Where am I going to get Korean food?

"Once you're gone, you ain't never coming back...." Neil Young.

From Elise Bernard (slightly edited):

I had breakfast at Young's with a friend today & they told us that they are closing today. Apparently their landlord has decided to sell. They would like to reopen at another market location, but they are having trouble finding one. So for now, adios Young's. Behold the legacy of New Town.

For more on the market, see Elise's recent blog entry (based on the tour that she and I have given, and will give on Saturday July 29th--I guess we have to change the itinerary): "Touring the Market: Unlocking the Possibilities."

Also, the July issue of Hill Rag has a story on the market, "New Town: Urban Utopia or Pipedream." Most of the people they quote are fine with the idea of demolition, including seemingly prominent community "leaders."

However, the fact that all the people quoted seem to be unaware of is the reality of new construction and the impact on rents. New construction uniformly costs much more money to rent, unless rents are heavily subsidized. This is the whole point of Jane Jacob's dictum that "Great American Cities" need a large stock of old buildings that have low running costs and therefore low rents, to attract and support unusual, diverse, and innovative businesses. See:

-- (Why aren't people) Learning from Jane Jacobs revisited
- -(Why Aren't People) Learning From Jane Jacobs.

You'd think after 40 years of experience with this through urban renewal, that people might understand this by now. I guess not.
This is the root of why the New Town proposal doesn't make sense, although the Hill Rag article points out the necessity of hundreds of millions of city tax dollars and eminent domain, for the proposal to come to fruition.

Seemingly to pull the wool over people's eyes, the originators of the New Town proposal discuss how they intend to build hundreds of affordable housing units. Again, the reality is that the only way to build affordable housing is through massive financial subsidy, free land, or density bonuses. That's because the major construction inputs: land; materials; labor; don't vary in cost whether or not the housing produced is sold at market rate or at a discount from market.

(And, the article doesn't mention the proposed crappy design. Pretty suburban and ersatz.)
Bi Bim Bab at Young's Deli.

Index Keywords: food-markets-agriculture; urban-revitalization