Live Blogging: Mayor Brown in Springfield

[simms3]

^^^I get out   It's impossible not to here since no matter where you go you are surrounded by "humanity" and you can walk across the entire city in 2 hours or less.  FYI, nobody but wannabe hippie tourists and bums go to the Haight anymore.    Stephen you are definitely more "exposed" than most though!  I'll take the Mission, Soma or Tendernob any day, but never go as far as living in an environment as seedy and dangerous as the Tenderloin/6th and Market area or some of the areas you have lived in *when* you lived in them!  9th and Folsom isn't bad - clearly never changed and still very cool (and quiet during weeknights - lots of clubs operate on the weekends nearby at least now).  30 floor apartment buildings are topping off at 9th and Market 3 blocks away, so the area is changing and probably going to be "sterilized" to the extent an area can be in SF within 5 years (this was my Mid-Market reference).  Sterile in SF terms = still cooler than almost anywhere else you're going to find in other cities. 

[simms3]

In fact im looking for a second apartment in Brooklyn.  I love Bedford, and i rather fancy something nice and hasidic in Bed-Stu.  There's that unmistakable vibe of american culture happening again and its all in Brooklyn, by my lights.

Getting an idea of your tastes, I don't think you want to live in Bed-Stuy...it's all yuppies moving in now.  Been that way for some time.  I think Brooklyn and SF as a city are practically the same with different architecture.  If you want edgy, it's possible wherever you go...but if you want EDGY it's getting more and more difficult to find now (in fact, still traveling to Brooklyn and living in SF I find the latter more dauntingly in your face edgy...I can only imagine what Brooklyn used to be like before the hipsters and Ivy Leaguers started moving in and keeping the graffiti but forcing the poor down to the next block and raising the price of coffee by $2 a cup).

[tufsu1]

Might I add jobs = infill multifamily construction.  There's nothing else that is accounting for Austin's current boom, or Atlanta's current infill boom or Charlotte's, or Nashville's.  There's a reason there is so little going up near DT (2 mid-size projects that are totally spec and are "testing" the market in Brookluyn).

I wasn't aware that Charlotte's job market was booming

[strider]

^^^Trying not to sound too harsh, but Springfield really isn't happening.  What's there is forced by a few extremely passionate and organized residents who care so much about the neighborhood, but let's not kid ourselves - the place hasn't "boomed" since the 1910s and aside from kicking and swinging back from rock bottom over the past 20 years hasn't been considered a "nice" place to live since the 1940s or [1950s?].

I hope for the best, and there are certainly so many prime examples in the SE of what Springfield can become if it met its potential, but none of this will happen without natural economic backing in the city, as in downtown.  Downtown is like a huge painful gap/wound between the marginally successful Riverside (as compared to similar areas in growing SE cities, or even Birmingham), San Marco, and Springfield.  It's the glue that holds the success of all of these neighborhoods.  Without office towers brimming with middle to upper income white collar, college educated employees, there is no $$$ or demand to follow the urban pioneers and creative types who first move into a neighborhood like Springfield.

Springfield is perpetually stuck in Purgatory between gays/urban pioneers/creative types moving in and the yuppie 6-figure professionals who take over the neighborhood and finish the job (at which point the urban pioneers are either priced out or "annoyed" out of the neighb and they go stake out the next place).  The latter won't come without nearby jobs for them, which as of now are all on the SS and they're all moving to the beach.  Springfield has been "the next place" now for decades!

I think there is a process by which an area such as Springfield grows and comes back to being the place to be.  And I think it takes a long time, it doesn't happen in a few years, it takes decades.   One of the biggest issues in Springfield was the fact that a selected few decided to force the issue in the name of profit and weren't smart enough to maintain it. One could argue that if the real estate market hadn't crashed, then Springfield would be there already, but as the growth was artificial and badly controlled, I would have to say Springfield would have crashed all on it's own. This period of artificial growth set Springfield back at least ten years.

Today I think that the newer residents of Springfield, those hard working folks that see the real appeal of living in a historic district, represent the real future of Springfield.  They don't make the most money, they understand what it is to struggle a bit and they recognize that the condemned house next door represents future hope when those empty lots means nothing at all.  They are willing to give everyone here a chance and are willing to treat all around them with equal respect.

Springfield got held up by the Mack Bisette culture but today, thanks to those newer residents, it is back on the right track.  We simply need to keep the Jack Meeks and Michael Trautmans at bay to allow it to happen.

[Lunican]

What about townhomes/falts/lofts such as these:?


Source

From what I understand, this type of architecture would never get approved in Springfield. I think it should, but it won't.

[strider]

What about townhomes/falts/lofts such as these:?


Source

From what I understand, this type of architecture would never get approved in Springfield. I think it should, but it won't.

Actually a few years ago I would have agreed with you.  Today, there would be a chance.  Not by SPAR Council, but thankfully they do not really matter in that regard, but the Historic Planning Staff and the current HPC would strongly consider it.

[thelakelander]

^It would be a fight but you'd have a better chance of getting something like this on Main or 8th as opposed to some of the "residential" streets. Of all places, this type of stuff is already in Alabama.  Came across this yesterday in an area pretty similar to Springfield's Warehouse District. This was the back, which faced railroad tracks but had a clear view of the downtown skyline.

[CityLife]

We simply need to keep the Jack Meeks at bay to allow it to happen.

As in the Jack Meeks that has done some of the nicest historic preservation work in all of Springfield? Please elaborate?

[sheclown]

Jack Meeks is definitely an agent of gentrification

[strider]

We simply need to keep the Jack Meeks at bay to allow it to happen.

As in the Jack Meeks that has done some of the nicest historic preservation work in all of Springfield? Please elaborate?

Jack Meeks and his wife, Joanne Tredneck have always supported the SRG philosophy of saving Springfield by ridding it of ugly old houses, fighting multifamily unless it is being done by the "right" people and dividing the community as much as possible into the haves and everyone else.   

Yes, they have done a couple of great restorations.  The big office building that generates traffic in the middle of a residential block is a PUD that would allow for a labor pool there.   The building they just won a HPC award for is under the same PUD.  The apartment building they did on 6th St is great looking but as it was claimed to be once a house that was converted, how did they justify leaving it as apartments when they fight others who try to do it? (by the way, they are correct in having it as apartments.) Their personal house is fabulous of course.  But no more so than several others.

Because someone does a great restoration does not make their vision the best for the community.

And CityLife, you cut out the "and Michael Trautman" from my quote.  Why is that?

[Lunican]

Could something like this be built on a residential street in Springfield?

[fsujax]

so what is so wrong with gentrification? I think there can be a balance between gentrification and preservation. I am a "gentrifier" should I leave the neighborhood as well? I happen to like Jack and Joanne and think they are great neighbors. No need to attack them.

[simms3]

Might I add jobs = infill multifamily construction.  There's nothing else that is accounting for Austin's current boom, or Atlanta's current infill boom or Charlotte's, or Nashville's.  There's a reason there is so little going up near DT (2 mid-size projects that are totally spec and are "testing" the market in Brookluyn).

I wasn't aware that Charlotte's job market was booming

You are quite the ridiculous contrarian sometimes.  Charlotte has 2-3x the office space in its downtown as Jax, and notably has a "younger" workforce filling such office space and getting paid much more.  Call it equivalent to Jacksonville's SS, except concentrated with more college grads and bigger salaries, and more young single transplants bringing their ideas from cities up north.  This gets translated into the south's most concentrated apartment boom (South End along LYNX) and literally in all directions surrounding Uptown and within Uptown - restored homes, new homes, and shops and restaurants opening as a result, providing jobs for hipster coffee roasters/baristas, artists who fill galleries and have a client base to sell to, etc etc.

Just because you think or others think the "whole picture" job market in Charlotte isn't booming doesn't mean that some sectors aren't still showing signs of strong improvement/expansion and that their business districts aren't already at a far higher level of employment than Jacksonville's (which by the way, I don't know anyone who isn't smoking crack who wouldn't say their overall job market is more robust than that of Jacksonville's, which rightly or wrongly is perpetually seen as weak).

I think Jax is potentially "cooler" and has a grittier vibe that can be harnessed for all it's worth, but Charlotte has the missing ingredient that Jax doesn't - the strong downtown core and well paid single/transplant professionals who work in the downtown and desire to live in vibrant cool areas immediately adjacent.

[Lunican]

Or these?

[CityLife]

Jack Meeks is definitely an agent of gentrification

Can Springfield save its homes without some form of "gentrification"? Whether it be from artists, teachers, or CPA's?

I just found it interesting that a champion of historic preservation and saving the homes railed on a guy that has done some good preservation work and also brings a lot of positive outside attention on Springfield.