[lbo-talk] NY blocks mayor's congestion plan

shag shag at cleandraws.com
Tue Apr 8 15:47:37 PDT 2008


one thing that still puzzles me, in spite of what seem like reasonable explanations, is this:

the area where i live is composed of a large swath of territory -- burbs and rural, with a sprinkling of small city centers and towns. It's a big area -- a region. It's not uncommon to live across the river or bay and commute in to a city or one of the big burbs with the industrial parks where you work.

people live far away b/c it's cheaper.

they are finally starting to build a light rail. it's important to this region b/ it is connected by bridges and tunnels. IOW, the traffic can be pretty shitty -- though certainly NOT as shitty as the Tampa Bay area, where you have the same problem -- bridges and the mostly densely populated county in the state which effectively has only one major highway for travel. but it isn't a highway -- with on ramps and off ramps. it's a road where people are constantly getting on and off at turns and shopping plazas and industrial parks.

anyway: the puzzle. In looking at places to live, I am constantly told that the major city center (there's one) is THE place to buy property if you're buying by the light rail hub. I didn't get that. while there is some major employment downtown, the fact is most of the employment is in the burbs or is ringed around the city. IOW, the people would live in the city but work outside or on the skirts of the city.

which is totally backwards. totally backwards as to how it seems most folks will want to live. I can buy a 2/2 and pay extra for parking in a garage near the light rail station. I get, maybe 1200 sf loft. I'd probably have to pay for storage to keep all my shit -- and I live a pretty pared down lifestyle. I know. I know. the sq footage is amazing compared to NYC, Paris, Hong Kong. Whatever.

I can pay a much smaller rent OR mortgage and get nearly two times the space, a backyard, storage shed, two car garage and lordy knows what else. *Why* would anyone choose to live downtown near the light rail. Because the rents are climbing here and even the real estate crisis hasn't affected this place terribly much. There are not the auctions and foreclosure craziness here as elsewhere. The real estate agents tell me this is because the people with houses they can't sell are just renting and the crisis was buffered by the military and defense spending in an area where transiency is what a large portion of the population does every 2-3 years anyway. Someone always needs to buy or rent.

The other thing I don't get. Why would people want to commute on the light rail if they can't be guaranteed an easy ride to work. There just isn't enough concentrated employment areas in the burbs/exurbs/outskirts of the city that they can be dropped off and can walk 10 minutes to work. They'd *still* have to hop a bus and then put up with the ridiculous routes.

this is exacerbated by the real estate speculation jacking the prices of dense housing near the hubs, decreasing anyone's desire to live near the hubs b/c it just costs too much.

So, living near the hubs in dense residences city-type dwellings already costs more than in the burbs.It's costing more also b/c of the real estate speculation going on where buyers are pushed to invest in the area as a way of making money off all the people who are going to be clamoring for housing near the light rail hub.

This makes me chortle. When my company bought a downtown office tower, real estate speculation bubbled up b/c they were convinced every sales rep and customer service clerk would buy or rent downtown. But why? They already live in the burbs, why would they move to the now more expensive city and give up space?

Which makes me worry that this whole light rail concept is going to be a huge failure because of the irrational thinking going on. It just doesn't seem to be based on the people and what they value, etc. etc. E.g., with my workplace, it wasn't young people who want to move downtown so much. It was boomers and empty nesters, who mostly had nothing to do with the company where I work it's very young. More, the young people who worked there don't make the income to afford housing downtown! Housing that was already expensive for what you got no yard, no safe place for kids to play, etc. only got more expensive as the speculators flocked.



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