They built it ... but they didn't come

[Strelnikov_]

Oh, bother. Another indication that the price of go-juice has a lot higher to go before behavior begins to change.

Star Tribune
April 28, 2007

http://www.startribune.com/535/story/1149130.html

. . .

Not long ago, projects such as Laurel Village, which combine shops and housing in a city-within-a-city atmosphere, were considered the height of smart development. The idea was simple: With shops and restaurants at the base of apartment towers and condominium projects, people would have less reason to get in their cars and would interact with their neighbors, creating vibrant, compact, pedestrian-friendly communities. But while residents came, retailers didn't necessarily follow. Across the Twin Cities, thousands of square feet of retail space lie vacant in the ground floors of apartment and condominium towers. Residents who moved in expecting coffee shops, art galleries and grocery stores within walking distance now find themselves on urban islands, as isolated and as dependent on their automobiles as if they lived in the suburbs.

. . .

The empty storefronts have become so visible that some developers are abandoning plans to include retail in their condo projects for fear of being left with blighted ground floors that would deflate the value of their projects. In some cases, space that was slated for shops or restaurants now is being filled with office or medical tenants. Although such mixed-use developments often are touted as urban villages, they often lack the parking, road access and population base to support more than just a coffee shop and a few service businesses. The ones that are successful usually have a large anchor tenant that will attract people from several miles away.


"The problem is, too many of these condo projects are geared toward people who live in them -- that is, single people with plenty of time to walk around," said Kathy Doyle Thomas, executive vice president of Half Price Books, a Texas chain that has six stores in the Twin Cities -- none in mixed-use projects. "But the reality is, I've got a car with three screaming kids, and I'm not going to go there if there's a problem with parking." Molly Bird, president of M2 Real Estate Group in St. Paul, said scarcity of parking was a major reason more than one-third of the retail space remains unfilled in Sibley Court and Sibley Park, two adjacent apartment projects developed about three years ago in downtown St. Paul. "There are people who moved there thinking it would be this urban neighborhood environment," Bird said. "They're still having to get in their cars and drive to Grand Avenue if they want to shop."

. . .

But even if all the empty storefronts at Laurel Village were filled, Jessica Siemens, 24, who recently bought an apartment there, suspects she would still drive to Uptown to get a lot of her essentials. "It's nice to walk places," she said, "but sometimes you just want to get in your car and drive somewhere."

[Fovea]

1. Note that you hear about only two modes

walking and driving.
A vibrant choice of transportation option beyond autos is a key part of urbanization.

Light rail provides anchors for communities to develop around.

[enid602]

2. LA

I would suspect that the rents charged for the storefronts are too high, and that lack of alternate transit keeps the highrises' occupants automobile dependent. Since changing its zoning a few years ago to allow developers to build residential units without parking for automobiles (within 1/2 of a mile of heavy rail stations), over half of all units built in Los Angeles last year had no parking.

[razzleberry]

3. put in a casino

and window girls.