Santana Row

One development that has been held up as a model for new urban transformation is Santana Row in San Jose, CA. My perspective?
Well, for starters, it makes an excellent outdoor mall. Lots of great stores and restaurants, some unique concepts, and it attracts a large crowd.
It also succeeds in regards to community space. There are excellent places to gather, hang out, and perhaps hear some live music.
They've also managed to integrate housing in the form of apartments and condos.

Areas for improvement?
The shopping is not geared toward the residents at all, save the ones who would like to walk to Borders when they want to buy a book or two. No grocery, no morning cafe, no sundries, you get the picture.
They lack office space. There's some, but the vast majority of residents still need to commute in Bay Area traffic rather than walking to work.
Transit is not available. No chance of taking any sort of rail to get to work, and buses in the Bay Area still need work in terms of improving routes and removing the stigma of riding.

If I approached it with a positive mind-set, they managed to accomplish something few others pull off, and made a move in the right direction. On the cynical side, in the development process, they seem to have only gone toward what was most profitable...

Thought for the day

Often, a large apartment complex is built right next to a shopping center that happens to have a grocery store. Say, theoretically, you live in one of the apartments closest to the grocery store. It's 9:30 at night, and you need milk for the next morning. One would think you could just walk out your door, take a few short steps to the store, get your milk, and come home.

Not so fast.

Most apartment complexes (and shopping centers) in this type of situation have a sound wall or fence around them. This has been the case pretty much since the 70's. Hence, the apartments are completely isolated.

To get your milk, you may have to walk 1/4 mile to the entrance of your complex, then walk another 1/4 mile along a busy thoroughfare, then maybe another 500 feet in a busy parking lot to get to the store. Then, the store is so large that it's 1000 miles from the front to the dairy section and back to pay for the milk. Finally, you have to make the same walk back to your apartment.

So, what do people do? The easy answer is to jump in their car to run their errand.

The question then arises: Why is it like this? There are a couple of reasons for this. The first reason is economics. Developers can theoretically make more money by building more units, so they make the apartment complexes bigger.

Next, the sound walls or fences are often a product of the city or municipality's desires. Or, it's built to "keep the residents safe". From what, I don't know...

Finally, the whole setup is a product of suburban city planning. The theory behind it is to build broader, faster thoroughfares so residents don't encounter bottlenecks that lead to bad traffic. The drawback is that this layout forces residents to use their cars rather than walking. This means that the next roads need to be even broader to accommodate more and more cars.

What's the answer, then? No quick and easy solution, that's for sure. My take on it is to encourage higher-density, urban-style development. The higher density means destinations are closer, and the urban-style, walkable developments mean we can reduce reliance on cars, reserving them for longer trips.

Shocking!

I could stretch things a bit and draw some connection between this and the point of this blog, but I thought I'd let the story stand on it's own. Many have no doubt already read about this tragic incident on Black Friday. I am simply amazed at the greed and fatal competitiveness that was demonstrated here. Has our society really dwindled down to this level of savagery?

What's the solution here? Legislation? A government bailout? A change in Wal*Mart corporate policy? I'm not a fan of Wal*Mart, but it's pretty obvious that it's not their fault. Ultimately, people just need to be nicer and more considerate. (and of course, law-abiding...) The shoppers responsible seem to have been caught up in some frenzy of greed, broke in the doors, and trampled the poor fellow.

Why can't we all just get along?!

Houston

One pressing question that cities often face is how to spark revitalization efforts. Houston is a poster-child for a city that has struggled with that question over the last couple of decades. Their downtown had been a daytime-only destination, with corporate headquarters for many energy and oil companies, but lacked any sense of life after 5pm.

They've made major strides in the last five years. By encouraging the development of housing downtown, which led to restaurants, retail, and other attractions, the downtown has life after hours. You can see the results here.

Their next step is economic development. Their goal is to attract more corporate headquarters and diversify their economic base beyond energy. To that end, they've developed a $40 million economic development fund. I see good things in their future...

Community

While I have a number of reasons for shifting development from suburban to urban, one large factor can be summed up with the word "community". I see this word thrown around a lot when it comes to development, among other places, but what is it really, and why does it matter?

Webster's defines community as "an interacting population of various kinds of individuals (as species) in a common location". The key words here are "interacting", "various", and "common". "Interacting" is clear. "Various", in my view, can indicate some level or form of diversity, meaning people who are not all alike. "Common" is probably open to a lot of interpretation, but I apply it in the sense that we need common areas to gather and dwell. That's the "what" of community.

So, why does this matter? Mental health. Here's an analogy: In prison, inmates are punished for extreme poor behavior by being placed in solitary confinement. Why? Because it's so extremely harsh to be cut off from other people. Here in suburbia, we have a tendency to isolate ourselves to some degree. Like I wrote earlier, people get into their car before the garage is open, drive in their bubble to work, maybe interact with someone there, get back in their bubble, drive home, and close the garage before getting out of the car. Many don't even know their neighbors. Folks, this is not healthy.

Let's contrast this with urban-style living: While walking to the bus, train, or subway, you are with others from your neighborhood. You may stop in at the corner cafe and talk to some regulars. You ride the bus, train, or subway with lots of other people. You may even greet a neighbor in the lobby of your building or while getting the mail. On weekends, you may have a public market or concert in the park that you walk to.

Clearly, it's important to get out of our bubbles and isolation and live in community with others.

Traffic

Traffic is a pet peeve for many of us. I had to drive across town during rush hour today, and I was reminded of the "billions and billions" of cars (thanks, Carl Sagan) that travel down (clog) our freeways daily to get to work. Keep in mind that there are some metro areas where traffic is far worse than I experienced here.

Just think - in a more dense, urban metro area, it's far easier to find a job within walking distance, an easy drive, or via public transit from our home. Much better than spending 30 minutes (or in many cases, much longer) in traffic.

How about that US auto industry...

Many economic analysts are talking about the possibility of the US government bailing out GM and other US automakers. Since I already think cars figure too dominantly in our society, of course I have something to say about this...

For starters, it's worth noting that, yes, I'm concerned about what will happen to anyone whose income is related to the auto industry. Maybe an aid program for the workers could work, or maybe there's another solution, but the people are my only concern.

Other than that, the government really shouldn't bail GM out. Why are they in this predicament in the first place? Part of it is due to a fat pension responsibility. Other than that, GM's issues seem to be related in part to enabling our society's desire for excess. To my understanding, GM has more oversized cars than anyone else. SUV's and huge trucks had been their best sellers. Yet, they failed to see the writing on the wall that demand would shift toward smaller, more economical cars. Smart cars and Minis are seeing huge demand.

Also, GM failed to keep the weight off. They've trimmed the fat so many times, but continue to put it back on. By contrast, Toyota has been long admired for their lean organization. And yes, they are fairing much better than the US manufacturers.

So, what to do? I think it's time for the government to make an example of someone. We've had so many bailouts that companies practically expect it. Let GM sell itself off in pieces to fund its pension obligations. Then, take the money that would have bailed them out and use it to finance public transportation improvements and alternative energy. How about that?

Suburban Nation

An excellent resource for anyone wishing to learn more about the flaws of suburban living is the book Suburban Nation. It manages to address concerns objectively, yet manages to stay away from a blatant environmental agenda, and avoids direct association with the New Urbanism movement.

By the way, The Congress for the New Urbanism, in my simplistic understanding, is a fairly radical group calling for a moratorium on all road and airport improvements, a halt on all sprawl development, and an immediate turn to urban-style development. Their motivation seems to be more along environmentalism, and their methods are too ambitious to be effective.

I think we need to work more in the realm of shaping public opinion, and speak with a pragmatic bias. The environmental lobby still has a stigma about it, what with its methods of stopping sprawl to save some subspecies no one has ever heard of and agressive lawsuits with dubious grounds. Instead, if people understand how various types of development and living affect them directly, we can more effectively shape opinions.

Revitalization in Milwaukee

This past weekend, I came across some interesting revitalization occurring in Milwaukee. This project, called First Place, is said to be about 90% complete. I also found two adjacent old factories for sale that are ready to be turned into condos or offices (or both). Building 1, Building 2. They're priced well, and can be converted for far less than new construction cost.

In The Beginning...

This being the inaugural post of my blog, I wanted to say something historic, pithy, profound. However, for lack of something historic, pithy, or profound to say, I think I'll stick with simply explaining what this blog is about.

I am very passionate about real estate development. Particularly, we as a society have done ourselves a great disservice by allowing development to sprawl all over the countryside - all in the name of "elbow room". OK, so the first thought that probably comes to mind is, "He must be a 'dyed in the wool Environmentalist'". No, not really. Yes, it's a shame that we are eating up pristine land or productive farmland, but my concerns are much more pragmatic.

Financially, we have extended ourselves farther than we need. We spend almost as much on cars as we do our homes - all because we choose to live so far from work, shopping, activities, etc.

Our quality of life suffers because we spend so much time in the car, isolated from the world. Does the term "road rage" ring a bell? Once we get out of the car, we breathe in smog from others' cars.

Our communities suffer because there is little interaction between people. Heck, many people don't even know their neighbors, since their life consists of getting into their car while it is in the garage, going to work, coming home, not leaving their car until the garage door is on the way down...

Of course, there's a lot more I could say on the topic, as well as on related topics. That's why I've started a blog...

You can expect to see more about why we as a society need to move back toward urban and semi-urban development. But since that would be bland by itself, I plan on adding items about revitalization, new projects that I learn about, related topics, and possibly the occasional random post.