My vision is that enough of these smaller successes (small firms moving downtown, more exciting M/X and Blues Museum style openings) in downtown get to the point where a Big Deciderer out in the County sternly asks of his #2, "Higgg-inss..... why aren't we downtown like all these other folks?" "Great idea boss! I'll get right on it!" And suddenly 2,500 employees move downtown triggering a new dawn.arch city wrote:Good! Hopefully the trend will continue.
Except from a regional perspective, this means little.roger wyoming II wrote:My vision is that enough of these smaller successes (small firms moving downtown, more exciting M/X and Blues Museum style openings) in downtown get to the point where a Big Deciderer out in the County sternly asks of his #2, "Higgg-inss..... why aren't we downtown like all these other folks?" "Great idea boss! I'll get right on it!" And suddenly 2,500 employees move downtown triggering a new dawn.arch city wrote:Good! Hopefully the trend will continue.
Incorrect!innov8ion wrote:Except from a regional perspective, this means nothing.roger wyoming II wrote:My vision is that enough of these smaller successes (small firms moving downtown, more exciting M/X and Blues Museum style openings) in downtown get to the point where a Big Deciderer out in the County sternly asks of his #2, "Higgg-inss..... why aren't we downtown like all these other folks?" "Great idea boss! I'll get right on it!" And suddenly 2,500 employees move downtown triggering a new dawn.arch city wrote:Good! Hopefully the trend will continue.
Generally speaking, the economy improves when we have an influx of jobs and business in the region. Simply shuffling them around within it doesn't do much. If a minimal shift to the core occurs, it could be considered a slight improvement. IMHO, there would need to be a tipping point for it to be of much consequence.roger wyoming II wrote:Incorrect!innov8ion wrote:Except from a regional perspective, this means nothing.
You're correct that re-centering a greater percentage of regional jobs to downtown won't necessarily do a whole lot immediately for the economic output for the regional economy; however, the Saint Louis region will not be able to see the type of growth more dynamic metros are achieving until we see a more thriving core. It should be evident to all that our rubber band region is being stretched to the breaking point.innov8ion wrote:Generally speaking, the economy improves when we have an influx of jobs and business in the region. Simply shuffling them around within it doesn't do much. If a minimal shift to the core occurs, it could be considered a slight improvement. There would need to be a tipping point for it to be of much consequence, IMHO.roger wyoming II wrote:Incorrect!innov8ion wrote:Except from a regional perspective, this means nothing.
Downtown St. Louis is kind of out on a peninsula from an access standpoint, against a barrier not real easy to surmount. This has forced the practical center of the metro area to the West. Detroit has the same problem, where the other side is Canada. Many coastal cities don't have the same problem -- Boston, for instance, is so far up the bay that downtown is still the center -- you have to go through it to get across town. Manhattan stays the center of NY due to massive bridge building.DannyJ wrote:And I disagree that re-centralizing the region's workforce would have no economic benefit to the region. It seems to me that this would make us a much more efficient region in terms of using our transportation and infrastructure dollars. In our current state of having so many different nodes of employment and economic activity, we encourage sprawl and spread our limited resources too thin.
I often look at the AT&T buildings with fear wondering when they're going to announce "WE'RE MOVING THE REST OF THE JOBS TO TEXAS AND THERE'S NOT A SINGLE THING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT!!!! HA HA HA!"beer city wrote:unfortunately the city has a 1.4 million SF sword of Damocles hanging over it
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT%26T_Center_(St._Louis)
The lease expires in 2016 -
As I understand it is about half full, it was a consolidation of the Yellow Pages after corporate skipped town to Texas.roger wyoming II wrote:^ how many employees are at play here with AT&T?
I think there are two things at play here with the importance of downtown jobs for a metro's health. First, there's the above about the talent magnet; but I think more importantly for the Saint Louis region is that we simply need lots of new good jobs in the city if we're truly to turn around our core. CWE/BJC/Cortex is doing its job and there is potential for New North Side (or whatever it is called now) and other nodes in the City, but the downtown CBD is the most logical place where you can attract thousands of good paying jobs.Presbyterian wrote:I've watched a lot of young talent move to New York, Seattle or San Francisco, and the draw wasn't the availability of jobs in tree-lined suburban office campuses.... A vibrant downtown is a talent-magnet in which energy can feed exponential growth of the same. That's the future of St. Louis.
I'd like to think that the building offers a good branding opportunity (the AT&T sign is highly visible, especially from Busch Stadium & 64/40) for what is already one of the tallest buildings (2nd or 3rd, maybe?) in St. Louis. If the entire building became available at once, would it be more enticing to a company looking to move a large number of employees, but without the resources to build a new tower (or, God forbid, an office park)?beer city wrote:unfortunately the city has a 1.4 million SF sword of Damocles hanging over it
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT%26T_Center_(St._Louis)
The lease expires in 2016 -
Of course in every crisis there is opportunity
