Capitalist Fools
Commercial real estate is dominated by financial professionals, not hustlers looking for a quick flip. So why is the market about to melt down?
Popularity: 19% [?]
urbanism.org
Urban news [almost] daily.Archive for Real Estate
Street Corners vs. Cul de Sacs
Real estate agents often chant the mantra “location, location, location,” which essentially means “find a home in a well-kept neighborhood with good schools and a low crime rate.” Some may cite a fourth factor, “walkability,” a concept supported by self-styled “new urbanists” who advocate denser cities designed for the pedestrian and mass transit as much as for the car. In their ideal neighborhood, you could walk to a bookstore and then to an ice cream shop, and your children could walk to school, probably unescorted. (It sounds like so many movie depictions of America in the 1950s.)
Popularity: 20% [?]
Dawn of the Dead Mall
The landscape is littered with the giant carcasses of failed retail emporia. Ideas for what’s next are no less visionary. But are they any more practical?
Popularity: 26% [?]
China’s empty city
China’s economy is continuing to grow despite the global recession, helped by a massive government stimulus package of $585bn.
But doubts remain whether such strong growth can be sustained by public spending alone.
Popularity: 28% [?]
Detroit: Urban Laboratory and the New American Frontier
The troubles of Detroit are well-publicized. Its economy is in free fall, people are streaming for the exits, it has the worst racial polarization and city-suburb divide in America, its government is feckless and corrupt (though I should hasten to add that new Mayor Bing seems like a basically good guy and we ought to give him a chance), and its civic boosters, even ones that are extremely knowledgeable, refuse to acknowledge the depth of the problems, instead ginning up stats and anecdotes to prove all is not so bad.
Popularity: 46% [?]
A Stalled Vision: Big Development as City’s Future
Over the past seven years, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has presided over a historic re-envisioning of New York City, one that loosened the reins on development across the boroughs and pushed more than 100 rezoning measures through a City Council that stamped them all into law.
His administration poured $16 billion into financing to foster commercial development and affordable housing and created quasi-local organizations to promote its initiatives and blunt neighborhood opposition.
And when the economy was burning white hot, as it did for several years, the mayor’s plan appeared to be bold and forward-looking, a prescient decision to remake portions of the city in order to lure companies, create jobs and increase economic vitality.
But that vitality is missing in some sections of New York today, where developments spurred in part by easy credit and in part by city initiatives are now stalled or in danger of collapse.
Popularity: 28% [?]
How the recession has changed your High Street
“This is where Woolies had their clothes,” says Stacy, standing by row after row of brightly-coloured washing detergents.
The red Woolworths branding on the shelves has long been replaced by the logo of 99p Stores, which moved into this site in Shirley, Southampton, last December.
Within a few days it was open for business, taking £76,000 in the first five days, 50% more than its bosses expected.
Popularity: 14% [?]
Creating Neighborhood Capital from Strip Malls
Strip malls are in virtually every American city, but they’re rarely an important part of those cities. Ava Bromberg says they can be. Her idea is to turn strip malls into community-owned hubs that generate capital within their neighborhood and keep it there.
More…
Popularity: 42% [?]
The New American Dream: Renting
It’s time to accept that home ownership is not a realistic goal for many people and to curtail the enormous government programs fueling this ambition.
Popularity: 13% [?]
Up their alley
Hard times for the retail industry could be a boon for artists and dancers in need of space to work and perform.
In a collaborative effort with the Arts Initiative at Ohio State University, Campus Partners plans to offer rent-free space to emerging artists in its South Campus Gateway complex along N. High Street. The artists will occupy empty retail storefronts amid the Gateway bars and restaurants, with a goal of attracting the energy and excitement of the arts to the still-evolving commercial and residential district.
Popularity: 38% [?]