>nyc was first city in u.s. to enact zoning law in 1916, virtual
>unanimity existed among real estate interests that zoning
>would be useful tool for protecting valuable land, principal
>theme was that zoning kept land values high by segregating
>'better' and 'lesser' land uses...
Exactly. And, aside from pure economic interests, there were social ones as well - the better sorts wanted to keep the smelly workers out of view. In NYC, that meant not only getting the workers out of Manhattan, it meant getting industry as far as possible from the central business district. Few people appreciate how planned NYC has been over the very long term. But it's one of the great success stories of bourgeois planning.
Doug