The Urban Renewal Fever ;Harrison

thing much to do with economic realities. The developers are usually forced to build something which does not truly fit the market they thought they were going after.

The projects, by their very nature, are in bad parts of town (although you can find blight, and therefore need, in almost any neighborhood). The new buildings are surrounded by districts the nice people don’t like very much. It is hard to get occupancy up to profitable levels until two or three years have passed. Meanwhile, of course, these new buildings are being taxed at generally high local property tax rates. As they have learned this, the developers have become less and less fond of federal urban renewal projects. The result is that the projects are taking longer and longer to complete. By longer and longer, he means ten years or more—which is probably quite a bit longer than anyone needs a 100-acre parking lot in the middle of a slum.

JU

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J. Ullmann

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thing much to do with economic realities. The developers are usually forced to build something which does not truly fit the market they thought they were going after.

The projects, by their very nature, are in bad parts of town (although you can find blight, and therefore need, in almost any neighborhood). The new buildings are surrounded by districts the nice people don’t like very much. It is hard to get occupancy up to profitable levels until two or three years have passed. Meanwhile, of course, these new buildings are being taxed at generally high local property tax rates. As they have learned this, the developers have become less and less fond of federal urban renewal projects. The result is that the projects are taking longer and longer to complete. By longer and longer, he means ten years or more—which is probably quite a bit longer than anyone needs a 100-acre parking lot in the middle of a slum.