Downtown Population increased 25% since 2000

[user_id]

The use of percentages when the original size was rather small is rather misleading. In 2008 the downtown population was 2,100. Wow, in 8 years downtown added around 400 people. A landlords dream!

Downtown development is still a failure.

[Tiger Beer]

Originally Posted by jimmyev

In cities without zoning, developers created sprawl. But as soon as people decided they wanted to live in mixed-use neighborhoods, up they sprang.

In cities with zoning, zoning made sprawl law, and the law is a very difficult thing to change. I think Pittsburgh has been working on their new zoning ordinance, one that allows for mixed-use development, for a decade now. Downtown was one of the first neighborhoods re-zoned.

If they just did away with the whole zoning concept, redevelopment would be quicker.

Pittsburgh would be amazing if they did away with the whole zoning concept.

I think what would happen is that people would buy residential houses and turn them into a small business - then it is perfect for the other residents, to have businesses you can walk to from own residence.

I love when I see housing made into a business - thinking of restaurants, but could be anything - an internet cafe even. Whatever it is, but just down the street around from your house kind of thing.

[Katiana]

Originally Posted by Tiger Beer

Pittsburgh would be amazing if they did away with the whole zoning concept.

I think what would happen is that people would buy residential houses and turn them into a small business - then it is perfect for the other residents, to have businesses you can walk to from own residence.

I love when I see housing made into a business - thinking of restaurants, but could be anything - an internet cafe even. Whatever it is, but just down the street around from your house kind of thing.

You would have loved where I lived as a small child. Right up the street, literally about two blocks, from a steel mill. Big semis rumbling up and down a residential city street. My mom used to tie my brother and I to the front porch with a rope so we wouldn't run out in the street and get hit by a truck.

[BrianTH]

As an aside, the 2148 estimate for Triangle population didn't include students: with students it was an estimated 4576.

Anyway, development takes time to ramp up essentially from zero, but now there is a much larger pipeline of residential development in the Triangle than back at the start of this process. So, for example, while 387 units were added to the Triangle between 2000 and the end of 2008, there were 284 under construction for delivery just in 2009 as of the end of 2008, and hundreds more in the planning/conceptual stages. Unfortunately, apparently the recession is slowing down the process of moving projects from planning to construction, so there might be a lull in the growth of new units in the short run, but in the long run I think it is likely the pace at which new units are being added will keep trending up.

[user_id]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

....but in the long run I think it is likely the pace at which new units are being added will keep trending up.

When dealing with Pittsburgh everything is "in the long run".....by the time it fails everyone has forgotten about it.

[pman]

I know some folks here think Philly's downtown rennaissance has left neighborhood in the dust, but I thought this was an example of how that's no longer true

Jazz promoter Matthew Feldman, who runs the Internet station G-town Radio, is behind a two-story restaurant-music venue at what's now a ramshackle building -- vacant for 30 years -- at 1713 McKean St. in South Philly.

Music will be eclectic -- assorted varieties of jazz, blues, and R&B, even classical.

Feldman has no chef yet, but he wants to do local, seasonal food with a local beer list.

He said that construction will begin when he is approved for a liquor license. Realistically, he said, it would open in May/June.

While Feldman's restaurant experience is limited to a spell at Tiffin, he said he has friend Ben Merkel, a server and manager at Rx in West Philly, to manage.

Lucky Old Souls coming to South Philly | Philadelphia Inquirer | 10/07/2009