The primary problem with this premise is the myth that national chains and local stores can/will coexist. Perhaps so, but our experience here on Grand Avenue in St. Paul (and I'm willing to bet in many Minneapolis locales as well) is that once national chains are romanced by local landlords, the rents they're willing to pay set a new standard for area rents local operators/retailers can ill-afford and they close down.
Worse, landlords who start squeezing local owners because the market will bear it (for awhile) or because they want the low-rent-payers out to make room for the moneyed chains are changing the entire character of these neighborhoods and, invariably, neighbors who rightly resent that cultural shift start blaming local elected officials who cave to re-zoning requests or variances or special condition us permits. As long as it's the commercial rental market dictating that neighborhood's character, you can be certain that local ownership lacking the deep pockets of national or regional chain operations, will disappear. With national chains paying higher rents, if traffic increases (and street-clogging shoppers from outside the area) and demands also increase, then residential rentals and housing prices will edge out residents who have lived in the neighborhood for generations or, absolutely, keep those needing affordable access to housing and retailers out. How do we solve this? I wish I knew. Perhaps some serious discussion of rent controls on re-gentrified neighborhoods threatened as described above and a greater control of land uses and zoning within the confines of the market area. There is a public interest in stabilizing communities and it strikes me that there are policy considerations about the radical changes proposed for such an area. If some way can be devised to rein in the rampant takeover of national chains and landlord greed to allow the coexistence envision by the Strib editorialists, then let the band begin. Neighbors near the Lake & Hiawatha complex have reason to be concerned, but setting aside the usual NIMBY whining usually accompanying changes in land use anywhere, a balance must be struck between revitalization and cultural murder. Andy Driscoll Saint Paul ------ "The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who, in times of moral crisis, remain neutral" --Dante > From: "Gregory Luce" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: 8 Dec 2001 05:37:45 -0800 > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: [Mpls] Strib Editorial: LRT, Hiawatha-Lake Station > > The Strib has an editorial today on LRT's promise, including the need to tie > up "troubling loose ends:" > > http://www.startribune.com/stories/561/883029.html > > "The Hiawatha-Lake station also poses difficulty. No stop on the line offers > such delicious potential. Yet neighbors resist efforts to make this desolate > corner a more vital place. Fears of gentrification must be overcome by patient > explanations that mixed-income neighborhoods can flourish, that local > businesses can coexist with national chains and that well-designed higher > density will improve, not harm, the neighborhood's value. The key to > higher-quality metropolitan living, at Hiawatha-Lake as elsewhere, is more > people with fewer cars." > > Gregory Luce > N. Phillips > _______________________________________ > Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy > Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: > http://e-democracy.org/mpls > _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
