Thursday, May 26, 2011

NS Sherlock

Report from the Urban Land Institute slams Mayor's pet development projects, agreeing with everyone but the mayor and her tax-break-crazed developer comrades that the West Side can't support large retail.

7 comments:

Cham said...

The ULI is probably right. The West Side has some fabulous buildings already there, that would lend themselves to a downtown residential plan. People want to live downtown, it seems like a good fit.

Anonymous said...

People might want to live downtown, but do they want to live there?

I would guess not. There's a reason development hasn't happened in that part of town but has happened darn near everywhere else.

Cham said...

Actually downtown occupancy rates are very high. Those new high rises and rehabbed office buildings filled up quickly and the rental rates have proved to be quite lucrative for the landlords.

The reason this hasn't happened in the West Baltimore business district is that most of the buildings are currently zoned for commercial use due to this expected retail business district. If the owners were able to develop into residential units they probably would. Unoccupied buildings don't make anyone money.

Anonymous said...

who wants to live downtown with all the damn niggers

Stewie del Gato said...

Anonymous #2 makes a very good point. Maybe the city can leverage the fact that open minded college students might not want to live next to bigots in the county.

Cham said...

Putting bigots aside, if you read the Baltimore Sun yesterday you would find that the city has the lowest average age in Maryland. Not only are the counties filled with bigots but they are also filled with senior citizens. If you are looking for youthful neighbors then one should consider the city.

Maurice Bradbury said...

that's exactly why I moved here, to be around people of my own age and progressive POV. And it's worked out well in every way but financially.