Reality vs. Chic in the City

A friend of mine asked recently, “why don’t they develop the new ‘downtowns’ like the old ones that worked?” His particular example was a border community where the destination for shopping and commerce was still the center city (I’m assuming of the railroad city pattern,) and still vibrant and well trafficked. This is a good question indeed. What he was specifically responding to were several examples here in North Texas of unitary development projects that mix housing with high-end retail and entirely leave out the humdrum kinds of uses that normal people interact with on a daily basis. (What I would call the dangers of only looking urban ) Short of getting into the dollars and cents of the calculations that drive this kind of thing, it seems to be a product of trying to fill an entire community with high-margin business. The Gaps, the Victoria’s Secrets, the Urban Outfitters may all do very of themselves from a retail standpoint, (Dallasites by now know exactly where I’m thinking,) but these things do not a community make. While enterprises like these may benefit from the cachet of a locations that gives off the vibe of “urban” and “hip,” the vibe is by no means real. Looking at the lessons learned from a real city done well, you can see the false premise in their calculations. Each of these high-margin outlets rely on a quite large catchment area (I think the economic term is “hinterland”,) and as such are not actually neighborhood stores. Only retail based on repeat business within the neighborhood thrives over the long term.

Here then is the crux of the economic problem: For a neighborhood to be a healthy, viable economic entity, it must accommodate low-margin retail and service for use by the residents. (Especially when the margins get lower every day) Yet, to justify building at beyond the bare minimum of suburban schlock, (unless you actually are in Manhattan, where both available catchment area and difficulty of going elsewhere are amazingly high,) the margins of each individual tenant must be so high that a high-margin business is practically required. This is one of those unintended consequences of individual decisions. The only way to justify a pleasant lifestyle seems to be to add a substantial cost premium to everything in town.

Added choice means added locations. Added locations mean reduced concentration. Reduced concentration means inhuman and unpleasant surroundings.

Or so it would seem.