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It's what is great about old cities like Edinburgh in Scotland, apartments with shops and pubs below or near by.

sure, but Edinburgh allows that type of zoning and has all kinds of rules around what can and can't be built - it didn't happen because Edinburgh removed all zoning regulations and they just hoped for the best which is what the OP was advocating.

No not at all. As I said above, regulations such as (X can't be built within N feet of Y) are fine for certain cases. These are not zoning.

Zoning is taking land that's not developed and slicing it up deciding where things should go. That is terrible. It's centralized planning. It is against every principle of freedom of families to choose where to live and to engage in commerce. It is the worst kind of socialism.

Actually the old town was built long before the planning office existed.

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