Building Healthy Cities: Legal Frameworks and Considerations

Abstract

The physical and social structure of cities is shaped by many factors. These include economic and political conditions, historical and cultural traditions, and weather and topography. However, cities are also importantly shaped by law and government policies and this is true even in cities that seem to be dominated by private property and private enterprises. Law impacts cities both by what the government regulates and by what it chooses not to regulate. Any decision that a matter should be governed by private choices rather than government regulation is itself a policy choice that can have significant implications on the welfare of residents. For example, the willingness of U.S. courts prior to 1948 to enforce private covenants calling for racial exclusion had important impacts on housing patterns in the U.S. Moreover, many private decisions that seem to be matters solely of private preference may in fact be affected by government intervention. This is particularly true with respect to the built environment. Decisions by private entities about what and where to build are shaped by legal requirements and prohibitions as well as by government created incentives, and the presence or absence of public infrastructure – including roads, transportation networks, parks, and government facilities. This chapter will explore the range of laws and government policies that have shaped the physical structure of U.S. cities and thereby impacted the health of those cities’ residents. This analysis will highlight the many, apparently “private” decisions that have been impacted by government policies. Though some of the laws, policies, prohibitions, and incentives have been formulated explicitly to take into account health considerations, others have unintended effects – both good and bad – on the health of urban populations. Although the chapter focuses on U.S. laws, cities throughout the world are shaped by law and government policy. In some places, it is the absence of regulatory intervention that most dramatically impacts health, as in the case of squalid shanty towns or poorly designed buildings that collapse in the face

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