The Meaning of Mixed
by Ken Mayer

For most of human history, we got around by walking. Our ancient ancestors figured out that they could train some of the nearby beasts to occasionally carry them and their stuff, but mostly, they walked. 

That meant that work and home were close together, often indistinguishable from one another. Even most of our buildings were not divided into any specific room use, and most neighborhoods were the same way. We lived close together in high density arrangements because, well, we walked. 

But as transportation improved and industrialization proceeded, we started to separate uses, particularly in cities. It probably didn’t help that the industrial age brought with it dangerous byproducts, dirt, noise and unpleasant odors. 

This led to segregation, or what’s known as Euclidean zoning. Named for the city in Ohio where it was first adopted, land use got divided into specific geographic districts and the development activity allowed within. Typical types of land-use districts are single-family residential, multi-family residential, commercial, industrial and so forth. 

In the post industrial era, we are returning to the century’s old practice of mixed use. The newly adopted zoning laws in Omaha spell out what mixed use is to be. Mixed use zoning projects will require pedestrian-friendly streets and other measures intended to make the area attractive to potential residents, business owners and customers. This is a significant step forward in the physical layout of our city. 

But we may not be coming full circle. While old zoning laws may have separated us from noxious chemicals and nasty odors, they also separated us from one another. Zoning allowed, even encouraged, the enclaves that characterize most of our cities and helped us live only among the PLUs or People Like Us. 

For me, being around PLUs has never been particularly attractive, so for the last 20 years, I’ve lived downtown, arguably Omaha’s oldest existing mixed use district. Besides enjoying the easy access to dining and retail, historic architecture and walkability, I’ve enjoyed another kind of mix – my neighbors. 

Every day, I mix with people of color, people of all income levels, people with obvious and not-so-obvious disabilities. It helps keeps me honest and hopefully seeing the world and my role in it a bit more clearly. Poor people, minorities, the homeless, people in wheel chairs aren’t abstractions to me, they are my homies. 

The mixed use zoning code is a way to return to a better way of life, more natural, walkable and convenient. But it seems to me that we also need to push the concept of mixed further to include income and race. Fortunately, the mixed use developments planned for Omaha at Aksarben Village, Midtown Crossing and North Downtown are in neighborhoods that are mixed to some extent now, but we may need to guard against the enclave mentality creeping in. 

Some plans encourage mixed race and mixed income along with mixed use by encouraging or even subsidizing a mix of market rate and affordable housing within a single development located close to public transportation. In cities like New York, rent regulation and public housing management have made mixed-income housing a way of life. 

As we move forward, we can make our city even better by stopping to think about what mixed could mean. With a little more work, it might mean a great deal more than an easy walk to work or a trip to get groceries.