Nick Frank states: To my knowledge the city is not involved in any way with
any of the following Downtown projects in planning or currently under
construction: [a list of condo developments]
The city is involved in all of these developments because the city
permits them based on the infrastructure required, i.e., the sanitary & storm
sewers, street maintenance, water, police & fire protection, and power (all
terribly expensive to provide downtown compared to areas less dense); I suppose
Nick might be right that the costs might be more than compensated for by the
increased taxes. My point was that we (at least I) don't know that for certain. I
suppose that we will not know until the potential for redevelopment is tapped
out and we determine just what the public paid for new infrastructure and
maintenance of the same. I'm pleased to hear that industry has not been displaced.
"Back in the early Pleistocene," when I knew what land developers were
looking for, if a project didn't have greater than a 20% profit projection
they weren't interested in doing it. I think they will go lower these days, but
with the "miracle of TIF" and city financing it probably stays fairly
profitable. I'll take Nick's word for it that these developments aren't in a TIF
district since it hardly serves a big public purpose like parking structures and
Target stores and the like; the lowest figure, $160K, that he mentions for condo
prices is still above the mean for metro houses, I think. I suppose that when
you're caught up in a downtown Renaissance, it could look like a bargain; but
I still wonder about it.
I'm certainly not picking on developers. They perform a valuable service,
but they get well compensated for it and don't often have to deal with it
once construction is done unless they continue to own and manage their
developments as some do. They can't be the only game in town though; you need other
sectors besides contruction. Unless you can build forever and stuff more and more
folks into the same acreage like some sort of urban black hole. Before I left
Los Angeles going into the 1990s, there was a group that started up called
"Not Yet New York." The construction sector folks were hot on New Urbanism just
as some of us are here now, and neighborhoods were getting denser and denser;
as a result gridlock at rush hours was getting worse and worse. I haven't been
back since light rail went in; I understand things are better or at least
stable.
Perhaps I'll move downtown or to The Loop myself one of these days, if I
can afford it; my aching back and feet are not fit for the work my place needs
these days. But if I wait long enough, they'll put them in a few blocks away
perhaps.
Bill Kahn
Prospect Park
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