A "Master Plan" that Came Together

[Clipper]

I think that another factor that must be recognized is that the old rust belt cities of the Northeast are crippled with antiquated infrastructure and buildings that are falling into disrepair, while the Southern cities for a large part are younger and more modern, and weather plays a part in preserving infrastructure and buildings. The South thrived when manufacturing and business moved South to avoid high costs of doing business in the NE. We have more modern facilities and such here in the South that make it easier to accomplish projects such as you see in Greeneville SC and other places.

Our downtown here in Bristol sort of thrives because of private investors with a viable market for their projects. They don't have to give tax breaks to get people to invest. There is profit to be made that makes it worth the investment. It seems that the taxes are much lower, and politics are much more amiable and cooperative with investors.

Sadly, it seems in the NE, it is a gigantic risk to invest in a bombed out downtown without some sort of government subsidy or tax break as an incentive. We have a pleasant environment here for downtown lofts, but I can't picture myself in a loft on Bleecker St. and Charlotte. There is nothing downtown on the average night other than the Stanley and a few bars to entice anyone to want to live there. If you drive near Chancellor Park at night, you will see that most of the people living around therein the apartment complexes are barricaded behind closed doors from dusk til dawn, afraid to wander the streets.

[dgriffin]

Here's old data, 1999, but a rather graphic depiction of the BOP differences among the states.
I wonder why some states are positive and some negative?

www.windsweptpress.com/images/bop 99.jpg[/img]

[Deleted]

May 2, 2011 11:56:46 GMT -5 Clipper said:

here for downtown lofts, but I can't picture myself in a loft on Bleecker St. and Charlotte. There is nothing downtown on the average night other than the Stanley and a few bars to entice anyone to want to live there. If you drive near Chancellor Park at night, you will see that most of the people living around therein the apartment complexes are barricaded behind closed doors from dusk til dawn, afraid to wander the streets.

Half the people there are lunitics or immigrants who can't speak and English and never know what is going on. Poor old Russian immigrant there was dead for 8 days in his apartment before anyone even cared to call the police. They had to scrape him off the floor of his apartment. All he had was a chair and small table and a mattress on the floor. How sad.
There is a loft apartment downtown that was rented a month ago to some Section 8 people. In the building next to Bev's where the Antique Shop is.
The new building on Bleecker St across from Historic St Johns has its new night club called Strut's openned. Coffee shop next door and loft apartments openning soon. Who would want to live next door or on top of a nightclub? The cofee shop is average no reason to ever go back. It is also a Karati Gym but nothing looks like a gym inside the place! When I was there only a bunch of Bosnian guys were there having coffee around a card table!

[dgriffin]

I have to wonder if the problem isn't, once again, politics. 75 years ago the people in charge were businessmen who considered it necessary to enter politics to preserve their interests. There were thinking people at the time who felt the system was unfair to the working man, but the businesses provided jobs. When unions got stronger and the economy was injected with massive federal spending on wars and then Space, it seemed like a balance had been reached as both businesses and workers started doing well.

But today the economy is not so great. Plus, we have politicians who often don't do much other than politic-ing. They're not successful businessmen, for the most part ... often they have no success record at all except for getting elected. They're not the best and the brightest and they attract votes from the large segment at the bottom of the heap with spending programs and words which you and I think are ridiculous upon reflection, but evidently are believed by the great number of their fans and voters who keep these "leaders" in office.

A wise man once told me something important about money: there is a lot of it around. In a just society it is more evenly distributed. Our society is going in the opposite direction.