If you were rich

[dtown]

If you very rich, what would you do for your city?

I would go around, buy up subdivisions, offer to buy those residents homes( new or classic hosing) in traditional neighborhoods in the central city, and inner ring burbs. Then, i would take tose subdivisions, doze them,reclaim the land, and GIVE the land to farmers.

[suburban george3]

If you very rich, what would you do for your city?

I would go around, buy up subdivisions, offer to buy those residents homes( new or classic hosing) in traditional neighborhoods in the central city, and inner ring burbs. Then, i would take tose subdivisions, doze them,reclaim the land, and GIVE the land to farmers.

[dtown]

Now that is very admirable, George.

Heres a good question. Cant we at least do some of that now? At least supporting charities. I think im going to check into working for Habitat for Humanity. Just thinking right now Ive realized that i, can talk about doing great things on an internet forum, but none of its going to happen if i dont get off my ass and do something.

The reason i said my little "schpeil" is because right near my house there are at least 3 huge plots of former farmland and forest that are being turned into subs/condos that i KNOW will not sell well. One has sat with only 3 houses built in it for about 2 years.Seeing that just irks me, and makes me want to take those subs, even the sub that I live in and just doze em.

Anyway, anybody else care to share?

[suburban george3]

I have actually helped on 3 Habitat houses; installing light fixtures, flooring, and landscaping. I would volunteer more, however I travel pretty much all week Mon-Fri and stay out quite a bit. It's hard for me to give up my weekends all the time for charity work. The Habitat work I've done has been for houses my company has sponsored over the past couple of years.

I am looking though to potentially add more charity work; maybe Meals on Wheels or something similar.

[davidals]

Hmmm...dunno. If I was filthy, stinkin' Bill Gates-level rich...

Open a GREAT independent bookstore, in the Triangle or Charlotte, a good downtown shop. Or actually open a few great, smaller bookshops in some smaller towns.

Protecting green space is important, and also seeing what I could do to boost minority and lower-income kids levels of academic success - endow a scholarship, fund some tutoring or mentoring programs... would take lotsa research and continual work for sure.

Sponsor and program another good NC-based film festival - some current cutting edge world films, or an ongoing revival series of American and global classics that would hit the major NC cities for a week each every summer... See what kind of support I could give to NC's film industry, especially local talent...

If I were obscenely, grotesquely rich, NC & SC would have - within a decade - a 2-state, statewide bullet-train network (first in the US): The Carolina Shinkansen...link the major cities, the tourist towns, the military towns and the college towns in both states. We'll get you there faster than you can drive, and cheaper than the price of gas. It would be a stunning success, and the envy of the rest of the country, a true model of two states' reinvention of themselves for the 21st century

[Recchia]

I'd first of all buy a big 3-family home in the city and spend all of my money in the city. Then I'd love to start a homeless person street cleaning program, I saw this a while back on some news special in NYC. This guys started a program where he took homeless people off the street, gave them a room to rent in building he owned and paid them to clean garbage off sidewalks, remove graffiti, etc. They received health benefits and all of that so many of them could fix some long-term health issues that they had from being homeless. As they went through the program he would increase their pay and rent accordingly, and after a while, they would "graduate" from his program and he would find them good jobs around the city. Now that's something I'd love to start up.

[JDC]

In Durham, I'd buy the auto dealerships downtown and sell the land to proven local private developers. I'd also buy all the downtown properties of this one developer whose projects all seem to fail: specifically the empty 15-story monstrosity that sits a top a parking garage and the Best Western which sits atop an acre or two of surface parking that he's trying to convert into condos.

[Neo]

I would build a monumental park in my city's downtown (Charlotte) that would employ many ideals put into production by other parks around the country such as Bryant Park in NYC, Millenium Park in Chicago, etc. Comprised of gardens, public stage, art, public market, etc. it would offer ameneties to the masses that aren't currently available.

[BarGal]

If I were "stinkin" rich I'd do this for my city:

I would buy up abandoned buildings in the CBD and restore them using local contractors and companies. I'd encourage and seek out local "mom & pop" businesses to tenant my redeveloped buildings and provide incentives, such as reduced rent, if they employ local residents.

I would give money to organizations that help local residents with finding jobs and receiving healthcare and education.

I would sponsor annual scholarships to students who would win a competition in which they present their ideas / dreams / goals for our city's future.

I would buy a Penthouse Condo with a killer view on the tallest building in my City and proudly live there.

[MadVlad]

Depends how rich is rich. So, assuming we're talking stinking rich, I'd build a Space Needle-type building so we'd have an iconic structure, I'd throw in some money for some sort of commuter rail system, and buy back the Whalers so they could play in my nice, new 20k seat arena.....

[dtown]

Another thing id do if i was rich is buy Flint's hockey team and arena, tear down the old arena from the 60's, and build a new cutting edge arena smack dab in the middle of downtown Flint.

Then id rebuild the city's downtown riverfront park. Id model it after central park, but on a smaller scale.

[dgreco]

clean it, repave, redo all the roads and redo the traffic lights/stops and transit .

[torgo]

Hmm...great topic.

1. Buy up a bunch of surface lots in key areas around the downtown and start building!

2. Light rail

3. Complete streetscape overhaul (where needed), with nice big trees, sidewalk pavers, etc.

4. Donate lots to charities, neighborhood associations and other local nonprofits

[dimebag1980]

I love my city, and if I had infinite monies available, I'd redevelop downtown completely. However if I were just a multimillionaire, I'd definitely purchase one half of Commerce Street in downtown Shreveport, demolish every existing building, and start from scratch with a row of mixed-use buildings ranging from 6-12 stories, in a staggered pattern. These would have streetside and underground parking, and would tie perfectly into the existing casino district and nightlife. I've had this vision for a long time, and I would love to actually be able to bring it to life someday.

[Inkdaub]

One thing I'd do is fund and maintain a network of public restrooms.

[dtown]

^Now that is a very good idea!

[tamias6]

If I was rich. Chance are I'd be the CEO of a fortune 500 company. Be that the case. The first thing I would do is locate my corporate headquarters in my home town of Grand Rapids, MI. There are several ugly buildings that need to be replaced I can pick from. My HQ would be a signature tower that would dominate the skyline as the city's tallest building. This would do two things. 1) Satisfy my ego trip and 2) generate a few thousand jobs in my city's local economy. Next I would spear head ongoing efforts to bring streetcars and BRT's to the area. People in a knowledge based economy like mass transit so mass transit they shall have. Next I would make attempts to locate many of my fortune 500 company's jobs in GR and Michigan where the jobs are sorely needed. Then I would turn my attention to funding a new PAC and getting a major league sports team into Grand Rapids.

Then to push the city into sustaining itself far into the future quality of life needs to be addressed. I would fund local charities, park building, museums, libraries, and boost local schools systems. I would also create endowments to pay for up to 100% of college tuition to children attending intercity schools and earning high grades. Read The Kalamazoo Promise to see what I mean. This alone has been a big help in revitalizing the city of Kalamazoo, Michigan.

[Charlotte_native]

I would build a monumental park in my city's downtown (Charlotte) that would employ many ideals put into production by other parks around the country such as Bryant Park in NYC, Millenium Park in Chicago, etc. Comprised of gardens, public stage, art, public market, etc. it would offer ameneties to the masses that aren't currently available.

[peaceloveunderstanding]

Build the premier museum of Science and Technology.

[Pillsbury]

Oh, if I were rich, like super-rich, I would do the following for Augusta:

1. Buy a 100,000 watt radio station that played The Cure, XTC, David Bowie, and REM at least 23 times a day.

2. Buy a super-big plant and pay everybody 80,000 dollars a year with the caveat that they had to live somewhere in Richmond County.

3. Completely bulldoze Washington Road save the Augusta National.

4. Pay Georgia Power to bury all power lines.

5. Pay for every kid in my town to go to college (okay, public colleges in-state, no Emorys or Dukes---not even Bill Gates has that much money)

6. Make Augusta the premier sports capital of Chitlan Racing.

That's really it.

[MadVlad]

1. Buy a 100,000 watt radio station that played The Cure, XTC, David Bowie, and REM at least 23 times a day.

[BarGal]

I'm surprised more people haven't responded to this topic...I think it's a fun one

[Pillsbury]

You don't need this one, it's called Sirius Satellite Radio, channel 22, First Wave

[Cadeho]

I'd protect all of Richmond's "everyman's" architecture. Richmond is rapidly losing a huge amount of its historic structures because they are cleaning up blight. But all they're doing is demolishing and not replacing. Actually many buildings are still sturdy enough to be rehabbed, but they choose not to do that. Instead, Richmond has favored the "Disneyfying" of choice historic areas, such as the St. John's Historic District in Church Hill, the Fan District, and "Jackson Ward" between Broad and Leigh. Those areas have high-styled architecture and do not reflect the homes of the working class, free blacks, or the poor. A lot of their houses are gems and totally pushed aside for the glamour of the storybook past created about the other areas. Whole neighborhoods have gone into history because of this and it's continuing to happen. Once something is gone, it can never be replaced... but it's not like they're even doing that.

[FromCityToRural]

I'd open up a real nightclub, and see if I couldn't lobby to get this county to be a wet county. I'd also have beer for less than the $7/glass (!) it is here at the two downtown bars. I'd probably buy a few convenience stores and the like and make them 24 hour.

I'd also love to see if I couldn't get some urban feel into downtown. Convert some of the old buildings into condos and apartments, get some businesses in there...I could see downtown being a real hoppin' place. But I suppose I'd have to kiss ass and become mayor to do that, rather than just get rich...