Or, as the Cordish Company describes it, Center City, coming soon to downtown Louisville, whose metro council belatedly approved the project last week.
As noted among Monday morning's table setters at The 'Ville Voice blog, the Courier-Journal's editorial board, no doubt looking foward to multinational advertising dollars from the likes of Fourth Street Live's current occupants, is bought and paid. Velocity's gonna love it.
Least Surprising Editorial: The C-J Editorial Board really likes the Cordish Center City project, and is handing out free criticism to Republicans for opposing it. The copy reads like it was lifted from a Jerry Abramson speech.[editorial link at C-J]
The 'Ville Voice also provides this helpful link to video describing the viewpoint of truly local business people.
At WHAS-TV:The debate went on for months, but now the Cordish Company, the company that built Fourth Street Live, has the green light to start developing the area known as the water company block. That fact has local business owners like Nancy Shepherd, owner of Cafe Metro, concerned.
For the flip side, consider this comment from the discussion board at Robin Garr's Louisville Restaurants Forum:
I think there is a painful reality to deal with here: locally operated and owned small business can't rehabilitate an entire area of downtown, including making Louisville Gardens an up-to-date location, pushing a large tenant into the Starks Building, etc. While I'd prefer that locally owned business take on larger and more important downtown projects, the capital required to do a major task can be huge, and a company like Cordish has the ability to bite off big chunks of downtown development. There are very few companies that do what Cordish does, and we are fortunate to have them as partners in this venture. It doesn't mean that I won't prefer - and frequent - locally owned business, but we also have to be realistic about how, as a community, we can get capital invested into our downtown.
Me? I hate chains. My Philly beer writing buddy Lew Bryson says it best here: Death to Chain Restaurants, and he quotes Arnold Toynbee, to boot:
Civilizations in decline are consistently characterized by a tendency towards standardization and uniformity.
19 comments:
Do two links make a chain?(vbg)
The cookie cutter, disneyfication of Louisville is regrettable. It is also predictable since the city got a taste of the buzz 4th Street Live provided.
Something was not quite jake when the city bought into the Cordish plan for Fourth Street. Older residents remember a vibrant commercial scene on Fourth Street. It was the hub of Louisville on several levels. Abramson short-sightedly, at best, is going for the Cordish gold again to try and reclaim the past of Fourth Street.
What was troubling for me about 4th Street Live is the fact that it was pulled out of the box, brand new and shiny as a Destination. As you said Roger, your, and other local entrepreneur's like you, continued efforts are debased by the attempted off-the-shelf purchase of a soul for the city.
The purchase can be made, but the result will be a city with lights, maybe some action, but little depth or spirit and no emotional investment by the people of the community.
This could be an opportunity for New Albany to juxtapose itself against Louisville. I know it may be pie-in-the-sky, but an “al fresco” district along a one or two block section of Pearl or Market, closed on evenings, and complimented by restored facades and streetscape, would create a unique destination unlike any in the region. The model works; think of Little Italy in New York.
Now that's an idea. I like it, Dan.
"Tired of the same ol', same ol'..."
I generally don't care much for chains, but I'm much more likely to to to them if they are in an area, like Louisville, where a smoking ban is in effect. I'll drive out of my way for clean air in a dining or entertainment venue.
Oops....That's: "to go to them."
The "off-the-shelf" fun-scape does have it's fans. Suburbanites can use it as an entry point for culture. Gotta have something downtown to capture those standardized suburban leisure dollars. Then they inevitably discover something unique and local...the ole' bait and switch?
But seriously, after almost 3 years of calculating the many unique qualities of our little dense downtown, probably just about anything breathing will work. City Hall should be putting pressure somehow on landlords who are allowing their buildings to remain vacant while they wait for someone, who is not coming, to pay some exorbitant amount of money for their never maintained building. Develop or sell.
even though comparisons can not truly be made between N'albany and Lou'ville, all one has to do to look to "successful" models of cookie cutter shopping centers is drive around this burg for a few minutes and look at the strip malls.
Most are empty, some are crumbling, all are struggling.
Give me the Preston arts centers, the copymarts, the mom and pop businesses where the owners are the workers, and they know who you are and what you like, dislike and actually care.
As far as having a venue with clean air, give up that dream as we live in an area with some of the worst air quality in the country, with out cig smoke
the 4th street and this center city deal will only make Bardstown Rd. Baxter Ave. and Franfort Ave. that much more original!
the idea of downtown new albany becoming the opposite of the center city is a great idea and i would support it. however, isn't there somebody that oversees that part of town who thinks "those frankfort ave. people" are the "debil?"
i've asked several times how hard would it be to allow bikes to travel the car/train bridge, allowing new albany to become a commuter friendly city. yes, i could ride the 2nd street bridge, but let's face it, that "share the road" sign doesn't mean jack when i have billy badass trying to run me down!
i could totally see a downtown new albany with twittering lights, pubs, eateries (more than there are now), etc. kind of like what madison indiana has down with their downtown...
anywho...that's just me...i'm an aquarius and i tend to be a little off the beaten path..
Well, the good news is that there are still no chains in downtown New Albany.
The bad news, of course, is that there are hardly any restaurants downtown either.
At some point, it might make some sense to consider welcoming a few different business models to the downtown district that, heaven forbid, might actually stand a chance of surviving, instead of seeing so many admittedly charming independents falling flat on their face.
Would it be better to have no businesses, or more businesses, even if they were "chains", so to speak?
We can all be historical fantatics, but if all we're protecting are dilapidating empty buildings, something is wrong with the model.
I dont want a Hooters on Main street New Albany either, but god forbid, a Starbucks, a Panera or something blended into a historic look might not be a bad start to revitalization.
Love it or hate it, the masses want places like this. Heck, for those of us with kids, we need places like Applebees from time to time & cannot always go to the Fish House, Connors Place or the Windsor with my 9, 7 and 3 year olds in tow. So, we have to go elsewhere instead of supporting downtown NA, which we would do if we could.
A carte blanche distain of all "chains" is short sighted, at least in my eyes. Supporting such ventures, when tastefully blended into the district, however, might not be a bad thing.
Okay, but the point to me is such expenditures, doled out by rote to corporate entities, might achieve the same effect if locally owned businesses had access to it.
I agree with your implicit point, tastefully made: If we don't have independent business capable of running a business, it's all for naught, anyway.
I could go down the list. I won't.
I'd prefer empty to chains. Potential is better than wasted potential. Associating that with historic preservation is misguided. They're two totally separate issues. No one needs Applebee's. We don't need the masses, either. We need those trying to avoid and/or outrun the masses. Trying to appeal to the middle continues to hurt us on both ends of the curve.
Comparing us to Louisville is fruitless. We are Louisville. We need to start thinking in terms of neighborhoods.
Way to throw a smoking jab in there.
Why Little Italy instead of just Italy? Piazzas have proven themselves over thousands of years. As has been discussed quite a bit here, we've plenty of space on Market Street. You could dig up the asphalt with a decent sized tractor in a day and pavers aren't that expensive. If we could reuse the old street brick, it'd be even better. There would still be room for two auto lanes, one in each direction.
Most of you know that I am a disciple of Richard Florida and a preservasionista, but I think I get where lawguy is coming from.
Chains shouldn't get preferential treatment nor should they be the focus of revitalization efforts, but if someone wanted to tuck a chain bagel or coffee shop somewhere downtown, especially as part of larger new construction, it could easily be done in a way that complements preservation efforts. Areas of downtown Chicago do this quite well.
the preservation ordinance is not against new construction. in fact, it has detailed provisions for thoughtfully incorporating new buildings into the historic districts. nor is the preservation commission ever against tearing down a historic structure; the commission voted last month to allow the demolition of two small historically “contributing” 1920s buildings on main st to facilitate environmental remediation.
there are many 100+ year old buildings in NA that need a lot of work. but most of the surviving buildings have aged gracefully, more gracefully than many 1970s or 1980s “greyfield” buildings. for example, last week i was in a town where two wendy’s restaurants sat side-by-side. one was new and currently operating as a wendy’s. the other presumably was past its 25 year useful life and looked rather ragged. for those of us with a long term view and long term expectations for our city (longer than say 10 or 20 years), we might end up with a healthier city by not allowing chain stores to build “logo buildings” downtown. i’m not sure who panera has done, but starbucks (as much as i hate their coffee) has on occasion done a good job of integrating their stores into historic neighborhoods. i think of the starbucks in german village in columbus, ohio; it’s a 1880 house with a starbucks logo in the window. business appeared to be thriving. even the most die hard preservationists is not going to insist on a dry goods store to operate in each downtown location. preservationists understand adaptive reuse.
the reason why the economics do not always support rehabilitation of historic NA buildings is the same reason the economics do not always support new construction in NA. because of depressed property values, you put a dollar in, you get back less than a dollar. in areas where property values are not depressed, both new construction and historic preservation flourish. twenty years ago, but much was happening in downtown louisville. now, new condos are going up and existing buildings are being given new lives (think c21 museum/hotel in its 1880s building, or the henry clary in the 1920s ywca).
as for the al fresco district, i don’t think the problem would be finding the money to rehabilitate the facades along pearl. the problem would be given an incentive to landlord and restaurant operators to concentrate in sufficient numbers. another problem would be keeping out noncontributing business; it would just take one biker bar to ruin the ambiance. but all that is possible, with the right leadership. al fresco districts in new york, chicago and (yes Jeff) every city in europe have managed to flourish despite city air pollution, i think NA could manage too.
it’s not always economics that causes an old building to be demolished and a new building to go up in its place. with rehabilitation tax credits and other resources, it’s often cheaper to preserve. in fact, many developers have found a niche doing just that. but for the chain developer, it’s just easier bulldoze, building and move on. but they don’t live here. they don’t care that our city is a little less healthy for it. we have to look out for the long term health of our city.
My wife, Daughter and I have always threatened that if we win the lottery we would open a couple of different things downtown New Albany.
The First of which would be a real photography store. From classic film to cutting edge digital, developing, and most importantly, the ability for serious film users to have access to a fully stocked darkroom. Photography classes, seminars, etc...
Second would be a theater, geared mainly towards arts students of all ages. Local performers putting on plays, concerts, etc.
Of course somewhere in that theater would have to be a place for a gallery of the photographs taken from the users of the Photography store...
"You see things; and you say, "Why?" But I dream things that never were; and I say, "Why not?"" ~Shaw
@christopher D, if you opened the photography store, I would never get any work done. I'd be like the photo store groupie. :-)
christopher, i think it’s instructive that you if you win the lottery. maybe that’s illustrative of the fact that the free market may not support such a venture in NA right now. maybe it would; maybe it wouldn’t. but there would be less doubt if we as a city took certain steps to make our city more livable. this causes property values to appreciate. code enforcement, two way streets do affect property values, and property values affect property tax receipts. in a study of 15 indiana historic preservation districts, 14 of those 15 districts had appreciate of property values above that of values immediately outside the district. the suburbs have home owners associations to help keep the one dilapidated house etc. from pulling down values of the entire street. it is difficult to start new HOA’s within existing neighborhoods. historic preservation commissions, along with code enforcement, etc., helps play that role.
Courtney,
No work done and a groupie? You could have a job, if not run the place!
Dan,
regardless of if the community could support these types of ventures or not, and if its profitable or not, I would still do it. Its all about the passion not the profit!
:)
Chris,
I'm so there! :-)
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