Comments on: The Republican Way to Urban Renewal

By: The Republican Way to Urban Renewal - Hip Hop Republican

The Republican Way to Urban Renewal - Hip Hop Republican — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 00:44:20 +0000

[...] Charles W. Brackett a moderate Republican commentator and writer for NewMajority.com highlights some… According to Bucket, “any urban renaissance must focus on sustainable spending”. [...]

By: Political Season

Political Season — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 19:42:10 +0000

@dfl “Detroit, Newark, Gary, East St. Louis and most neighborhoods in cities like Baltimore and Cleveland have few, if any, of those quality people and are probably unsalvageable.”

The above comment is exactly why the GOP and the conservative movement is perceived negatively by minority communities. I love the way this guy simply writes off thousands of Americans as “unworthy” and low quality people, people he or she does not know squat about other than they are most likely black and latino and live in cities which are in decline. Its just a perfect Kodak moment of conservative contempt.

While I can’t make a strong counter argument against the article’s point that TIFs can be abused, I actually think they are off base about their utility for urban redevelopment. The traditional use has been in downtown boondoggle projects. But if TIFS are used as tools in declining neighborhoods and used properly, they offer a way of generating the kind of capital needed to address infrastructure challenges that impede revitalization of an area or to be the catalyst funding corrects market failures in a way that helps the private sector come back and restart a properly functioning economic cycle.

By: sinz54

sinz54 — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 19:29:44 +0000

balconesfault: We have to be part of the solution today to prove we can govern responsibly in the future.
Agreed.

But seaports are more important for heavy smokestack industry like autos than for high-tech. That’s probably one reason why Henry Ford located there.

BTW, check out Cities XL. It’s a new cool simulation game for the PC. Sorry, no gays in it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8-Eys6f03s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXSzmBISWk0&feature=related

By: balconesfault

balconesfault — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 18:12:54 +0000

Detroit has no such advantages.

Well, Detroit has one great advantage – water, and existing infrastructure. Although bulldozing might actually be a good strategy.

Did SimCity include a module for “bring in the gays”?

By: sinz54

sinz54 — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:05:46 +0000

The automobile industry was Detroit’s only reason for existence. Without a vibrant American auto industry, Detroit simply doesn’t need to be a city of 900,000 people anymore. And with General Motors now a living corpse like Terri Schaivo, Detroit ain’t ever coming back.

I used to play the Detroit scenario on the SimCity computer game. The only winning strategy was to bulldoze most of it, turning most of it into attractive parkland–and keep a smaller but sustainable town in its place.

This is what people tend to forget: Cities may lose their original reason for existence. In which case it’s hopeless to try to save them, unless they can find a new reason. Pittsburgh lost the steel industry, but it was able to capitalize on tourism and a high-tech mecca around Carnegie-Mellon University.

Detroit has no such advantages. I say, get rid of it and relocate the people elsewhere.

By: DFL

DFL — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:26:16 +0000

otto lists the few neighborhoods in Baltimore that are civilized. Baltimore has not yet sunk to the state of Detroit. Much of the rest of “Charm City” is block upon block of slum, especially West Baltimore, nicknamed by my Baltimore friends as “The Wild West.” Pig Town in the south and Highlandtown to the east are in rapid decline. Johns Hopkins Hospital, an oasis in a stew of slums, has its own armed police force so that the sick may not be robbed, asssaulted or murdered on the way to the hospital. Baltimore is often at the top of any listing of murder and crime rates. Its city government is dysfunctional and its mayor is a crook who used gift cards that were given to the city for charitable purposes for her own personal purchases.

By: Reason60

Reason60 — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 02:48:51 +0000

Urban Redevelopment programs, as the Charles Brackett points out, have a pretty poor track record.
However, one bright spot is that the decay and blight that took place in the cities of post WWII America was NOT a naturally occurrance of the marketplace. Instead, it was a direct result of the government creation of the Interstate freeway system, that made it suddenly easy to live in the suburbs and work in the city.
The recent renaissance of cities is the result of the cessation of the freeway system, and the expansion of drive times from urban cores to suburbs; when growth occurs, it cannot simply be accomodated in yet another belt of suburbs,so the natural makretplace reaction is to rehabilitate urban properties.

Cities go through natural cycles of growth, decay, and renovation. All the government needs to do is let the cycle work, focusing tax dollars on infrastructure that supports the city fabric, not abandon it.

By: LessThanExpert

LessThanExpert — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 23:54:50 +0000

Baltimore seems an interesting case, although I have to admit that I haven’t studied it too much. Without overstating Baltimore’s recovery, because there are still very serious problems, Baltimore’s mayor focused on crime prevention and was extremely patient. The Inner Harbor, which has been a success, took 25 years to really take off. It was really the only mega-project that Baltimore has undertaken.

- CWB

By: ottovbvs

ottovbvs — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 21:45:22 +0000

dfl // Oct 8, 2009 at 4:50 pm
” and most neighborhoods in cities like Baltimore and Cleveland have few, if any, of those quality people and are probably unsalvageable.”

……..One wonders if you’ve ever been to Baltimore which over the last 30 years has undergone one of the greatest inner city revivals in the nation…….most neighborhoods in both downtown Baltimore and the outer inner city (The inner harbor, Fells Point, Bolton Hill, Federal Hill, Guildford (where I lived for several years), Roland Park, Homeland, Ruxton et all) are amongst some of the most delightful places you are going to find in any US city…….All this revival started with the great William Donald Schaeffer….a democrat (why is it that most of the great inner city revivals are led by Democrats?)……but his successors have kept up the pace…….they have their problems but Baltimore is a huge success story by any measure!!

By: DFL

DFL — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:50:47 +0000

In the end,a neighborhood or city is only as good as the people who live there. Much of Washington DC, New York and Boston is home to affluent, intelligent liberals and the parts of those cities where they dominate thrive. Detroit, Newark, Gary, East St. Louis and most neighborhoods in cities like Baltimore and Cleveland have few, if any, of those quality people and are probably unsalvageable.