Quote:
Originally Posted by freerover
Tear it down and build places for people to live that preserve space for businesses on the bottom floor or bottom few floors. I think you guys are fetishizing shit for no good reason. You should have joined the NIMBY's fighting this stadium if this is how you felt.
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While I am usually a proponent of more and denser housing on already developed land, I think it is important to think about the important services the current businesses in the area provide to the entire city. Most of the businesses are warehouses and construction suppliers that are crucial to contractors, small businesses, homeowners, etc.
You can say that these businesses can move to more industrial areas on the outskirts of town (which this area was, not so long ago), but that just moves those businesses further from their customers. The further away these businesses are from their customers and other businesses, the more time on the road and more traffic getting in and out of the city.
I am all for filling in some of the empty lots and excessive parking lots with VMU development, but I believe it is also important to keep these services close to the people that use them. And, most of these businesses require large, single level facilities with high ceilings, which would not fit into the mold of ground floor retail of an apartment building. Unfortunately large, sprawling facilities are still needed.