NEW YORK SELLS OUT
New York City recently marked a milestone that is, at once, a cause for celebration and concern. It sold the final group of vacant lots it seized in the 1970s and 1980s from delinquent taxpayers who, in those days, were fleeing the city. This is a happy event, of course, because it shows how completely the city has recovered from the days when people simply gave up and walked away from land they owned. In time, the city accumulated 5,000 of these littered, weedy parcels (not counting the 100,000 or so housing units the city seized from delinquent landlords). But gradually, and then suddenly, the city began selling the lots to builders wanting to put up housing. Its final 248 lots were sold a few months ago. Mayor Michael Bloomberg celebrated the milestone with a press conference at one of the lots in gentrifying East New York. "The city is not interested in being a landlord," he told reporters. "We are here today to mark the end of an era." But the occasion was sad for some because it also marked the end of an easy opportunity for affordable housing. In the early years, city officials sold the parcels to the highest bidder, which usually meant builders of luxury housing. But in recent years, as the supply dwindled, the city shifted to selling to those promising to build affordable units.
REALLY, REALLY BIG BOXES
Some cities worry about what to do with big-box stores when businesses move out. Since there aren't many retailers that can put giant stores to use, cities are concerned that these ghost stores will drain life from surrounding areas. So you can imagine what Irving, Texas, is going through. In a few years, it has to decide what to do with an empty football stadium. The Dallas-Fort Worth suburb has been home to the Dallas Cowboys since 1971. Starting in 2009, the Cowboys move into a new stadium in nearby Arlington. Irving officials admit they don't know what to do with the 66,000-seat stadium. This is an increasingly common problem for cities. Stadiums and arenas don't retain teams like they used to. There seem to be three strategies for these really big boxes: tear them down, sell them for conversion to a new use (Houston's Compaq Center is now a megachurch) or hold on to them and hope something comes along (Houston's Astrodome and Pontiac, Michigan's Silverdome). Something did come along for the Astrodome, as evacuees from Hurricane Katrina were housed there. Unfortunately, this strategy is expensive. Houston pays about $1.5 million a year to maintain its generally quiet Astrodome.
HOW TO KEEP FAMILIES DOWNTOWN
Most downtown officials would tell you that lousy public schools are the greatest impediment to middle-class families living in cities. So maybe it's not surprising that one of the nation's more highly regarded downtown organizations is teaming up with its school board to turn around the schools in its area. The organization is Philadelphia's Center City District, which has done a remarkable job of bringing residents back downtown. Downtown Philly is cleaner, safer and more interesting than it has ever been and it's filled with affluent older families and hip young singles. But its missing element remains families with children, many of which still head for the suburbs when their kids reach school age. Philadelphia has an energetic school administration and the Center City District and the school system have decided to work together on the problems of downtown schools. It's still early in the partnership--the projects haven't gone much further than beautification and better marketing efforts--but school officials say it may soon mean curriculum changes, such as turning some downtown schools into magnet schools.
