growth from within
If we really want urban areas to remain interesting, Civic Strategies says we must convince neighborhood groups that it’s OK to have [lower priced] townhouses alongside the $500,000 condos and houses. And they don’t mean 600 square feet for $150K.
Otherwise:
There will be no young people, no children, no elderly living in their midst and certainly no waiters, fire fighters or teachers. Everyone in these developments will be the same: affluent 50-year-olds who’ll wonder why the neighborhood seems so dull.
And dull just sucks.
Tags: development, diversity, tampa
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April 3rd, 2006 at 2:04 pm
Bayshore’s community association is fighting a developer that has purchses 3 lots on Macdill. He want to get a zoning change to allow him to build 17 townhomes on this property. Bayshore is fighting it tooth and nail but I told him that when people talk about reducing sprawl and increasing density this is what they mean. That is fine, he replied, just not near us. Of course these aren’t going to be “cheap” by any real person’s definition. He thinks the developers will ask between $500 and $600k for the townhomes.
April 3rd, 2006 at 3:04 pm
Seems funny how some longtime residents would rather have nothing but vacant lots surrounding their homes, like some sort of pretend plantation, when they could have decent neighbors (like me) next door. If you want to live in isolation I’m sure the Unabomber’s old homestead is still on the market. Otherwise this is what “urban infill” is all about!
April 3rd, 2006 at 3:43 pm
We’re not going to solve any of these problems until the area has decent fixed public transportation… streetcars or a monorail. That will allow communities to develop more densly and populations from different income brackets to mix.
April 3rd, 2006 at 3:57 pm
Check out the latest post on Tampa Rail blog regarding mass transit, exciting!
April 3rd, 2006 at 4:50 pm
Commenting today from Boston, “America’s Walking City” where the husband and I just got back to the hotel after taking the subway to the convention center, then walking a couple miles to our lunch destination before taking the subway back. I couldn’t agree more with “and dull just sucks.” I tried to imagine walking a couple miles from Tampa’s convention center and couldn’t see it as anything other than a fitness event, or a long hard slog. We shopped, bought toasted cashews from a streetcart, enjoyed some public art, decided not to buy fresh flowers from a street cart, and remarked on how ugly a 5 story building can be if it rises up straight from the sidewalk and turns blank windows to the street. We had an uncountable choice of little restaurants and pubs to choose from for lunch. (Some national chains, but many family owned places.) This is not a Boston is better than Tampa rant, however. Just an observation that a city that has good public transportation is good for pedestrians, and pedestrians are good for the vibrancy of a city.
April 3rd, 2006 at 5:09 pm
Hooray! 600sf for $150k is NOT affordable housing! It’s a closet! Thank God somebody else recognizes that.
April 3rd, 2006 at 5:52 pm
Palm Beach County recently passed a bill requiring “affordable” homes to be built. Of course with a median home price of $400,000 already in that county it looks like it took an awfully long time to come up with the idea.
Nevertheless measures like this are very common and not entirely new. But with so much empty land in the ever-expanding suburbs I’m not sure how likely we are to see something like this here.
July 12th, 2006 at 9:41 am
[...] On the other hand, this may lead to the mixed income neighborhoods many folks claim we need. [...]