This excerpt of a piece by Rev. Billy made me think of Red Bank, NJ:
The city and its developers think of neighborhoods as soft colonies to invade. Small shopkeepers are dispensable. Corner delis, ma and pa pharmacies, non-chain hardware stores… these are considered a dated concept. In fact, the neighborhoods are not considered to BE economies. The last time the city studied the economies of neighborhoods was during the Dinkins administration. You see where this is going. The hyper-development aggression - called inevitable, prosperity, the future - was actually a bubble economy. This was a self-dealing financial class of people who crashed with those cranes. Now — the neighborhoods that have the least amount of luxury condos and chain stores are the healthiest.
He is talking about NYC, but when I read pieces like this blurb below sent out in an email today from Red Bank’s RiverCenter, I can’t help but feel that there is some sort of disconnect between real estate developers and reality:
Advertising Opportunities! “Weekend in Red Bank” June & November, 2009.
Just in time for the Summer and Holiday seasons, Vicinity Magazine will feature “Weekend in Red Bank,” an article focusing on the ambience and attractions of Red Bank. Reach new affluent customers ready and willing to frequent your store, restaurant, venue, theater or attraction.
I guess where I’m confused here is in figuring out how it makes sense to bend over backwards to attract a few dozen well-heeled visitors from out of town when you’ve already got 15k residents in walking distance to your stores? I agree that tourism is an important part of Red Bank’s economy but at what point do landlords/business owners/downtown redevelopment groups realize they are driving their local customer base away from their downtowns and into suburban strip malls?
Neither side of the equation (neither residents nor businesses) is exclusively to blame here which makes the problem all the more frustrating to solve. Still though, I think I’m getting closer to giving some thought to doing something with this url I set up a while back.
Hello. My wife and I bought our house about 6 months ago. It was a foreclosure and we were able to get a great deal on it. We also took advantage of the 8K tax credit so that definitely helped. We did an extensive remodeling job and now I want to refinance to cut the term to a 20 or 15 year loan. Does anyone know any good sites for mortgage information? Thanks!
Mike