So this weekend I had to make a trip out to the Town Center (my I-Pod I had for 9 weeks quit working, so I had to go to Apple). I RARELY venture out there. I get mad everytime I do. I just don't understand why development incentives aren't given for downtown commercial development. Why direct development southward when you have ready-made infrastructure ready to go!? (and don't feed me lines about parking - plenty of cities across the US develop and encourage development of their urban cores with all their "limited" parking). But that is another post.
This article in the NY Times can easily be directed at some of the tear-down mentality that has been seen locally. As this country tries to shift into a more green economy, so must development. And it is going to happen whether developers want it to or not - it is what saavy buyers want. In the real estate industry, there is a huge trend back in-town for empty-nesters and the "creative class" - people who work in the economy of information and knowledge rather than manufacturing. This trend is continuing, even in this slow market. Buyers are continuing to buy in Jacksonville's urban core - they love the historic homes and the established communities - now if only the city would GET ON BOARD and encourage development and redeveopment in its urban core, you know, simple things, incentives to encourage business, public transportation, tighten the urban growth boundary (up instead of out), and preserve and re-use what is ALREADY here! And guess what? In the long term - smart growth saves MONEY too!
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