Regarding Downtown Albuquerque: A Thought For The Future
It would appear that there is at least some interest in developing downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico into a bustling hub of activity. A true urban center where people could live, work and play all in one central area. Beyond housing, jobs and entertainment there is one key element which will continue to remain elusive to the downtown core in Albuquerque. Density. Yes, it takes warm bodies to grow and develop any area and downtown Albuquerque is no different. Now let me tell you why I believe that the city and the developers will fail to create a long-term and vibrant downtown neighborhood. Greed.
Greed and density go together about as well as oil and water. It never fails to amaze me when I read about cities trying to build up certain neighborhoods and then complain when they cannot attract a permanent base of residents to sustain their endeavors. Take Albuquerque. What you need in order to succeed is a mix of people of various income levels and backgrounds who are attracted to the idea of living together in a high energy environment but what you will see instead is the greedy developer who will roll in, gentrify the neighborhood and then proceed to build high priced lofts, condos and apartments.
I am sorry, but you cannot hope to populate the entire downtown area with nothing but affluent people. You need affordable housing so that you can also get the worker bee's and artists and other people who would bring life and add color to the downtown area. But you are not going to see this happen, instead the developers will try to squeeze as much money per square foot as they can and in a short time you will here them and the politicians whine about how they failed to create the density needed to support a revitalized downtown neighborhood.
Perhaps I have oversimplified my explanations but not by much. I think you will see that until the time comes when everyone involved in the development process begins to factor in lower wage earners as being a key element in this equation you can forget about seeing a downtown Albuquerque that is truly alive and vibrant.
Tagged For: Albuquerque * Business * Downtown
posted by Mr. Viddy @ 8:29 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
sir, welcome to Abq. what you are overlooking is that the general downtown Abq area is already (and has been for decades) primarily populated by "low wage earners"! the very opposite of what you say is true meaning to diversify downtown we need to bring in some affluent outsiders to breathe some new life into the place. it is way to easy to point at a handful of relatively small (relative to the downtown population as a whole) upscale condo projects and decry gentrification. without those projects, there would be mostly poor people. and that is no more diverse than having only rich people. there are certainly many downtowns across the nation that are too slicked up and expensive for middle and low income folks. downtown Abq is not one of them. have you actually driven around the various neighborhoods on all sides of the downtown core? do they look rich to you?
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