Plenty of you disagreed with my previous analysis of the threat to NoDa from the transit-oriented development. Many people said, in essence, it’s dump, tear it town. I predict you’ll get your wish within the next 10 to 15 years.
Those of you enthralled with all-new development that wipes away anything that was there before seem to think it’s about nostalgia. It isn’t. It’s about entrepreneurs and small businesses, the very basic elements that build a local economy.
New buildings have expensive rents. Old buildings have cheaper rent. Old buildings breed entrepreneurs. It’s not the architecture, it’s the price of the space.
As urbanist writer Jane Jacobs put it, “Cities need old buildings so badly it is probably impossible for vigorous streets and districts to grow without them. … If a city area has only new buildings, the enterprises that can exist there are automatically limited to those that can support the high costs of new construction. … New ideas must use old buildings.”
In addition, companies that lend money to developers to finance new developments typically require that the space be leased to “proven” retailers, in other words, chains. That’s why you don’t see small, local businesses going into new buildings. Starbucks is welcome. Smelly Cat Coffeehouse isn’t.