Wall Street Journal: Dude, Where's My Car?

Flaws in the "new urbanism" model?

By Curmudgeon

Interesting and possibly important: Today's Wall Street Journal has an interesting story here about empty-nesters returning to inner cities to live carless lives in urban condos. What caught my eye was this paragraph:

Demographers and economists have predicted that many aging baby boomers would opt for smaller, easier-to-manage dwellings once their children left home. Those predictions helped spur a surge in loft and condominium developments in many U.S. cities, as well as efforts to develop so-called walkable communities.

So far, the bet hasn't paid off. "The developers that anticipated a big increase in condominium living in center cities are sorely disappointed," says Gary Engelhardt, a professor at Syracuse University who's studied the influence of boomers on the housing market. The housing bust has led many people who might have sold their suburban homes to stay put. But even when the market recovers, Mr. Engelhardt says, "I don't foresee a massive movement back in center cities for older individuals."

The reason it caught my eye is that the master plan for re-developing downtown Ogden, and in particular for The Junction, rested largely on anticipating precisely the "walkable downtown condo living" model that the article says has not materialized nationwide as expected.

[And before the Godfreyista Gaggle begins denouncing me for naysaying, let me add that I was encouraged by the "new urbanism" trend that seemed to be underway, and that I am sorely disappointed that the condo plans for The Junction have pretty much collapsed, since so much of the Junction's business plan depended upon their being a certain population of relatively upscale condo-dwellers living there. The empty-nester downtown living idea I and Mrs. Curmudgeon found kind of appealing and are considering it for our next --- and last ever --- move. As an environmentalist, I like the idea as well of reducing driving around that living in a downtown condo with necessary shopping nearby (food, pharmacies, bookstore) in a walkable city with good public transit. But my liking the idea doesn't matter much if the trend doesn't develop and doesn't turn out to be an economically viable one for cities to encourage.]

Again, since so much of the downtown Ogden and Junction development model is based on the "new urbanism" model, I thought the article worth pointing out.