Small City Living & Localism is a Necessity

[drbubb]

Small City Living & Localism is going to be a Necessity / says JH Kunstler

 

More than a fashion statement, says JH Kunstler

===========================

 

More of JHK's art: http://www.kunstler.com/paintings%204.html

 

Localism / From Metropolis magazine - James Howard Kunstler

Excerpts:

"...we’ll be forced to make very different arrangements for virtually everything that constitutes everyday life in our society."

 

Living much more locally will increasingly be the only choice. We are utterly unprepared."

 

We’ll have to grow food differently, at a smaller scale, closer to home, with fewer oil-and-gas-based “inputs.” It will surely require more human attention. National chain discount shopping will shut down as its economies-of-scale dissolve and formulas like the “warehouse on wheels” and just-in-time inventory lose viability. Happy motoring will fade into memory and the entire suburban equation will wilt along with it.

 

(Seafront areas of big & small cities may attract more density)

 

Our big cities will contract, not grow. The fortunate ones will densify at their old centers and waterfronts, but overall the trend will be severe shrinkage, really a reversal of the 200-year-long demographic movement of people from farms and small towns to mega cities. (Places over-burdened with skyscrapers will prove to be exceptionally troubled. The skyscraper is an endangered species that will, like the Baluchitherium of yore, soon go extinct.)

 

The overall trend will benefit the smaller cities and towns, in my opinion, but only the ones that can maintain a relationship with productive farming hinterlands and/or trade-via-water. The implications for land-use regulation are obviously huge. Rural land will no longer be valued for suburban development. Those who chose to live in rural places in the decades ahead ought to be prepared to follow rural vocations. The end of suburbia will be the end of urban lifestyles lived in rural (or ruralesque) settings.

 

I happen to believe that our zoning laws and land use codes are un-reformable. Instead, they will simply be ignored. We’ll return to traditional modes of inhabiting the landscape by default, as it were, because we’ll no longer have the choice of doing it 20th century style. We’ll discover the hard way that the New Urbanists won that argument. It will just not be called “New” Urbanism anymore because it will no longer stand in opposition to other practical ideologies like suburbanism or Modernism. We’ll just have plain urbanism – and design disciplines to go with it.

Architects ought to prepare for a return to traditional local materials. Modular snap-together panels and frame systems will be increasingly unavailable due to the prohibitive cost of fabrication as well as the cost of exotic metals such as Frank Gehry’s favorite, titanium. It is hard to say how severe this problem may become – a whole new industry will surely arise dedicated to the disassembly of old structures and salvaging of materials – but personally I’d say that we’re headed back to mostly masonry for the best new construction.

 

"The localism of the future will not be a matter of fashion. It will be in the food we eat and the air we breathe, and we’d better start paying attention."

 

/MORE: http://www.kunstler.com/mags_localism.html

[drbubb]

Small Cities will thrive, says JH Kunstler

========

 

Reactivating Small Cities, Podcast #15 : http://kunstlercast.com/

 

The small towns have been losing population, and are just there, waiting to be reactivated

 

 

 

Cities in New York State, like:

- Utica : photos

- Rome

- Troy

- Saratoga Springs (where JHK lives?)

- Schenectacy

- Rochester

- Albany

 

+ They will have to have a meaningful relationship with agricultural

 

+ Population growth may slow, as the Long Emergency hits

 

Property values seem to still be rising in Rome, N.Y.

 

// call in to Podcast, at : 1-866-924-9499 / Letters@KunstlerCast.com

[drbubb]

RAISING CHILDREN IN SUBURBIA - a lot of drawbacks

 

KunstlerCast #10: Children of the Burbs

 

 

Is raising children in suburbia a form of child abuse? What happens to developing people when public space is the berm between the Wal-Mart and the K-Mart? When school looks like a maximum security "facility"? When parents are chauffeurs? James Howard Kunstler addresses these topics and speaks of his own experiences growing up in the suburbs of Long Island and in Manhattan.

 

http://media.libsyn.com/media/kunstlercast...tlerCast_10.mp3

 

Kids have trouble running their own lives,

so the "family chauffer" has to take them everywhere

[AceofKY]

please. If Mr. Kunstler would stop all his advertising and start living the stuff he proposes then maybe he'd change his tune a little. KY is full of small towns. They all require cars. A small town can't afford mass transportation. We could go back to horses I suppose, but they're more expensive than cars.

 

Growing food close to home. Gee, there's an idea. I grow a vegetable garden every year. We have corn, beans, cabbage, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, etc. To suggest that this is somehow less energy intensive than large scale american agriculture is ludicrous. A garden requires breaking, discing, tilling throughout the summer, lots of sweat and hoeing and harvesting and chemicals. Our apple, peach, and cherry trees require constant maintenance, spraying, and trimming too. It is merely a hobby; I can buy all of the above less expensively by going to a grocery store because our farmers can do all of this much more efficiently than I can. Mr. Kunstler can move back to the 17th century if he likes. The rest of America will continue to develop alternative energy sources.

[drbubb]

please. If Mr. Kunstler would stop all his advertising and start living the stuff he proposes then maybe he'd change his tune a little. KY is full of small towns. They all require cars. A small town can't afford mass transportation. We could go back to horses I suppose, but they're more expensive than cars.

 

??

I think he lives in Utica, NY and walks (or cycles) to the train station, to get into NYC when needed.

What's wrong with that. He might own or borrow a car for the occasion journey.

Doing what he does (social commentary), he can live well that way.

 

Growing food close to home. Gee, there's an idea. I grow a vegetable garden every year. We have corn, beans, cabbage, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, etc. To suggest that this is somehow less energy intensive than large scale american agriculture is ludicrous. A garden requires breaking, discing, tilling throughout the summer, lots of sweat and hoeing and harvesting and chemicals. Our apple, peach, and cherry trees require constant maintenance, spraying, and trimming too. It is merely a hobby; I can buy all of the above less expensively by going to a grocery store because our farmers can do all of this much more efficiently than I can. Mr. Kunstler can move back to the 17th century if he likes. The rest of America will continue to develop alternative energy sources.

 

Listen to the podcast below, he says that his vision is only one of several plausible visions.

I can see flaws too. But we are already moving into the first stage of the crisis. At $120-130 oil, people are being forced to make decisions and cutbacks in their driving habits. Meantime, food prices are rising fast.

 

So what is happening overall?

+ People are downsizing their driving, and their cars, and avoiding suburbs with long commutes,

+ Rising food prices give farmers more income, so they can afford to pay more for their energy requirements

 

Already that represents a small shift, with more to come. And that points to another plausible future. Farmers may go on using oil - thanks to rising food prices - while suburbanites are force to cut back, and some sad newly-poor folk, will wind up stranded in the suburbs, struggling to get transport and the food they need. Those that living in small towns, close to farming, will do better than those in the bedroom suburbs of big cities like New York or Phoenix.

 

Close to Food will be better than close to airports, I reckon.

 

BTW, what's your vision in a world of $300 - 400 oil ?

 

Here's another good podcast on how Kunstler sees things:

 

KunstlerCast #2: Small Cities & Towns :

http://media.libsyn.com/media/kunstlercast...tlerCast_02.mp3

 

James Howard Kunstler describes the impending end of cheap oil, which he calls The Long Emergency. Suburbia is a living arrangement with no future. Things are going to get pretty gnarly in the big cities, too. But small cities, that exist at a scale that can be rebuilt, are the places of the future.

 

Excerpt:

"I think that the big cities are going to be contracting substantially, and in probably a pretty disorderly way. They’re going to enter insolvency, bankruptcy, difficulty in maintaining services. It’s going to be pretty gnarly in the big metroplexes of America.Personally I think that the small cities and the small towns are going to tend to be the more successful areas. And that young people ought to be very careful about choosing the places that they go."

[drbubb]

ANOTHER BULL ON UPSTATE NY SMALL CITIES

 

Syracuse NY as well as other smaller towns

Tue, 06/03/2008 - 13:08 — Just dropping by (not verified)

 

in upstate NY along the river and canal system have also seen great decline and population drain. Ditto what they said about Buffalo. We are all on a canal system. My city once had that rail system you speak of as well as the Erie Canal that was filled in. Looking at pictures from back then.. wow. Our suburbs in this part of the country, for the most part, are not like the planned suburbs of the South and West. Things are more compressed here because there were many small villages and small towns that took up the space besides the farms between our mid-size cities here. Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, New Hartford, Saratoga, Albany, Binghamtom, Schenectady--our small to midsize cities lanquish. We never really saw the booms that were created by the various bubbles that lifted the regions to the South and West. As a result, we have not been hit as hard as everyone else has because housing had not veered nearly as high. Sure there are some who got into high priced subprime mortgages and built McMansions out in our exurbs (formerly known as farmland).

 

We are in an area between the Fingerlakes and the Great Lakes. Rails still run and the Canal still has traffic. Since the NYS Gov't has seen fit to add insult to injury by raising toll rates on the thruways, give them up. Gas here was $4.09 a gallon at Mobil yesterday.

 

My fear is that the corporate-government powers that be will only eye us with the idea of divesting us of our resources (clean water, forests, farmland) with the tools of eminent domain and buyouts. Oh yeah, they are trying already with NY Regional Interconnect, although we successfully repelled a Super Walmart in our village and maintain a local family owned grocery.

 

I'd like to tell them bullocks to you and revive our local towns and cities ourselves. let them try and apply to live here.

 

Downstate NY and upstate are almost like two different planets. But part of what has happened to Detroit can be seen in some of the lower Valley cities like Yonkers (which used to be "The City of Leisurely Living" or Newburgh or even Beacon.

 

They are having the same problems in Western Pennsylvania.

 

/see: http://www.depression2.tv/d2/node/118?page=1

[Mr Pipples]

please. If Mr. Kunstler would stop all his advertising and start living the stuff he proposes then maybe he'd change his tune a little. KY is full of small towns. They all require cars. A small town can't afford mass transportation. Why not? I'd imagine it's far cheaper as long as the basic infrastructure is already inplace. We could go back to horses I suppose, but they're more expensive than cars.

 

Growing food close to home. Gee, there's an idea. I grow a vegetable garden every year. We have corn, beans, cabbage, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, etc. To suggest that this is somehow less energy intensive than large scale american agriculture is ludicrous. You're making a comparison between manpower and oil-power produced food at very different scales. What if oil-powered production becomes impossible/unviable? A garden requires breaking, discing, tilling throughout the summer, lots of sweat and hoeing and harvesting and chemicals. Our apple, peach, and cherry trees require constant maintenance, spraying, and trimming too. Fair play if that's how you like to do it but there are more efficient and productive methods. It is merely a hobby; I can buy all of the above less expensively by going to a grocery store because our farmers can do all of this much more efficiently than I can. Mr. Kunstler can move back to the 17th century if he likes. The rest of America will continue to develop alternative energy sources. Do you really believe that alternative energy sources are going to be able to take the place of the oil used to power present commercial agricultural practices any time soon?

 

[TinBrick]

James Howard Kunstler describes the impending end of cheap oil, which he calls The Long Emergency.

 

I've read The Long Emergency and wasn't overly impressed.

 

First of all, bizarrely, Kunstler makes almost no reference to the question of climate change. This is much more of a problem than the end of cheap oil on its own. Even if we had access to abundant cheap oil, we couldn't burn it and deal with the issue of climate change.

 

Secondly, I think he is altogether too dismissive of the possibilities of improving energy efficiency and increasing the use of localized renewable energy sources. Things like, for example, the run-of-the-river (i.e., does not use a dam) hydro power station in the centre of Heidelberg, which provides enough electricity for 5,000 houses. Yet to look at it, you'd barely know it was there - it just looks like an ordinary river weir.

 

I've already said it in the peak oil thread, but in that context, dear, scarce oil could be seen as a good thing if it encourages investment and R&D into renewable, efficient and environmentally friendly energy use.

[drbubb]

I've read The Long Emergency and wasn't overly impressed.

 

First of all, bizarrely, Kunstler makes almost no reference to the question of climate change. This is much more of a problem than the end of cheap oil on its own. Even if we had access to abundant cheap oil, we couldn't burn it and deal with the issue of climate change.

 

Fair point.

But he admits that his scenario is only one of many plausible futures.

The great thing, is that he has encourage people to think deeply about the sorts of dramatic adjustments

in "living arrangements" that they are going to have to make.

 

Interestingly, he may be winning the debate about the better life available in samll towns. There's going

to be a big squeeze on many big cities, which are already showing deficits, and now their tax base is

going to be eroded enormously as property values fall, and gthey lose jobs in the financial sector.

(BTW, London will also face thos problem "in spades.)

 

So what is happening to Property Values? It looks like some small towns, like Rome-NY are outperforming

the National US indices and probably New York City too

 

 

On Climate Change:

As others have said, the high oil price may be the best way of cutting carbon. Eventually, and maybe sooner

rather than later, people will need to shift to Nuclear Power, and away from oil, as it gets very expensive-

rising towards my $400 target.

 

Maybe proximity to a Nuclear power plant will be aanother thing to look for in your samll town haven ?

[TinBrick]

Maybe proximity to a Nuclear power plant will be aanother thing to look for in your samll town haven ?

 

I remain very unsure about the expansion of nuclear power. I know there are some very surprising advocates, such as James Lovelock, the renowned environmentalist. But leaving aside the environmental issues, the economic argument for nuclear is at best doubtful. Here's an interesting recent article in Salon:

 

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/06/...rice/index.html

 

In January, MidAmerican Nuclear Energy Co. said prices were so high it was ending its pursuit of a nuclear power plant in Payette County, Idaho, after spending $13 million researching its economic feasibility. Company president Bill Fehrman said, "Consumers expect reasonably priced energy, and the company's due diligence process has led to the conclusion that it does not make economic sense to pursue the project at this time."

 

MidAmerican is owned by famed investor Warren Buffett. When Buffett pulls the plug on a potential investment after spending $13 million analyzing the deal, that should give everyone pause.

 

........

 

How expensive have nuclear plants become? So expensive that Duke Power has been refusing to reveal cost estimates for a nuclear plant for the Carolinas, saying it would reveal trade secrets. I kid you not. The Charlotte News & Observer reported in April, "'If Duke is requested to disclose the cost today, it will undermine the company's ability to get the lowest cost for its customers,' said Duke attorney Lawrence Somers. 'In light of the testimony today, the public advocacy groups want the cost of this plant to go up.'"

 

Yes, those annoying public advocacy groups want to know the cost to the public of the plants before supporting them. The company actually testified that if everyone knew the plant's cost, that would "give tactical advantage to vendors and contractors during sensitive negotiations." What Duke seems to be saying is that if suppliers knew just how incredibly expensive the plant is, they would want a bigger piece of the pie. Such is the state of our free-market energy economy today.

 

Amazingly, North Carolina regulators agreed with Duke that the estimated cost is a "trade secret" under state law. South Carolina's consumer advocate, C. Dukes Scott, took a stance that was once called common sense in this country: "If you want the ratepayers to pay for something, are you going to tell them it's none of their business?"

 

....

 

 

Many other forms of carbon-free power are already cheaper than nuclear today, including wind power, concentrated solar thermal power and, of course, the cheapest of all, energy efficiency. Over the past three decades, California efficiency programs have cut total electricity demand by about 40,000 gigawatt hours for an average 2 to 3 cents per kilowatt-hour. A May presentation of modeling results by the California Public Utilities Commission shows that it could more than double those savings by 2020.

 

If California's effort were reproduced nationwide, efficiency would deliver 130 gigawatts by 2020, which is more than enough energy savings to avoid the need to build any new power plants through 2020 (and beyond). And that means any new renewable plants built could displace existing fossil fuel plants and begin to reduce U.S. carbon dioxide emissions from the utility sector.

 

And I have to say I'm in very strong agreement with the last two paragraphs above - the cheapest, most environmentally friendly energy is the energy you don't use.

 

[drbubb]

... the cheapest of all, energy efficiency. Over the past three decades, California efficiency programs have cut total electricity demand by about 40,000 gigawatt hours for an average 2 to 3 cents per kilowatt-hour. A May presentation of modeling results by the California Public Utilities Commission shows that it could more than double those savings by 2020.

 

If California's effort were reproduced nationwide, efficiency would deliver 130 gigawatts by 2020, which is more than enough energy savings to avoid the need to build any new power plants through 2020 (and beyond). And that means any new renewable plants built could displace existing fossil fuel plants and begin to reduce U.S. carbon dioxide emissions from the utility sector.

 

And I have to say I'm in very strong agreement with the last two paragraphs above - the cheapest, most environmentally friendly energy is the energy you don't use.

 

Sure. But as oil approaches $300-400, we will need to shift away from Oil to otherenergy sources,

so the need for nuclear-generated electricity will soar. And it may be easier to densify, and retrofit

small cities near nuclear power stations, than trying to retrofit a huge and dying city (like Detroit)

with all its attendent social ills.

 

[AceofKY]

??

I think he lives in Utica, NY and walks (or cycles) to the train station, to get into NYC when needed.

What's wrong with that. He might own or borrow a car for the occasion journey.

Doing what he does (social commentary), he can live well that way.

 

Utica NY is not a small town; there are ~60,000 people there.

 

BTW, what's your vision in a world of $300 - 400 oil ?

 

It doesn't matter whether oil goes to $400 or $4000/barrel; I still can't produce food as efficiently as large scale american agriculture b/c it requires more oil per unit of production to do it myself. In fact, it's likely I'd quit gardening period if oil goes that high.

 

Why not? I'd imagine it's far cheaper as long as the basic infrastructure is already inplace.

 

The basic infrastructure is not in place in small towns. That's the problem.

 

Fair play if that's how you like to do it but there are more efficient and productive methods.

That's what I said. It's called American agriculture. For me it's a hobby. For the farmers, it's a business.

 

Do you really believe that alternative energy sources are going to be able to take the place of the oil used to power present commercial agricultural practices any time soon?

 

You'd better pray that that is the case. Because there's not enough acreage per person in Utica NY to support its population if everyone has to grow their own food. If what you are really saying is that the city will remain as is and the farming will all happen outside of it in the surrounding country, I have news for you: that is still commercial agriculture and it is already the case that towns and cities throughout this country are surrounded by farms.

 

You guys seem to forget that cities and towns existed long before the internal combustion engine.

 

 

[drbubb]

Utica NY is not a small town; there are ~60,000 people there.

 

It doesn't matter whether oil goes to $400 or $4000/barrel; I still can't produce food as efficiently as large scale american agriculture b/c it requires more oil per unit of production to do it myself. In fact, it's likely I'd quit gardening period if oil goes that high.

 

You guys seem to forget that cities and towns existed long before the internal combustion engine.

 

To me, it's a small town. But to those actually living in towns, it's a "city."

So I shall correct the word.

 

You can grow food in your garden to supplement your diet, whatever the price of oil

 

WE havent forgotten, nor has JHK. I repeat my question / it is genuine, not rhetorical:

Where do you want to live in a world of $300 - 400 oil?

[Mr Pipples]

The basic infrastructure is not in place in small towns. That's the problem.

 

What? Not in place in any small towns? No railways, waterways, roadways, etc. at all in or very near to any? It certainly is in plenty of UK ones - must be in some US too.

 

That's what I said. It's called American agriculture. For me it's a hobby. For the farmers, it's a business.

 

I think you missed my point. I'm making a reference to smaller-scale crop production methods, e.g, your own food production practices could be improved.

 

You'd better pray that that is the case.

 

Unfortunately I'm pretty doubtful that is the case.

 

Because there's not enough acreage per person in Utica NY to support its population if everyone has to grow their own food.

 

You may be right but improving techniques, etc will help. Big adaptations required to cope as well as is possible.

 

If what you are really saying is that the city will remain as is and the farming will all happen outside of it in the surrounding country, I have news for you: that is still commercial agriculture and it is already the case that towns and cities throughout this country are surrounded by farms.

 

Cities won't be able to remain as is - that's really not what I'm saying. I wasn't saying there's a problem with 'commercial agriculture'. I was saying there's a problem with present commercial agricultural practices that are totally oil dependant. They may be surrounded but how well do they/can they integrate with local rural areas to enable food production and supply. (Obviously, towns will manage differently to cities.)

 

You guys seem to forget that cities and towns existed long before the internal combustion engine.

 

No - I'm remembering a time before everyone was able to flood the cities.

[drbubb]

Cities won't be able to remain as is - that's really not what I'm saying. I wasn't saying there's a problem with 'commercial agriculture'. I was saying there's a problem with present commercial agricultural practices that are totally oil dependant. They may be surrounded but how well do they/can they integrate with local rural areas to enable food production and supply. (Obviously, towns will manage differently to cities.)

 

Right.

I think it is interesting to consider how things will change.

Kunstler things we will go back to mules and oxen to work the fields. Its possible,

To see what that looks like, you can do a search on Amish.

You will probably need an Amish religious and social system to go with that change.

 

 

The Amish, especially those of the Old Order, are probably best known for their avoidance of certain modern technologies. The avoidance of items such as automobiles and electricity is largely misunderstood by outsiders. The Amish do not view technology as evil, and individuals may petition for acceptance of a particular technology in the local community. In some communities, the church leaders meet annually to review such proposals. In others, it is done whenever necessary. Because the Amish, like some Mennonite groups, and unlike the Catholic or Anglican Churches, do not have a hierarchical governing structure, differing communities often have different ideas as to which technological items are acceptable.

 

Telephone booth set up by an "English" farmer for emergency use by local Amish families.Electricity, for instance, is viewed as a connection to, and reliance on, "the World," the "English," or "Yankees" (the outside world), which is against their doctrine of separation. The use of electricity also could lead to the use of worldly household appliances such as televisions, which would complicate the Amish tradition of a simple life, and introduce individualist competition for worldly goods that would be destructive of community. In certain Amish groups, however, electricity can be used in very specific situations: for example, if electricity can be produced without access to outside power lines

. . .

Amish communities often adopt compromise solutions involving technology, which may seem strange to outsiders. For example, many communities will allow gas-powered farm equipment such as tillers or mowers, but only if they are pushed by a human or pulled by a horse. The reasoning is that Amish farmers will not be tempted to purchase more land in order to out-compete other farmers in their community if they still have to move the equipment manually. Many Amish communities also accept the use of chemical pesticides and GM crops, forgoing more common Amish organic farming techniques.

 

Amish : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amish

 

In the cities, I find it hard to image we would see stables again. My vision would be electric cars.

But with ownership of those being 20-30% of todays cars.

[Mr Pipples]

Amish : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amish

 

In the cities, I find it hard to image we would see stables again. My vision would be electric cars.

But with ownership of those being 20-30% of todays cars.

 

Yep, the Amish do it old-skool... well, sort of. Guess sub-group bureaucracy, opinion and interpretation lead to some differences and ways that might seem a bit odd or confusing to others. Not quite my scene but fair play to them!

 

If the truckers don't get oil for a few days and can't get milk to your local shop you could maybe pop by a community and borrow some milk for a cuppa - stick on a false beard and outfit to match and you might be able to slide in un-noticed - a'la Kingpin

 

You'd need some serious tower block multi-story stables to support a city - good manure for allotments though! Electric cars would be good - but when's really workable alternative energy supply (or nuc') and storage/fuel cell tech' going to arrive? Also, people are going to have to learn to share a lot better - are we going to be that amicable? I hope so!

[drbubb]

Yep, the Amish do it old-skool... well, sort of. Guess sub-group bureaucracy, opinion and interpretation lead to some differences and ways that might seem a bit odd or confusing to others. Not quite my scene but fair play to them!

 

If the truckers don't get oil for a few days and can't get milk to your local shop you could maybe pop by a community and borrow some milk for a cuppa - stick on a false beard and outfit to match and you might be able to slide in un-noticed

 

Yep. That's what one GEI poster has done ! / see post #165:

http://www.greenenergyinvestors.com/index....0&start=160

 

...Also, people are going to have to learn to share a lot better - are we going to be that amicable? I hope so!

 

I agree with your comment on sharing.

It's great to see how willing people are to share on websites like GEI. So maybe there is hope.

 

 

[drbubb]

From a HPC thread :

 

I had quite a few props in US the majority in Rochester and Buffalo on the lakes. They were foreclosures and it was pretty tough going all the way. Had a bad run with locals and ended up with an ex cop who turned out to be crooked as well. The locals did well but of all the overseas investors and out of towners I knew off they found it pretty tough.

 

Absolutely stunning properties built when the Eyre Canal was starting up. Great cities, very big, lots of infrastructure largely underused. If I was going to do it again which is unlikely I would reccomend working the high end of the market in these cities as the low end is pretty tough even for seasoned investors. Investing in US as foreigneir can be tricky at time with repsect to financing, structures, taxtion etc but possible of course. With the US $ being weak could also be a good punt ie if the house price doesn't go up but the dollar strengthens you are in front.

 

I'd like to know more about those properties on the Erie Canal.

 

Any photos?

 

[drbubb]

BUFFALO may be worth a look - some waterside developments happening there

 

It is time to think creatively about how the waterfront should be developed. We need to lay the foundation for an urban district where retailers want to locate, people want to live and visitors want to experience, regardless of what particular store is located there. An environment must be constructed that satisfies the needs of all parties in a way that private development will happen not because millions of dollars are being offered, but because there are millions of dollars to be made.

 

 

This plan is an elaboration of the 2004 master plan currently under construction and argues that public funds invested 100% into ‘canal district’ infrastructure can leverage private development by creating extraordinarily unique and developable sites for retailers to locate

 

 

/more: http://www.buffalorising.com/story/the_inn...r_in_need_of_vi

try "shuffling off to buffalo"

 

= 2/

 

Fred’s second alternative (other than selling the building) is looking into possibly renovating the façade in order to keep the property as public storage. He feels that the storage meets the demand for increased downtown housing that offers little storage for people downsizing. There is a truck bay, and the electric has been updated. Parts of the building already have air conditioning with humidity controls for the documents.

 

The (295-305 Niagara buildings are on the market for $595,000. Get connected with Fred Lafasso at 716.870.4878.

 

[drbubb]

Saratoga Springs - where JH Kunstler lives ##

Broadway

 

Duncan Crary and JHK go on a brief tour of one city block in Saratoga Springs

 

Link: http://kunstlercast.com/ (#23: One City Block)

 

 

Walker Evans Liked Angle Parking

 

And so do I. Walker Evans took this wonderful photograph of Main Street in Saratoga Springs, New York that featured a lineup of black cars angle-parked on a street shiny with rain.

Here's a link to the image at Yale: Main Street, Saratoga Springs. Evans took this photograph in 1931.

/see: http://beanroad.blogspot.com/2008/01/walke...le-parking.html

 

== ==

 

Visiting Saratoga: Bob Dylan- a friend of JHK perhaps?

 

Legendary Bob Dylan just unveiled his summer tour, and in it got Saratoga Springs, N.Y. listed. Bob Dylan, an American hero coming to a small town like Saratoga Springs? Yep, you heard that right, Dylan is coming to the Saratoga Performing Arts Center August 17th on a Sunday. It will be part of an all day music festival, Dylan hits the stage at 2 p.m. in the afternoon. Bob Dylan a legendary folk singer and poet who changed the world with iconic songs that people never forget, coming to our hometown at a small stage like SPAC. Get ready to memorize the lyrics to “Like a Rollingstone” and “Blowing in the Wind” so you can sing along!!!

 

/see: http://brocknroll.wordpress.com/2008/06/09...ny-for-concert/

[drbubb]

"These days a lot of big city people are thinking about moving into small yet interesting towns--if they haven't done so. These are towns with old architecture dating back at least a hundred years and with big city amenities such as good restaurants, coffee house hangouts, art film cinemas, for example."

 

"It's not about growth. I want an interesting place with as little growth as possible to spend my remaining years in"

 

"The fate of American small towns has long been linked with migration -- and of course, the car"

 

"About 15 years ago I read Jack Lessinger's book Penturbia in which he predicted a mass migration back to small towns. These are the old towns with interesting architecture dating back at least a 100 years and offering big city amenities. The Penturbian migration hasn't occurred so far in the large numbers that Lessinger predicted, but maybe it will in the near future"

 

(and, from an interview):

"...as I became a teenager, was really move to a small town and date girls who had vowels in their names and go bass fishing and ride motorcycles."

 

- JHK

 

IN HUNTING for those photos of Saratoga Springs, I stumbled across a KunstlerKritic, Ben Arnold,

who prefers jetting off to Disneyland, to spending any more time in Saratoga Springs, where he

might bump into JHK or one of his "followers":

 

http://disutopiaofsaratogasprings.blogspot...v-kunstler.html

[drbubb]

Best Small Cities & Towns?

 

KunstlerCast listeners write about where they would like to live, and Bubb mentions HK:

http://kunstlercast.com/forum/index.php?topic=163.0

[drbubb]

July 19, 2008

Majority of Market Towns have higher house prices than neighbouring towns

The Halifax Market Towns review shows that two-thirds (67%) of market towns have a higher average house price than the neighbouring towns in their county

 

The Halifax Market Town Review tracks house price movements in 112 market towns in England. The market towns surveyed are those defined by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) and have a population of between 3,000 and 30,000. The review is based on Halifax's own extensive housing statistics database, along with data from the Land Registry. Halifax is the UK's biggest mortgage lender and one of the country's largest estate agents.

 

Two-thirds (67%) of market towns have a higher average house price than the neighbouring towns in their county

Beaconsfieldin Buckinghamshire is the most expensive English market town with an average house price of £704,724 in March 2008. Eighteen other market towns have an average house price exceeding £300,000, including Ringwood in Hampshire (£380,301), Winchcombe in Gloucestershire (£371,796) and Cranbrook in Kent (£365,171)

More than half – 60 out of 112 - of English market towns recorded house price growth above the average for England as a whole (55%) in the last five years1

 

 

/more: http://www.hbosplc.com/media/pressreleases...section=halifax