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Sacramento developers fall into an interesting pool of reputations; sometimes perceived as local heroes; other times, perceived as the devil incarnate. Some prefer to avoid any public interaction; others put up as much flash and glam as a celebrity.
To the degree that we believe in dialogue and engaging the community, we certainly won’t be “invisible” but we also don’t see ourselves falling into “celebrity” ranks.
It’ll be interesting to see how our reputation develops.
We really want to do this right. But, as much as you try, you can’t work in this industry without facing some kind of over-arching “developer reputation.”
So, in the spirit of dialogue and community engagement, let’s talk about reputations. What are we up against?
Here’s a few questions to start out. Pick any or all.
What is that generic “developer reputation.”
What do they do wrong? Is there a “developer achilles heel?” What drives you crazy about developers? What should they be doing that they aren’t?
Conversely, what can/could they do right?
We’ve all heard enough name-bashing from the elections, so let’s keep names out of it, unless you’ve got special props to give.
And if you’re tuning in outside of Sacramento, we’d love to hear your thoughts as well.
Jason
5 responses so far ↓
1 E // Nov 14, 2006 at 4:08 pm
Ah, developers. Where to start?
Let me first preface my response by disclosing that I am a planner, I work in the public sector, and I’ve met and worked directly with dozens of developers. This wasn’t always the case, I also have background in private planning consulting and nonprofit community development. That said, I’ve seen plenty of different kinds of developers and know what they’re up against. I also know the effect that developers can have on a community, as can anyone who’s been around a while and paid any attention to these things.
So, on the developer reputation question….
1. Profit. You’re doing this for profit - we all know that. You wouldn’t be in land development if you couldn’t at least earn a living, otherwise you’d be out selling things or trading stock or whatever. Yet why, oh developer, does it cause you to stumble so? And why such a high profit margin? Can’t you be satisfied with 4 or 5% return like the rest of us? Must you make millions on every venture? And why do we always have to hear “the project just won’t pencil for us unless we get X number of units or X amount of subsidy”? Can’t you earn an honest living just like anyone else?
2. Listening. You have a hard time with this. You’d like to say you’ve listened to the community, cause you shopped the project at neighborhood meetings and heard their comments…. Heck, you might have even have had a design charrette with some neighbors to placate them. Yet did you really listen? Have you ever really listened to people? Do you know what the neighborhood really needs and wants (I know, they don’t ever know what they really want either…)? Or do you view the piece of dirt you bought as your next paycheck, and you don’t really care what anyone has said before about what should go there or why?
3. Quality vs Quantity. So you’re about to make a truckload of money on a project. You’ve worked long and hard to get the plans approved, gone to dozens of meetings, made countless changes, it’s ready to go…. So why are still getting such crap out of you? Could it be profit? Or your inability to listen? Why can’t we get a decent project anymore that looks good, operates well, fits in with the surrounding neighborhood? Is the local development review office that bad? Or are they so narrow-minded because the overall quality of development has been slipping drastically? Is there any hope for real place-making anymore, when everything is now under the umbrella of the sacred “infill” category that the community must now bend over backward to build? Is this really Smart Growth, or just Growth dressing up to play Smart?
As for LJ Urban, you guys are striving to do doing something different, and it shows. I’m not intimately familiar with your work, but I’ve heard nothing but positive things here in Sac. Others in this town would do well to model your behavior.
2 LJUrban // Nov 15, 2006 at 3:56 pm
E.’s insights are well-taken. And yes, we are striving to do something different–”profit,” “listening” and “quality” all inform on one another: classic Venn diagram and circular (vs. linear) systems stuff. It can get tricky to navigate sometimes and we’re going through the process of learning how to do this. It means a big learning curve and a willingness to make mistakes, but we think that its better to base our company on the right ethos from the beginning and figure it out from a “best practice” standpoint than to follow a “status quo” course. Our guideposts are the triple-bottom line mentality that give equal credence to “profit” “people” and “environment” which, in many ways, correlate to E’s points of contention.
3 Brian Fischer // Dec 5, 2006 at 3:02 pm
It’s an interesting thing about our society. We have so many goals and expectations but rarely teach to them. For example, we’re a capitalist economy, but do not teach small business development or economics nearly at all in K-12, which means by and large people get into business by the seat of their pants.
We’re a democracy/republic, but we do not teach citizenship or debate with our children civil rights vs civic responsibilities.
Life is about relationships, yet we teach nothing specific to our children about how to communicate or be in a relationship (personal or business).
And this long road leads me to development. We’re all going to live somewhere, so you’d think our society would be engaged in demanding, stimulating discussions about how we live. There is no real school for real estate development. Beyond the-under-the-radar New School, it is rare to find a program in sustainable development despite the obvious need.
It’s nice to see someone trying to dissect the urban opportunities of infill through an idealistic yet pragmatic lens. It is conversation that often brings to the forefront simple but wonderful ideas for private and public development.
At the core, we need a more dynamic local capitalism in which a city views its citizens as active players in a game to achieve the highest quality of life for the greatest number of people.
To widen the circle of discussion, I invite you to coffee at Old Soul, Temple, True Love, and Butch N Nellie’s for a series of discussions on how to refashion my web site’s sustainable living section.
I am passionate about our opportunity to be the most walkable, liveable Central City in the United States and I’m looking for all of the allies to analyze and debate this possibility with the hope of realizing it over the next 5-10 years.
Thanks for the blog.
4 sacramento notary // Dec 7, 2006 at 2:27 pm
I am tuning in or logging on if you will from Seattle, but I used to live in Sac. As a notary I have had heard so many developer stories from buyers and friends in the business and I have only heard few positives.
The reason they’re ass holes : They make truck loads of money on every deal. Once this starts to get consistent, the developer stops making it look good and starts not caring. This has to be the main reason. I could go on all day with stories but I will hold myself back.
thanks Sac for letting me chime in
seattle
5 Levi // Dec 9, 2006 at 12:06 pm
Sac Notary.
Great stuff. I think you nailed it that most developers start off with good intentions and slowly realize that its easier to make money if you don’t care.
So often we all want change but don’t know where to start.
We need more community members who decide that they care enough to look at the plans comming forward to be built in their neighborhood and speaking up about what is right.
I met last week with John Febbo, a long time community activist and member of the Sacramento design review board. He is a perfect example of someone who is putting into Sacramento what it takes to make this a great city.
The problem is it takes time, commitment and often money to make a difference. Things very few people can spare.
Writing about this reminds me why we are in business in the first place. I believe that change will come first from a community that cares but not without developers who have their priorities straight. We are setting out to be that developer. Not that we are even close to perfect but we are trying.
Google has a mantra I like. “Don’t Be Evil”
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