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I have always found that office-heavy areas of a city were pretty lame in comparison to denser residential. It does not seem like a big loss to me. Office cente
by dougmwne 4y ago
I have always found that office-heavy areas of a city were pretty lame in comparison to denser residential. It does not seem like a big loss to me. Office centers tend to have some sandwich/salad lunch places that close at 4pm, some stuffy overly corporate happy hour bars, some dry cleaning places, some convenience stores and fast food spots.
Dense residential area tend to have the full range of services, more interesting restaurants and bars, more fun, more interesting. If people are spending more of their day there, I would expect a flourishing of these kinds of business. At the end of the day, some storefront owners will need to move to other areas to take advantage of changes in demand.
Cities are very dynamic things. They are constantly changing and renewing themselves. Neighborhoods come up and go down. There is no stopping it.
- beardedwizard 4y agoThese characteristics are not true for most large cities. San Francisco for example suffers none of this.
- lmeyerov 4y agoThe financial district, esp north of market, and south going towards embarcadero (Google, ...), is basically exactly this.
- dougmwne 4y agoYeah, I used to work on Market Street and SF is exactly like this.
- beardedwizard 4y agoSo a single block represents the entire city? What about the thousands of other businesses that remain open and within walking distance?
- 908B64B197 4y agoTime to retrofit some of these office buildings into apartment complexes.
- russellendicott 4y ago> Time to retrofit some of these office buildings into apartment complexes. But why would people want to live where they don't want to work?
- throwawaymaths 4y agoBecause it's cheap and maybe the demographic that uses the "downtown" changes. Iirc The former Goldman? JP Morgan? hq in Manhattan ( moved to Newark?) Is now an apartment mostly occupied by 20-somethings that want to live in Manhattan
- techdragon 4y agoThe big issue is how few cities reach sufficient residential density with enough occupancy over a wide enough area to begin creating that vibrant community. A few overpriced apartments towers near the CBD won’t get you there. I’d say the city I live in Perth, Western Australia has completely failed to cross that threshold and the current real estate environment is basically actively pushing back to prevent the urban core from ever getting there.
- pg_1234 4y agoWe may find we get the density and vibrancy, with all accompanying shops and services, but centered where we live rather than where we work. I think it's part of the general swing back to a healthier work-life balance, and really ... that would be fantastic!