How Zoning Built Greater Boston: A Century of Exclusion That Still Shapes Where We Live

Greater Boston's housing landscape was shaped by four distinct eras of zoning: 1920s-1930s adoption, postwar tightening, the 1968-1975 'Big Downzone' that banned multifamily housing during the Civil Rights era, and incremental reforms since. These historical patterns created profound segregation and housing scarcity that persist today, with most land still zoned only for large single-family homes.