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By Rajkamal Rao
Go back to Comparing Life US v. India
US residents benefit immensely from zoning laws. Whether these are imposed by a local government body or a homeowners association, they help create a better standard of living by governing how often garbage is picked up from households or defining the kinds of improvements residents can make to existing property. Most laws delineate property into commercial and residential uses, so that a commercial building cannot be built in a residential neighborhood and vice versa. Zoning laws dictate, for example, the minimum amount of parking space that a commercial building developer needs to allocate, how far the building needs to be from the street in front of it and what kinds of access roads must be built for vehicles to get in or out.
Implementation of zoning laws in India is pathetic. Most shops and buildings extend right up to the street, and sometimes to each other with little or no space between buildings. Many commercial establishments are no more than residential buildings converted, with the owner continuing to live in the upper levels and thriving on rental income from the stores below. Sidewalks are very narrow, if at all existent.
The picture here shows a small multi-level shopping complex (the equivalent of a small strip mall in the US) in a busy Bangalore residential neighborhood. It’s multi level because the basement has shops too. At ground level, notice that vegetable vendors have used up what little sidewalk area that exists and have actually parked their hand wagons on a busy, two-lane public street which hosts a no parking sign every 50 meters. Drivers are forced to pull into side streets, lined with homes, to park.
Garbage is frequently dumped on street corners causing a public health hazard.
Stray dogs on the street are a menace. Gardiner Harris of the New York Times reports in an Aug 6, 2012 piece that “No country has as many stray dogs as India, and no country suffers as much from them. Free-roaming dogs number in the tens of millions and bite millions of people annually, including vast numbers of children. An estimated 20,000 people die every year from rabies infections — more than a third of the global rabies toll.” These problems take away a simple luxury that returning families in the US take for granted - to walk/exercise freely on public streets anytime during the day.
Go back to Comparing Life US v. India
US residents benefit immensely from zoning laws. Whether these are imposed by a local government body or a homeowners association, they help create a better standard of living by governing how often garbage is picked up from households or defining the kinds of improvements residents can make to existing property. Most laws delineate property into commercial and residential uses, so that a commercial building cannot be built in a residential neighborhood and vice versa. Zoning laws dictate, for example, the minimum amount of parking space that a commercial building developer needs to allocate, how far the building needs to be from the street in front of it and what kinds of access roads must be built for vehicles to get in or out.
Implementation of zoning laws in India is pathetic. Most shops and buildings extend right up to the street, and sometimes to each other with little or no space between buildings. Many commercial establishments are no more than residential buildings converted, with the owner continuing to live in the upper levels and thriving on rental income from the stores below. Sidewalks are very narrow, if at all existent.
Garbage is frequently dumped on street corners causing a public health hazard.
Stray dogs on the street are a menace. Gardiner Harris of the New York Times reports in an Aug 6, 2012 piece that “No country has as many stray dogs as India, and no country suffers as much from them. Free-roaming dogs number in the tens of millions and bite millions of people annually, including vast numbers of children. An estimated 20,000 people die every year from rabies infections — more than a third of the global rabies toll.” These problems take away a simple luxury that returning families in the US take for granted - to walk/exercise freely on public streets anytime during the day.
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