Comments on: Planned to death http://www.dustbury.com/archives/8959 I couldn't possibly fail to disagree with you less. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 03:23:16 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Mel http://www.dustbury.com/archives/8959/comment-page-1#comment-22639 Mel Fri, 11 Sep 2009 06:06:15 +0000 http://www.dustbury.com/?p=8959#comment-22639 >> New! Improved! Downtown! What. Has Downtown! OKC! Been! Bought! By! Yahoo! ? >> New! Improved! Downtown!

What. Has Downtown! OKC! Been! Bought! By! Yahoo! ?

]]> By: Doug Loudenback http://www.dustbury.com/archives/8959/comment-page-1#comment-22604 Doug Loudenback Wed, 09 Sep 2009 23:51:06 +0000 http://www.dustbury.com/?p=8959#comment-22604 Hooray for chaos & serendipity, and thanks for the link.! Hooray for chaos & serendipity, and thanks for the link.!

]]> By: fillyjonk http://www.dustbury.com/archives/8959/comment-page-1#comment-22600 fillyjonk Wed, 09 Sep 2009 17:05:56 +0000 http://www.dustbury.com/?p=8959#comment-22600 In my limited experience, "non-organic" (i.e., planned) development of a downtown can led to lots of unhappy people, and perhaps lots of vacant storefronts. The small city where my parents live is undergoing a facelift-by-fiat; the local Town Council, deciding they wanted to make names for themselves, voted in a large, taxpayer-funded hotel and convention center, encouraged "upscale" businesses and restaurants, encouraged developers to buy buildings out from under long-established businesses (forcing them to either move or close). The downtown looks not unlike a miniature version of Boston's "Big Dig" right now, most residents I've talked to are unhappy, many of the long time business owners are unhappy, profs and students at the local university feel like they're being priced out of the downtown they used to patronize. So yeah, the town council made names for themselves, just not ones it would be ladylike for me to repeat. In my limited experience, “non-organic” (i.e., planned) development of a downtown can led to lots of unhappy people, and perhaps lots of vacant storefronts.

The small city where my parents live is undergoing a facelift-by-fiat; the local Town Council, deciding they wanted to make names for themselves, voted in a large, taxpayer-funded hotel and convention center, encouraged “upscale” businesses and restaurants, encouraged developers to buy buildings out from under long-established businesses (forcing them to either move or close).

The downtown looks not unlike a miniature version of Boston’s “Big Dig” right now, most residents I’ve talked to are unhappy, many of the long time business owners are unhappy, profs and students at the local university feel like they’re being priced out of the downtown they used to patronize.

So yeah, the town council made names for themselves, just not ones it would be ladylike for me to repeat.

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