[throwawaysea]

OK, but isn't the existence of zoning basically the same as the existence of HOAs, in that people have chosen to enact these policies locally, much as HOAs enact hyper-local policies? You seem to be OK with HOAs but not zoning laws, so my question is why are zoning laws bad when it is the choice of their residents (through representative democracy) that they enact policies that preserve their area's character and quality of life?

[mises]

Basically, HOAs are smaller scale. Also, there's a big difference between a bureaucratic gov't doing it and a bunch of residents doing it. Here's the thing about zoning: the people on whom it is enacted probably have a part of one vote in the city council. The decisions are mostly made by the rest of the city. This is especially true in a city as large as Houston.

It's the classic problem of tyranny of the majority, which is best solved through hyper-locality (i.e. HOAs).

[throwawaysea]

I disagree with the framing of this as 'tyranny of the majority'. The size of the group of people which is allowed to enact policies is entirely arbitrary, and I don't see a principled reason as to why HOAs would be OK but cities would not. I feel those who are OK with HOAs but against city-level policy-making that constrains growth are likely just drawing the line in a way that matches their own interests or ideologies.

I also don't understand why you are framing government as inherently bureaucratic as part of this argument. If that's the case and it justifies not having policy-making left to public governments, why not apply the same logic wholesale and say that we don't need city- or state-level governments at all?

[mises]

> city-level policy-making

How would you propose to do this? Houston is an incredibly large and diverse city, and different places have different needs. It's much easier for people from the actual place to come to a resolution than bureaucrats in a council chamber, many of whom have essentially zero specific knowledge of the area or problem at hand.

> why not apply the same logic wholesale

I think we should. The more sovereignty we can reserve to individuals, the better. That which must be given up should be given first to as hyper-local an organization as possible, growing in scope/scale only as needed.

> why not... say that we don't need city- or state-level governments at all?

Because obviously some things (like, say, some city issues) can't be handled well by a government smaller than a city. This doesn't mean that everything needs to go to them. You're deliberately misunderstanding my arguments to try to discredit them.