Joel Kotkin, one of the nation?s leading urbanologists, hits a home run in today?s WSJ (subscription required). He has bad news for all of Raleigh?s downtown boosters: The vast majority of Americans don?t want to live there. Instead, they want to live in the suburbs in a single-family home with a yard and travel around the urban area in their private vehicles.
Even the most rabid supporters of downtown urban living at Smart Growth America find that only 13 percent of the people want to live in an urban environment. And the condo market has taken a bigger hit in the housing bubble than single-family homes in Miami, Las Vegas and even in LA where single-family homes have rebounded 10 percent, but downtown condos have lost 18 percent of their value. Witness the empty condos in downtown Raleigh and the recent bankruptcy of The Hue condos on Dawson Street.
But these and other facts presented by Kotkin will not deter Mayor Meeker, City Planning Director Silver and most of the City Council members. They know what is best for us and are not timid about using governmental force and the taxpayer?s money to implement their plans to “save” downtown.
They are about to approve draconian land use ordinances that will implement Raleigh Comprehensive Plan. These ordinances will use zoning to force more ?compact development? (read: high density housing that about 80 percent of the people don?t want.) not only downtown but in several designated areas throughout Raleigh. See A Planners? Glossary for full explanation of the Orwellian terms used by planners to hide their real agenda.
Kotkin concludes:
The condo bust should provide a cautionary tale for developers, planners and the urban political class, particularly those political ?progressives? who favor using regulatory and fiscal tools to promote urban densification. It is simply delusional to try forcing a market beyond proven demand. (emphasis added)
