It might have been an old time version of industrial zoning. Smiths produce lots of noise, smoke, and are a fire hazard. Or maybe it was to attract customers coming to the city by horse or cart who needed a horseshoe or a wheel fixed.

Question: why are all these recent fires being started by exploding e-scooter batteries, and not by phones and laptops and cordless power tools and vapes and kids' toys and all the other lithium ion powered devices that we have all been using and charging for years without any widespread safety issues? What is it about scooters specifically that's so dangerous?

Here, immigrants exploiting fellow immigrants.