downtown vs burbs

[macnw]

Found this article which paints an interesting picture of coming trends. Not sure where KC fits in the equation? Maybe there is hope for downtown commercial office space.


http://finance.yahoo.com/news/companies ... 00326.html

[earthling]

Many others are staying put in the suburbs but opening high-profile satellite offices in nearby cities, sometimes aided by tax breaks and a recession that tempered downtown rents. And upstart companies are following suit, according to urban planners. The bottom line: companies are under pressure to establish an urban presence that projects an image of dynamism and innovation.

Downtown KC has these opportunities - startups and branch offices, but I would not count on large 5K+ tenants (like, ahem, Cerner) as a trend for most downtowns.

[cknab1]

Here's an interesting article in todays paper. I hadn't heard of this guy before and I'm really amazed at this column.

http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/ne ... 3eebbd11-1

What an out dated mindset.

[flyingember]

Many others are staying put in the suburbs but opening high-profile satellite offices in nearby cities, sometimes aided by tax breaks and a recession that tempered downtown rents. And upstart companies are following suit, according to urban planners. The bottom line: companies are under pressure to establish an urban presence that projects an image of dynamism and innovation.

Downtown KC has these opportunities - startups and branch offices, but I would not count on large 5K+ tenants (like, ahem, Cerner) as a trend for most downtowns.

this is a smart position for the city to be in. space for a regional office. New York, Chicago, LA, Kansas City

they're also doubtless way more profitable to landlords and the city in terms of leased cost and tax breaks given.

a large company will want a discount for 5000 people from everyone. they'll want large amounts of parking all together. but bring in 20-100 person businesses and the cut is way smaller, it can be higher profit leasing, and you can find small blocks of parking or even push them to be transit friendly

[Eon Blue]

Here's an interesting article in todays paper. I hadn't heard of this guy before and I'm really amazed at this column.

http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/ne ... 3eebbd11-1

What an out dated mindset.

Arguments like this are not worth much without considering the bigger picture. Whenever someone asks me about crime & the city, my response is that when you combine the possibility of injury in an automobile accident with the possibility of being a victim of crime, I am quite likely to be safer overall than they are. I may have to pay a higher percentage of my taxes towards public safety, but I also pay a much lower percentage of my taxes towards transportation. The columnist would also do well to muse if the suburbs will ever have the same degree of transportation freedom that the urban core enjoys.

[cknab1]

It just seemed like he had such a mindset that suburbs = safe and city= dangerous. As if living in the suburbs guaranteed that you would not suffer any crime. And that we in the city lived in fear. I feel completely safe in the city. I’m glad he asked a group of lawyers when he thought the city would be a safe place to live. I wonder if any of them lived in the city. A lot of people are 15, 20 years behind the reality of living in the city is all about. The entire city is not 64127, etc.

[flyingember]

Arguments like this are not worth much without considering the bigger picture. Whenever someone asks me about crime & the city, my response is that when you combine the possibility of injury in an automobile accident with the possibility of being a victim of crime, I am quite likely to be safer overall than they are. I may have to pay a higher percentage of my taxes towards public safety, but I also pay a much lower percentage of my taxes towards transportation. The columnist would also do well to muse if the suburbs will ever have the same degree of transportation freedom that the urban core enjoys.

traffic deaths are so high that you're more likely to die driving to any water destination, pool, lake, river, than die on the water

[FangKC]

Americans have just become wimps. One is less likely to die by crime or in a vehicular accident now, than one was in the 1960s or '70s.

Crime rates are at the lowest rate since the 60s. People are more likely to be murdered by a spouse, or family member than in some random crime. Cops will tell you that people who keep guns in their home are more likely to die from that (accident, suicide, or family member shooting them) than in gun violence from a stranger.

Vehicles are so much safer now than in the past, so you are less likely to die in one. People don't drink and drive at the rates they did in past decades. Most forms of travel are safer.

In fact, Americans are less likely to die for unpredictable medical reasons than in the past. Death from heart attacks and strokes were much more common. Large numbers of people don't die from flu, pneumonia, and tuberculosis--as in past times. Many people can live fairly long with diabetes and cancer. I have a cousin who has had cancer three different times in her life, and she's still alive. If she died today, she would have had the normal lifespan of a woman in the year of her birth, and then some. She may even live longer than a woman born today can expect. She's 75, and she is still working--even though she doesn't have to do it.

Death from predictable and avoidable causes due to lifestyle may be the only thing on the rise: obesity, lack of exercise.

Americans seem to be afraid of everything nowadays. I think it's the 24-hour news cycle, where ratings-driven crime stories, shootings, and abductions in other places fill the airwaves.

[mean]

The entire city is not 64127, etc.

All of 64127 is not even what you're trying to use 64127 to illustrate.

[LenexatoKCMO]

When I think of the dangers from crime around the work place my mind jumps to workplace shootings. Somehow I doubt either the burbs vs the city hold any monopolies on crazy, pissed off, armed employees.

[swid]

Here's an interesting article in todays paper. I hadn't heard of this guy before and I'm really amazed at this column.

http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/ne ... 3eebbd11-1

What an out dated mindset.

Even after living here for five years, it continues to baffle me as to why so many metro-area suburbanites are terrified of downtown. You'd think that the Sprint Center/P&L would have taken care of that, but...guess not.

[brewcrew1000]

Here's an interesting article in todays paper. I hadn't heard of this guy before and I'm really amazed at this column.

http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/ne ... 3eebbd11-1

What an out dated mindset.

Even after living here for five years, it continues to baffle me as to why so many metro-area suburbanites are terrified of downtown. You'd think that the Sprint Center/P&L would have taken care of that, but...guess not.

The number one reason why there so terrified is the Parking, I guarantee you it's parking. The plaza has screwed us up when it comes to parking downtown.

[FangKC]

It's a completely irrational fear.

[flyingember]

Here's an interesting article in todays paper. I hadn't heard of this guy before and I'm really amazed at this column.

http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/ne ... 3eebbd11-1

What an out dated mindset.

Even after living here for five years, it continues to baffle me as to why so many metro-area suburbanites are terrified of downtown. You'd think that the Sprint Center/P&L would have taken care of that, but...guess not.

big empty spaces scare people. you're walking into a garage and you have no idea who's there.

when you have a large crowd you have safety in number

[mean]

when you have a large crowd you have safety in number

Also known as "if the bogeyman comes, odds are he'll pick on somebody else".

[KCPowercat]

Have him write about Suburb Tax.....car accidents, gas cost, etc.

[FangKC]

Crime decreases in KCMO in first half of 2014

Overall, violent and property crime down 12 percent.

Homicides down 32 percent.

Rapes down 25 percent.

Robberies down 10 percent.

Property crimes down 13 percent.

http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/opn-c ... 02095.html

https://twitter.com/MayorSlyJames/statu ... 00/photo/1