Wait, I Agree with Tucker Carlson?

I've been meaning to get a post out about how more cities ought to be downzoning particular uses in commercial zones, issuing a fixed number of licenses, or just flat out removing certain types of businesses from the use table. All things a Mayor and Council can direct their staff to do. And lo and behold Tucker Carlson pops up and starts asking questions and making some pretty obvious statements.

Who actually benefits from more dollar stores?

I don't know why they get to wreck our landscape . . . build shitty buildings, make everything ugly . . . and no one says anything about it?

I don't want any more dollar stores . . . I don't want any more f***ing strip malls that nobody goes to, like more karate studios and vape shops, how about no?

Amen, Tucker. You can see the full clip below - it's all front loaded at the beginning of the video.

So let's get real here: Tucker is correct. All the above are signs of blight. My adopted hometown of Boise, Idaho where I served as a planning commissioner features a number of neighborhoods like this, none more apparent than what we refer to as the Central Bench Neighborhood.

Below is a three-four block span on one of the city's most blighted corridors, Orchard Street.

Six vape shops in a three - four block stretch.

And another . . .

Same stretch of street, four tattoo shops.

Last one . . .

Three thrift shops, same stretch.

It's actually far worse than this, this is just what Google Maps had labelled as Vape, Tattoo, and Thrift. Our city leadership has known this is an issue for some time - since at least 2016. The City's urban renewal agency even drafted a plan to create an urban renewal district around the impacted areas. And both entities did nothing because they imagine this to be the only solution. If your city struggles with this sort of blight here's some things you can do:

Change underlying zoning

Limit the number of a business type that can exist in an area. See Minneapolis' rules for Vape shops.

Issue permits for certain uses, e.g., NYC Taxi Medallions, San Francisco tobacco retail, many cities cannabis.

Remove uses from the use table. Chicago removed pay day lenders from the use table and implemented onerous permitting conditions (essentially CUP).

Condemnation/Eminent Domain. Even post Kelo condemnations get frequent use for roads, pipelines and utilities.

Give property owners tax holidays as incentive to remodel (see applicable state statutes)

Municipal purchase of property/JV/PPP. You can see my own work on the subject here.

Rescind Conditional Use Permits if used to get use approved

Revoke/Refuse to issue Certificate of Occupancy

Use Building Department/Fire Department resources to conduct safety checks, code compliance

So there you go. A few simple tactical urbanism techniques that cities should be using to control the form and function of their neighborhoods. These are Urban Planning 101; every planner knows these. Even Tucker Carlson got the memo. There's no reason to let our cities fall to blight.