Go ahead and make all the jokes you want; Detroit is and likely will be an easy target. But I found this Craig's List ad quite interesting.
We've got two options when it comes to all the soon to be unused real estate and "development" in this country. We can leave it to rot, and thus makeover the nation in the image of Detroit in the 70s; or we can accept that what a friend calls 'the suburban-industrial complex' model of the economy isn't ever going to come back, and thus different approaches to development are required.
Big Blue has yet another post about the collapse of the Inland Empire, and I'm sure a review of housing and real estate blogs would show equally grim news for overdeveloped regions all over the country. The truth is, the economic situation we find ourselves in comes in large part from the mythology of the ever-expanding American realty bubble. We let deregulation go too far, and the banking industry took that myth and fucked our entire economy with it when it burst. But like a lot of us hippy crunchy types have been saying for a long time: cheap energy, cheap imported supplies, and cheap credit can't go on forever. That day is here.
I don't know much about this Detroit deal other than the fact that downtown really could use some smart development, and I like the way this sounds. It's time for all of us to take steps to make sure those with different approaches to development to be given their turn. I often imagine what could be done with the decaying, empty strip malls and shuttered big box stores that are popping up with increasing frequency where I live. But I'm also not so hopeful that state and local governments will act in time, and repurpose those properties before the decay makes them uninhabitable. Perhaps I'm wrong in that, and approaches like the one found in this link will become more common than I'd imagined.
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On the Detroit Deal
I hate to say it, but that the First National is looking to become a "Non-profit Mecca" is a sign of an incredibly weak office market. It means for-profit business has given up on the building as a desirable location. It means lower rent, which means lower amenities, which means less service, which ultimately leads to less maintenance. This step is reminscent of the tenant change in so many now-vacant office properties in Detroit. So, it's not really good news, though, I do respect them getting creative. It doesn't have to spell doom, but a property of that prestige can not survive as a desirable location with only non-profits, unless they are large non-profits able to spend more of their operating expense of higher rents.
On a brighter note, it was announced, yesterday, that the region is getting two major movie studios in distressed cities (Detroit and Pontiac), and better yet they are using vacant structures, including a vacant GM facility. So, there are industries starting to notice that reuse is desirable, but the trend needs to speed up.
But, we've always been at war with Eastasia...
Damon: let me be more optimistic than you for a change
what is "healthy" commercial development, as currently defined? myself, i take so much to be wrong with it, it's a pretty long list. let's start with design: can you say "numbing?" or worse- faux high art pretentious. i'd like to think that poor, DFH
run offices would throw off the shackles of "let's make our office look like a set from Beverly Hills Cop 2" and perhaps bring in some real designers and artists as they fill their work spaces.
then there's the environmentalist aspect. from blasting air-conditioning to deadening flourescent lighting to mold-infested industrial carpeting...offices are like graveyards. but they don't have to be! again, i can totally imagine how come poor, DFH
concerns sharing an office space would be more motivated to turn their HQ into a greener exemplar space with solar, greenroofing, recycled materials. perhaps i'm just dreaming here, but if anyone is going to be creative in that way, it's not-for profits run by nappy headed hipster youth. perhaps they will also push for multi-purposing, or install the latest interweb technology that interconnects their concerns and takes advantage of networking in more productive, fresh ways.
i guess all i'm saying is that i agree with you: downtown has been a scary, empty testament to the failures of giving in to corporate whining for decades, to no lasting positive result. there are many historic buildings in detroit that are crumbling, and if this turns out to be a last gasp failure, well, at least someone tried to think outside the box. i wish them every success, and dream of a future for detroit when it's the HQ of alternapeople in every field, growing like some nutrient rich seaweed out of the rusting hulks of an economic model that has been discarded and forgotten. yeah, i've been reading science fiction this morning...