Downtowns are dead, dying or on life support, says urban policy expert
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Re: Downtowns are dead, dying or on life support, says urban policy expert
#2As the article says, it's a trend which proceeded Covid, but accelerated under lockdown.
At best, the short term fixes are ameliorative. Free parking and lunch vouchers isn't going to "fix" this problem, and as the article also says (as have others published here) conversion to residential is a mixed bag: it is increadibly costly, major code issues abound, and from sales records has a high failure rate in the market: expectations of value differ.
I tend to think there's a massive listed property trust write down either gone through, overdue or waiting for China to finish falling over. Once the dust settles, the cost of re-development of the city core will differ.
I hang on a forum for city planning [*] regrettably called skyscrapercity.com -Regrettably because in fact, most cities are not skyscrapers and most cities with skyscrapers don't need more of them. I know I am an outlier in this belief in my home town (Brisbane) and it is fantastically difficult to bust through the persisting claims "taller is better" -In short (hah) it isn't always so, and it isn't the vision of the city we want to either work or live in, as this article points out.
It's not covid, it's us. We've been heading here for a long time. We don't like living and working in Canyons. Livable cities have a 15 minute circumference to everything you need including water, parks, shops, and services. They are built on a human scale which typically tops out at 8 to 10 storeys and have a small Central Business District scaled to the commerce needs. A very few world cities need more, and all of them are under significant stress regarding land cost, building cost, and heritage preservation. It is actually rare for WW2 to deliver scale opportunities for rebuilding, as it did in Rotterdam and Tokyo. I don' think proposing large scale bombing of major capital cities is a good planning move.
Re: Downtowns are dead, dying or on life support, says urban policy expert
#3As the article says, it's a trend which proceeded Covid, but accelerated under lockdown. At best, the short term fixes are ameliorative. Free parking and lunch vouchers isn't going to "fix" this problem, and as the article also says (as have others published here) conversion to residential is a mixed bag: it is increadibly costly, major code issues abound, and from sales records has a high failure rate in the market:…
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Re: Downtowns are dead, dying or on life support, says urban policy expert
#4Not a single sentence about crime, drug use, homelessness, etc., but they threw in a quote from the communist manifesto to take a political jab at "capitalism". A+ totally unbiased journalism here.
Re: Downtowns are dead, dying or on life support, says urban policy expert
#5As the article says, it's a trend which proceeded Covid, but accelerated under lockdown. At best, the short term fixes are ameliorative. Free parking and lunch vouchers isn't going to "fix" this problem, and as the article also says (as have others published here) conversion to residential is a mixed bag: it is increadibly costly, major code issues abound, and from sales records has a high failure rate in the market:…
> I don' think proposing large scale bombing of major capital cities is a good planning move.
You say that, but don't underestimate the awfulness of London's planning departments: https://academic.oup.com/joeg/article/21/6/869/6213370
Re: Downtowns are dead, dying or on life support, says urban policy expert
#6Not a single sentence about crime, drug use, homelessness, etc., but they threw in a quote from the communist manifesto to take a political jab at "capitalism". A+ totally unbiased journalism here.
Did you really read the article? This is about office space and those reliant on office foot traffic. None of those things you mentioned are unique nor relevant here. Seems like you just wanted something to be true to fit what you see on Fox News.
“older, denser downtowns reliant on professional or tech workers and located within large metros”
Re: Downtowns are dead, dying or on life support, says urban policy expert
#7Not a single sentence about crime, drug use, homelessness, etc., but they threw in a quote from the communist manifesto to take a political jab at "capitalism". A+ totally unbiased journalism here.
No way am I going downtown anymore.
Walking over a dead body on my way to work was enough for me to never return to the office.
If the city doesn't enforce the laws on the books yet will hold me accountable for defending myself when the police won't I am not putting myself in a position to answer for laws against the lawlessness.
I didn't mind after midnight crime when I lived downtown. It's now high noon crime with defenders of law are the enemy.
Re: Downtowns are dead, dying or on life support, says urban policy expert
#8Not a single sentence about crime, drug use, homelessness, etc., but they threw in a quote from the communist manifesto to take a political jab at "capitalism". A+ totally unbiased journalism here.
No way am I going downtown anymore. Walking over a dead body on my way to work was enough for me to never return to the office. If the city doesn't enforce the laws on the books yet will hold me accountable for defending myself when the police won't I am not putting myself in a position to answer for laws against the lawlessness. I didn't mind after midnight crime when I lived downtown. It's now high noon crime with…
Which city is this?
Re: Downtowns are dead, dying or on life support, says urban policy expert
#9As the article says, it's a trend which proceeded Covid, but accelerated under lockdown. At best, the short term fixes are ameliorative. Free parking and lunch vouchers isn't going to "fix" this problem, and as the article also says (as have others published here) conversion to residential is a mixed bag: it is increadibly costly, major code issues abound, and from sales records has a high failure rate in the market:…
> I don' think proposing large scale bombing of major capital cities is a good planning move. You say that, but don't underestimate the awfulness of London's planning departments: https://academic.oup.com/joeg/article/21/6/869/6213370
Osbert Lancaster "pillar to post" if I recall correctly says that the GLC and it's precursor the LCC demolished more of Christopher Wren's churches than the Nazi bombers.
That's a great article btw. Thanks!
Re: Downtowns are dead, dying or on life support, says urban policy expert
#10COVID really messed up the improvements made to NYC's FiDi over the past decade.