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A few comments on our blog of late have brought up the topic of opportunity and boundaries and where we define them. As Dan notes, there are lots of opportunities just outside the urban core and E points out that the city’s General Plan is “much more than just continuing the downtown revitalization.”
The topic of self-restricted boundaries is not new to us at LJUrban: about a year ago, we really wrestled with this issue for a good period of time. Here’s where we landed… for now.
Opportunity and Self-Imposed Boundaries
Ah, Opportunity. It’s endorphin to the developer. However, lest we get too addicted to the stuff and over-extend ourselves, we’ve decided to purposefully identify a few key areas that we’d like to focus on, for starters. Knowing us, if we didn’t impose these restrictions, we’d spend far more time acquiring and envisioning than actually building, which would either turn us into “flippers” or result in a very quick death for LJUrban. So, at present, we’ve identified two key focus areas: inside the central city (i.e. downtown revitalization), and the Broderick Area. The first represents our efforts to really understand and address needs in the urban core; the second represents our efforts to make a significant, long-term contribution to an overlooked and neglected area currently just outside Downtown but with all the potential to become part of the Downtown core.
Beyond the Core
As we grow and learn, I imagine the boundaries will shift some. Our focus will always be on the urban core (thus, our name); but there is a valid case to be made that the areas that service the core (neighborhoods just outside and corridors with TOD potential especially) are very important for the health of the core and should, as such, be considered a healthy extension of the core, in the same way as Broderick, Del Paso, Oak Park, etc.
At some level, its a question of how and where you define the “urban core.” For example, are the UCDavis and Sac State campuses in the Urban Core? I think even among our own team, the interpretations have subtle differences.
So, on one hand, for the purposes of our company’s sustainability, the narrow scope of “opportunity” is necessary at present; while, on the other hand, our commitment to think holistically requires a larger view which recognizes that the urban core is only one of many districts of the city. If new urbanist principles and smart growth concepts aren’t applied both in and outside the core, we’ll continue to have a Sacramento that people describe as “Two very different cities: Downtown and Everything Else, with Everything Else often viewed as an undesirable place to be (a view that I, at present, share). A city simply can’t sustain long-term growth and health with this kind of duality. If I truly love the vibrancy of Downtown and believe that, at present, it’s the healthiest expression of the city (which I obviously do), I have to support and applaud any effort that will give Everything Else the same health and vibrancy I see in Downtown.
1 response so far ↓
1 alex // Nov 26, 2006 at 12:04 pm
I’m really happy with the fact that you want to include neighborhood people in discussing your projects.
I think it’s difficult for most of us, once we have found a place we like, to envison it as being something different than what we moved into.
I’ve lived in the neighborhood for more than 20 years, and like it or not, it’s a different neighborhood than I moved into. For one thing, it’s a far more expensive neighborhood than the one I moved into, and there is a lot more commercial property. However, taking a longer term veiw, on my own street, there was a vacant lot at one corner and an abandoned office building across the streetfrom that. The vacant lot now houses condominiums, and the abandoned office building will soon be turned into condos. There is now a grocery store, a drug store, and soon will be four new restaurants within two blocks. If I had had my own way, I would have wanted every one of those properties to become single family homes. But what we want, and what people can afford, are never the same thing.
Almost every property that has been improved in the Poverty Ridge area has been made into multiple dwellings. It’s sad to see the density increase in this way, but we are in a central city area, and not a suburb where everyone has a big house, a big yard, and enclosed space for multiple cars.
Too many people think they want to live in the midtown area and bring the suburbs back with them. But it will require a change in lifestyle. It remains to be seen, in my opinion, if people will come back to this area and raise families, or if it will always be limited to the young who haven’t started families, and the empty nesters.
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