Matt Drops The H wrote:First of all, Bastiat, I am not opposed to upscale retail downtown whatsoever. I think it's great. There is already some of that down there (and due of course to brand name loyalty, a lot of it is struggling and some even closing).
Second of all, New Orleans has tons of problems, but it has amazingly cool shopping districts that sell both buttplugs and 12,000 dollar imperial rugs.
Look up Magazine Street (a 6 mile stretch of VERY diverse businesses, some hole in the wall, some so upscale I don't even bother looking in the window). Look at the amazingly funky Oak Street. Look at the college-town like Maple Street. Look at hippie-central Frenchmen Street. The list goes on. These are places that define cities. New Orleans becomes known precisely because of these places, not the Whole Foods that is Uptown. Yes, that Whole Foods is well patronized and appreciated by residents. But any plan to turn New Orleans' uptown into an "upscale retail district" (the most un-organis sounding urban development) would be met with resistance, and for good reason.
Bastiat...I would really ask you too in the future not to turn everything into some liberal v. conservative or rich v. poor argument. It's not that simple. With as much energy as you spend trying to simplify people's statements and compact them into something completely different, you'd think you would simply invest that effort in finding out the real story, no matter how much time and thought process it takes.
I don't believe any of what I'm saying should be parodied.
This is the same old argument against upscale stores going into
insert neighborhood name here . I still don't how you and others don't get that more upscale tenants = rising rents which forces lower income tenants to look for new digs on the fringes which = more rehab and development. I don't disagree with you about the areas that have character, but you need major retail as well. Is it really so awful that
6 blocks of downtown are slated for upscale national chains mixed with local boutiques? OMG, our city is going to lose all of it's character! Oh wait, there are blocks upon blocks of other retail spaces let alone parking lots and vacant lots that need infill. And that's just talking about downtown up to Wash Ave. Imagine all of the money that is going to be necessary to develop between Delmar and Cass. Or the Northside for that matter.
It really is a lack of ability to see the entire picture. Your types bemoan a place like Heffalumps closing in the CWE due to rising rents while ignoring the vacant lots at Delmar and Kingshighway (let alone Kingshighway and MLK) and how the rising values in the CWE will eventually allow for infill at this intersection.
I don't think it is possible any longer to parody your point of view when you greet this news as just as bad as rehabbing the St. Louis Center. I won't insult the intelligence of other members of this board by going into how wrong this is.
Would you greet it as bad news if everyone living west of Spoede moved back into the city limits and all of the stores out there relocated as well into urban buildings? I think you would.
