What Happens to Downtown?

[Delvo]

People want to live there and do things there without having to drive everywhere. Local stores within walking distance, bars without driving issues, places to eat, local parks, seeing your neighbors, that sort of thing.

That is true, but so is its opposite. People want to have space between themselves and their neighbors, with their own grass and trees.

And that's not even two separate groups of people. I'm an example of both. I've seen places where there were apartments pretty close to several kinds of business, and considered moving there for that lifestyle, but when I think of being surrounded by all that concrete & steel and no openness or leaves, hardly anything could be more depressing than that idea.

 

[Lplus]

You are the one who clings to Covid-19 by denying that it's there instead of doing something about it. You bitterly insist that everybody else is to blame for the decline of downtown because they are unwilling to be in denial of Covid-19 the way you are.
The decline of downtown is the obvious sign that 'the rest of you' haven't moved on. You just like to bitterly pretend that you have.

Rubbish. Covid forced changes to working practices which have been found to be preferrable for many people in a post covid world. Those changes in working reduce the need for concentrated downtown business areas.

 

[BrettM]

The decline in downtown is the result of technology, not Covid. All Covid did was accelerate the inevitable.

There is little need for downtown if you can work from home, do online shopping, order meals online, do electronic tax filing, and vote online.
-

 

[dann]

Rubbish. Covid forced changes to working practices which have been found to be preferrable for many people in a post covid world. Those changes in working reduce the need for concentrated downtown business areas.

Rubbish.
(Unlike Lplus, who is new to the thread, which appears to what makes him think that this is the first time his 'argument' has been made (It's not), I am not saying that many people working from home may not have decided that it's the preferable way to 'go to' work - with or without SARS-CoV-2 jeopardizing their health and lives. I am just criticizing the moronic idea that we are living in post-pandemic times, and that people don't still avoid public transport and other indoor public places because of it.
But minimizers gonna minimize. It's what they do. (And don't worry, we also heard the one about the busy airlines.))

 

[dann]

All Covid did was accelerate the inevitable.

Did?! It's still doing it.

 

[BrettM]

Whether we had Covid or not, the end result would have been the same. Covid just made it happen sooner.

 

[dann]

As I already said:

I am not saying that many people working from home may not have decided that it's the preferable way to 'go to' work - with or without SARS-CoV-2 jeopardizing their health and lives. I am just criticizing the moronic idea that we are living in post-pandemic times, and that people don't still avoid public transport and other indoor public places because of it.

 

[BrettM]

Let's say that you are correct, dann. The decline in downtown is directly or indirectly the result of the covid pandemic. How would you rectify the situation? How would you reverse the decline in downtown?

 

[Lothian]

...nm

 

[Darat]

Let's say that you are correct, dann. The decline in downtown is directly or indirectly the result of the covid pandemic. How would you rectify the situation? How would you reverse the decline in downtown?

What is there to rectify?

 

[JoeMorgue]

What is there to rectify?

THANK YOU!

 

[dann]

Let's say that you are correct, dann. The decline in downtown is directly or indirectly the result of the covid pandemic. How would you rectify the situation? How would you reverse the decline in downtown?

See post 37.
The people who own downtown know what to do. They just don't do it for everybody else. Instead, they pay people to push the message that the pandemic, which they themselves are obviously very well aware of, is over.

 

[JoeMorgue]

Jesus Christ people. "Downtowns are dying" has been a city planning running meme since way before COVID.

 

[BrettM]

What is there to rectify?

Lack of income for the cities.

Cities need money to maintain infrastructure like roads, traffic lights, overhead street lights, stormwater drains, generation and reticulation of potable water, domestic waste disposal, sewerage disposal, public transport, etc.

If the infrastructure is not maintained, the city decays and turns into a slum.

 

[JoeMorgue]

Lack of income for the cities.

Cities need money to maintain infrastructure like roads, traffic lights, overhead street lights, stormwater drains, generation and reticulation of potable water, domestic waste disposal, sewerage disposal, public transport, etc.

If the infrastructure is not maintained, the city decays and turns into a slum.

And this has what to do with "Downtown" specifically?

 

[Thermal]

Ok. So you have a downtown area. Are you shooting for your community to be a boarded up blighted landscape where people order takeout and watch Netflix, or do you want to... you know...go outside? Socialize with live people and have some fun, doing and seeing something different?

Is going on a date to a resteraunt or bar or club really something that we want in the rear view mirror? Is strolling around and seeing something offered by a local business (that didn't pop up on your Amazon Recommended for You page) something we are trying to do away with?

 

[JoeMorgue]

1. If you want a vibrant outdoor social area why does it have to be Downtown?
2. Whenever urban planners talk about "social" they always mean two groups: Young adults who want to drink and hook up and families with children. Their ideal social planning always seems to be an endless field of 50% singles bars and 50% Chuck-E-Cheeses. Couples with no children and anyone single with interests other then hooking up get to eat ****.
3. This kind of thing has to happen organically. A soulless city council can't just rubber stamp a few hipster microbreweries and a sidewalk art market down in the slums and go "There. It's cool now."

 

[BrettM]

Nobody wants to go to a hipster microbrewery or sidewalk art market down in the slums. You either have to get rid of the slums, or you have to prevent the slums from developing in the first place.

 

[Darat]

Lack of income for the cities.
Cities need money to maintain infrastructure like roads, traffic lights, overhead street lights, stormwater drains, generation and reticulation of potable water, domestic waste disposal, sewerage disposal, public transport, etc.

If the infrastructure is not maintained, the city decays and turns into a slum.

Not seeing how this is linked? The downtown areas aren't owned by the local authority are they, they are not gaining income from renting out their properties are they?

 

[Darat]

Ok. So you have a downtown area. Are you shooting for your community to be a boarded up blighted landscape where people order takeout and watch Netflix, or do you want to... you know...go outside? Socialize with live people and have some fun, doing and seeing something different?

Is going on a date to a resteraunt or bar or club really something that we want in the rear view mirror? Is strolling around and seeing something offered by a local business (that didn't pop up on your Amazon Recommended for You page) something we are trying to do away with?

We really don't have this concept of downtown like it seems to be used in the USA, yet we have vibrant towns, plenty of outside social stuff to do, restaurants and the like.