Downtown Gamechanger

[vicupstate]

Thanks, Ron.  It really is the entrepreneurs like yourself that have brought about the urban renaissance in the U.S. from what I have seen. The big boys only show up when someone else has already had the vision and done the heavy lifting.  I can only imagine the headaches you have experienced, even though I have experienced some myself trying to enliven the core. Best of luck to you.

While I haven't had bad experiences with Bank Of America in the few dealings I have had with them, I have heard other horror stories and never intend to do business with them again.

P.S. Not that it matters, but I am a Sir.

[jaxlore]

Thanks for the update Ron. Looking forward to seeing progress on 225!!!

[RattlerGator]

Ron, that 8:25 a.m. entry this morning is quite a read. Ramble on, man, ramble on.

[ronchamblin]

Jlmann ... The apartment sizes will be from about 850 sq. ft. to 1,200 sq. ft.  I'm not familiar with the going average.  I will probably stay at perhaps 15% below the average for the area.  Each will be two bedroom.  We will see. 

But ... onward .... The idea of a threshold.  Is it valid?  And if valid, is it significant?  And what might be its nature? 

If we were to admit that the city core is on a journey from stagnation to a condition of true infill and vibrancy, we might imagine a point along the journey ... call it a threshold  ... before which exist conditions lacking optimism, energy, investment, projects in renovation and construction, a sense of freedom, enough population, and general happiness ... whereas the post-threshold world would be the opposites; that is, enthusiasm, optimism, energy, investment, renovations, new construction, general moods of excitement, and a spring in the walk amongst an increasing core population ... all not seen in the pre-threshold era.
 
I suggest that the idea of the threshold is more important than many might realize ... so important that a post-threshold era would, if achieved, allow a greatly increased rate of progress along the road to true core infill and vibrancy.  If the threshold is so important, what conditions or events might allow or force reaching it?   

The current pre-threshold era witnesses for the most part, people of energy and money choosing areas other than the city core to deploy their investments, business plans, dreams, and money.  Why do they choose the suburbs and not the core?  To a considerable degree the decisions to avoid the core are because the core is stabilized in a pre-threshold condition.

We discussed the idea of infrastructure on earlier posts, and the importance of improving and shaping it so as to remove negatives and enhance positives; thus making the core more attractive to the dreamers and investors; that is, encouraging decisions toward the core instead of outlying mini-cores.   

The very fact of decades of relative stagnation in the core qualifies the statement that the core is definitely in a pre-threshold condition ... and in much need of reaching the point of threshold.

One might ask of the duration of the point of transition.  The transition from a pre to a post threshold era is similar to the boiling of a pot of water.  If one is to suggest that the desirable post-threshold would be a boiling water, one might observe, with the continuous addition of heat, that the water simmers ... bubbling somewhat ... and then, with the continued application of sufficient heat, begins to boil with vigor -- the desired post-threshold era.

However, if not enough heat is applied, the water will slowly cycle from a smooth surface to the occasional bubbling .... never passing the threshold ... stagnating just as our core has stagnated.  Not enough heat?

The garden.  Trash the word "infrastructure" and think of the core as a garden.  The most important enabling characteristics of a garden is the soil and its irrigation.  The core is like a garden, inviting anyone with dreams of beautiful plants to carefully set theirs.

But who builds and cares for the soil?  We've seen many plants, placed with care and enthusiasm in the poor soil of the core, wither and die after a few months or a year or two of struggle.

Of course, there are  the big money persons ... who have the funds to bring and install their own soil, and to provide the proper irrigation.  But most gardeners, after waiting for decades for an improved soil, have chosen the better soil of the smaller but well soiled gardens in the outlying areas.

So .... What must be done to reach the threshold .... to achieve the boil ... to perfect the soil? 

But first, it's important to realize that, whereas a pre-threshold core requires and endures constant fabrications, additions of facades, promotions, wasted investments, failed projects, and low energy levels; a post-threshold core will, by its higher energy, excitement, it's bold confidence in the success of dreams .. become like a runaway steam locomotive ... surging with a power not seen in many decades.  This era in the core will produce a confidence that will draw investors and residents in great numbers, as a momentum of optimism and success finally will have been reached.

Fundamentally, a pre-threshold condition requires ... from governmental entities, agencies, committees, and councils ...  laborious efforts in money and worry to engage it.  A post-threshold era will run free ... energized by its own momentum ... requiring only the occasional guidance and restraints.  A city core must get past this imagined threshold point if it is to emerge from a decade-long stagnation.     

But ... again, what of the question .. how is the threshold to be achieved?  I must get to work this morning.  Any ideas about reaching this imagined point?  I will think on this question too. 

[ronchamblin]

The current relative emptiness in our city core -- building emptiness ... a lack of population in the form of workers, residents, and visitors ... along with a lack of core energy in general -- might encourage some to contemplate the necessity or inevitability of it ... and ultimately the acceptance of it. 

Certainly moderate desolation is not necessary, and once the nature and cause has been discovered, the assumption of inevitability is dissolved by sensible decisions and actions.  But what of the "acceptance" of the tendency to perpetual core stagnation and desolation, as evidenced over several long decades? 

Acceptance, whether a form of defeatism, a preoccupation with economic survival, or simply ignorance, certainly suppresses critical thought and action.  Acceptance of less than optimum conditions might imply individuals experiencing a condition of complacency, which implies either the enjoyment of a condition of comfort via wealth, along with a tendency to exercise a subtle power to maintain that wealth; or it implies citizens experiencing complacency via discouragement, heavy debt, and a loss of hope as a consequence of enduring an infrastructure of exploitation evolved, orchestrated, accepted, and perpetuated by a small population of quasi elites exercising a predatory effect upon the majority of citizens ... a predatory dynamic that can exist both locally and nationally .... a dynamic that could, as a consequence of affecting a large population, be considered part of the culture.

The large projects proceeding in San Marco and other close-in areas, exposes a pattern of development from the outer city toward the inner core, the latter apparently destined to be the last space to enjoy the benefits and excitement of development.  Apparently the lack of robust investment in the city core, as compared to current outlying areas, is simply a consequence of better investment/return ratios in outlying areas.  The development of the core will have its time.  As in most projects, we tend to do the easiest things first, and delay action on the difficult ... until it too is easy.  Apparently the core, being the most difficult and challenging, will be last.     

However, no matter the comparison, the long term stagnation and semi-desolation in the core, when most have desired a filled and vibrant core, allows one to ponder why so many years have passed, and continue to pass, without serious core development ... even when development has ultimately been possible.

A continuing condition of depression or inaction, whether in the mind of an individual, or in the core of a city, offers evidence of a moderate disorder or low grade illness.  A disorder of moderate nature can be endured perpetually simply because the fact of moderation allows invisibility.  Out of view, there is no pressure to discover causes ... and therefore no thought to solution or healing. 

If we leave the cause of human or animal illnesses to the physicians or dietitians, to whom do we refer analysis of a city's affliction?  Of course we all become physicians in some form or another, each offering our analysis, and the occasional paths to solution.         

The complexities of animal or city systems can occasionally prevent a "physician" from determining the cause of ill health, and therefore both can suffer prolonged dysfunction and low grade illness.  If high blood pressure in the human can be termed a silent killer ... if persistent low oil pressure can shorten the life of the auto engine ... what might be the cause of a low-grade illness or dysfunction in a city core?

Being hidden ... subterranean ... I suspect that we might discover the culprit to be part of our local culture.  But then ... what is culture?  I suspect that culture can be anything contemplated, performed, or endured by a large segment of a circumscribed population.  If this makes any sense, then we might search for aspects of our local culture that might be holding the city and/or city core in a moderate form of dysfunction or illness.

But, does it make sense?  Has the city core been enduring decades of stagnation?  Certainly.  Is the cause unknowable?  Apparently it is unknowable because if the cause was clear for all to see, then the dysfunction would have been addressed, and resolution achieved.

One aspect of a culture, or any part of a culture, is that it often exists subterranean ... hidden ...  all the while affecting the realities in economics and the standard of living of the majority ... exhibiting effects both positive and harmful.  Of course, our purpose requires interest only in the harmful pressures from an imagined culture; pressures successfully neutralizing efforts to achieve progress on the journey to full infill and vibrancy in the core. 

If you cannot figure out what or how or why about something, then look to the money interest. Or,Follow the Money.  And in America, where the insane religion of unfettered capitalism has gained sway over the minds of most, the result has been the extreme inequality in wealth and income, both locally and nationally.  The standard of living of perhaps 80% of our population has suffered considerably over recent decades.

The rumour is that, at least on the national level, the wall street predators, the big corporations, and the bought politicians are responsible for destroying the economy and the living standards of the great mass of average workers in our country. 

But what about our local culture ... the strength of our local economy ... the standard of living of our local population ... and the jobs of reasonable quality available to allow the implementation of a robust local economy?  If the amplitude of these local economic aspects are indeed suffering, how might these depressed aspects ultimately affect the efforts to achieve a revitalized city core?  If the strength of the above attributes are significant as enablers in our efforts to proceed to vibrancy, how can we identify and improve them?  What in our local culture or economic environment can be targeted as contributing to a depressed economy ... to the local inequalities in the wealth/income ... and thus to an economy/job situation unsupportive of efforts to revitalize our city core? 

If there are predators financially raping the great middle class on a national level, who or what can be contributing to the financial rape of the local citizens who are considered to be part of the lower and middle classes?  If there are financial vultures and predators on a national scale, who are their counterparts locally? 

Finishing my espresso and stuff, and hearing work beckon, I will think upon this, and return when espresso again stimulates the mind.  Does anyone have an idea as to what might exist within the local culture that influences our local economy to one of depression, and thus perpetuating a continual repression of efforts to enliven the core to one of complete infill and true vibrancy?

To work.