential not so much.

BMW's Mini pressing plant (formerly Pressed Steel) is in my home town, Swindon, it's surrounded on three sides by housing and the fourth by a road that has houses on the opposite side.

I don't think it inconveniences anyone.

I'm assuming you're referring to https://www.google.com/maps/@51.5715534,-1.7418073,1186a,35y... ? It looks like there is heavy use of lots of trees to mostly separate it from the housing. It also seems generally to be part of a broader industrial section that is served by freight rail and is relatively nearby to expressway to help minimize the traffic. You are right there are some homes, especially south of the plant, but I think that this example proves how work needs to be done to ensure how industry and residential can coexist in harmony.

Yes of course one has to work at it to get it right.

You know what's inconvenient? Having to live in a homeless camp because rent is so high due to zoning laws like this.

If they build the towers tall enough, or put in only minimal windows, then only the lower floors will be inconvenienced. These floors can be reserved for the Amazon workers. /s

i think the ordering matters a lot: warehouse added to residential space: NO. apartment added to an industrial space: okay. people will put up with a lot of noise (e.g. those who live under a flight path near the airport), just so long as they knew what they were signing up for.

People will buy houses next to an arena, airport, or pig farm and then complain about the noise, traffic, or smell.

Surely Amazon can buy some local regulators, just think about how many low paid jobs this would bring!

Smarter politicians will refuse to bend over backwards for new employers who offer low wage jobs, set up enterprises that can be easily relocated when the tax credits expire, and don’t offer anything special.

With how short Amazon tenures are, shouldn't they be hotels at the top?

I tend to agree, although if it costs less to rent and have 10 minute Amazon delivery? I might go for it. I've lived next to train lines and highways that are louder.

I agree it sounds awful - bad enough that people would naturally avoid living there even without zoning.

Those semis are going to be a lot quieter in coming decades when they go electric.

Do you have numbers of that? Tires and drag cause a lot of noise.

Sounds like an incentive to accelerate development of electric truck.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com