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Here's an interesting story from the Chicago region. The Chicago metro area has an unusually vibrant central city, good transit access to the central city, and horrible highway congestion. These factors may not apply to all metro areas.
Retailers sold on the Loop
IN DEMAND | As an economic slump grips suburban malls, merchants covet space in downtown Chicago
March 9, 2008
BY DAVID ROEDER AND SANDRA GUY droeder@suntimes.comsguy@suntimes.com
It has stacks and stacks of residents with disposable income. Its intersections get pedestrians by the thousands every day. To merchants, it sounds a little like heaven.
It's none other than downtown Chicago, which leasing agents say has become one of the most coveted markets in the country for retailers. It's coveted because it is seen as safe.
Retailers sold on the Loop :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Business (http://www.suntimes.com/business/832852,CST-NWS-retail09.article - broken link)
What's with the assumption that most of the jobs are in the city ?
People will adjust ie: car pooling, public transportation ( the burbs
and smaller metros have them too ) Besides if large cities fill back up
the cost of taxes, square footage and city fees go up. The market adjust itself. Depressed area can often have great potential. Anyone remember
Wrigglyville ( Chicago ) in the 70's ? Bucktown, Wicker Park etc...
What's with the assumption that most of the jobs are in the city ?
People will adjust ie: car pooling, public transportation ( the burbs
and smaller metros have them too ) Besides if large cities fill back up
the cost of taxes, square footage and city fees go up. The market adjust itself. Depressed area can often have great potential. Anyone remember
Wrigglyville ( Chicago ) in the 70's ? Bucktown, Wicker Park etc...
I think the assumption is that there will be a trend toward concentrating jobs in areas with good public transit. Frankly for most metro areas, that means increased job concentration in central business districts. Due to the historic land development patterns, central business districts tend to have the density and scale allowing for efficient public transit. Obviously many CBDs already have good public transit (ie NYC, Chicago, Boston).
This is not to say that public transit won't improve in suburbia, but due to the historic spread-out nature of suburban office park development, developing decent public transit will be much more difficult. Most likely, new suburban development will occur at key transit nodes forming mini-CBDs. Those suburbs near these mini-CBDs will prosper. Those far away will not.
omg! what's wrong with you people? cities aren't for everyone. if that were the case, suburbs wouldn't be as popular as they are. in my home town of san diego, more then half the metro is suburb but functioning better then ever!!! most of san diego's suburbs are functioning even better then the intercity. with san diego's topography, it's imperative that the city should be set up like a suburb. a very dense suburb that is. it works well for us, so i don't want your stupid opinions! don't even respond to this post.
Those who want to live in the city will do so.
Those who want to live in the suburbs will do so.
There are plenty of jobs in both cities and suburbs. No one has to live and work in the city to be successful. It all comes down to personal preference. In this day and age, it seems like the people who live in cities are the people who WANT to be there (for the most part).
Those who want to live in the city will do so.
Those who want to live in the suburbs will do so.
There are plenty of jobs in both cities and suburbs. No one has to live and work in the city to be successful. It all comes down to personal preference. In this day and age, it seems like the people who live in cities are the people who WANT to be there (for the most part).
Personal preference and economic sustainability. I agree that if gas prices don't increase the typical low-density suburban development is economically sustainable. However, if gas prices continue to increase long-term, low-density development will become less economically feasible. The key is the long-term cost of transportation.
With the popularity of doing everything via computer, commuting isn't necessary for many professions. There's already a huge number of people working from the home, or at regional offices within a few miles of their homes.
omg! what's wrong with you people? cities aren't for everyone. if that were the case, suburbs wouldn't be as popular as they are. in my home town of san diego, more then half the metro is suburb but functioning better then ever!!! most of san diego's suburbs are functioning even better then the intercity. with san diego's topography, it's imperative that the city should be set up like a suburb. a very dense suburb that is. it works well for us, so i don't want your stupid opinions! don't even respond to this post.
Since I dont follow direction from others well, I am responding. That was uncalled for, and just plain rude. If you dont like the thread, dont respond, as the mods would say.........
Strange days are upon the residents of many a suburban cul-de-sac. Once-tidy yards have become overgrown, as the houses they front have gone vacant. Signs of physical and social disorder are spreading.
At Windy Ridge, a recently built starter-home development seven miles northwest of Charlotte, North Carolina, 81 of the community’s 132 small, vinyl-sided houses were in foreclosure as of late last year. Vandals have kicked in doors and stripped the copper wire from vacant houses; drug users and homeless people have furtively moved in. In December, after a stray bullet blasted through her son’s bedroom and into her own, Laurie Talbot, who’d moved to Windy Ridge from New York in 2005, told The Charlotte Observer, “I thought I’d bought a home in Pleasantville. I never imagined in my wildest dreams that stuff like this would happen.”
I cant speak for Elk Grove Cal., or the Charlotte suburbs but there is nothing remotely close to that picture the writer paints in metro Philadelphia.The suburban communities surrounding Philadlephia continue to grow at 5-15% as more and more money, more an more jobs become entrenched in the suburban communities despite the fact that Philadephia already has a terrific downtown area. The suburban public schools are impeccable, crime almost non existent. It's impossible for me to envision the apocalypic collapse of the suburbs that the author suggests. IMO looks like he wanted to play devils advocate and argue a point for the sake of a new article.
I just dont get how mcmcmansions become tenements. Theres a natural progression of events regarding real estate. By chance of miracle if all the wealthy suburbanites left their mcmasions and moved back into the cities wouldnt the middle class bump up and move into the vacated mcmansions and the poor people move into the older middle class housing stock? Whats going to happen to the 2 million older suburban houses built in metro Philly between 1940-1990?How did they get left out of the natural order of things.Why are they left out of the equation in regards to future tenements? This story has more holes in it than a pound of swiss cheese.
Those who want to live in the city will do so.
Those who want to live in the suburbs will do so.
There are plenty of jobs in both cities and suburbs. No one has to live and work in the city to be successful. It all comes down to personal preference. In this day and age, it seems like the people who live in cities are the people who WANT to be there (for the most part).
It's more than just personal preference. Economics is a huge determinent. Look at the history of US cities. Doe you think the rich wanted to live outside the city in 1890? Do you think the poor wanted to live in crowded tenements in 1900? Do you think sophisticated college educated 20-somethings want to live in the burbs in 2008? Preferences don't mean anything if you don't have the $.
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