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2006: The Year Of The Pedestrian


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Intresting article, I wonder if Houston will be like that one day. With a bunch of pedestrians actually giving up there cars to walk. I guess they would if Houston actually starts densing up. I just wonder what it will look like if that dose happen. Nice article

Edited by THE CHAD IS GREAT
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"Follow artists and bohemians into new markets. For years, real estate investors have seen this demographic as a barometer for the next hip urban area to pop."

ew! someone needs to point out that "artists and bohemians" probably don't want "urban hipster" yups from the "ipod generation" taking over! ^_^

Edited by sevfiv
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"Follow artists and bohemians into new markets. For years, real estate investors have seen this demographic as a barometer for the next hip urban area to pop."

ew! someone needs to point out that "artists and bohemians" probably don't want "urban hipster" yups from the "ipod generation" taking over! ^_^

That's right. But if you're a particularly devious developer, you'll buy up a lot of land and warehouses in an overlooked area, market heavily to artists and their bohemian friends, create a colony of sorts, and then wait for the yuppies to come to you. Then you surround the colony with thoughtlessly-designed midrise apartments and condominiums, flip all of the properties at once, and let the new ownership raise the rents on the artists, which are bound to be steaming at this point. Tell the artists that you bailed out of the area on principle because it was too yuppified, and that like Moses in the desert, you'll lead them to the next promised land, one of milk and honey.

I'm kidding, of course.

The writer of that article falls prey to the misconception that artists induce demand for housing. While there is in fact a correlation between new residential development and the presence of artists, there is very little evidence to suggest a causal effect. More likely, the artists were already in a given area because rents were low and there were a lot of obsolete warehouses that make for great studios. Those places happen to be convenient to the city's business districts. When the yuppies started moving into the inner city, it was more a result of convenience and clever marketing than as a result of the presence of artists and bohemian culture. Also, the artists seemed to largely avoid areas that were perceived to be excessively ethnic...wealthy suburban transplants typically agree. For instance, you don't see too many artists (though there are a few, many ethnic themselves) in 5th Ward, the East End, or 3rd Ward.

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