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Bank's chief likes downtown


DetroitMan

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Wow, that's incredible that they are pledging $25 Billion in community redevelopment lending initiatives for Michigan over the next 10 years. A corporate presence downtown would be another feather in Detroit's cap, and a much needed confidence boost for the State.

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I have often faulted BofA for building monolithic towers that look good from the distance but are dead at street level. Their 60 story HQ in downtown Charlotte is no exception to this. On the other had, more of late, they have realized the value in creating people places in cities including getting people to move back into urban environments. They have had a lot of success in the last 7-8 years in getting people to move back into the center city of Charlotte which had once been mostly abandoned and closed down outside of business hours.

From this experience in Charlotte they may see an even bigger pot of gold for doing this in Detroit given that it is a much larger metro, there is definatlely a need, and BofA has the resources to pull it off.

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I am not exactly sure how a bank moving its offices from one part of the Detroit area to another will "turn" this economy around. It is not like people who work in Troy can drive to downtown Detroit so most likely it will be the same workers working there.

I will be impressed when a new firm from outside the area sets up shop in Detroit.

I do not think we can rely on suburban firms to move downtown to save the city. What we need is to convince outside firms that Detroit is an inexpensive alternative to NY/ Chicago for office space and get a real office economy in the city.

Thank You

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But I think in order to do that, we need to have an attractive downtown, and concentrating stuff there would help do that.

"BofA said it has set a

goal of $25 billion in community development lending and

investment in Michigan during the next 10 years."

What does the lending part mean? Are these special low interest loans?

Regardless of what they do, it's nice that they have good vibes.

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Big Beaver is going to be competing with Hall Road in Macomb County, not Royal Oak so much. According to past trends in this region, Big Beaver is slowly becoming the "has been" and has a greater potential to fall into a waste dump like the perception of 8 Mile is. Not that it will...I don't believe it will, because of the way we've changed our development habits. But at the same time, it's not going to be easy, especially since it has been shown that Troy is treating Big Beaver the opposite of what it really is, a strip of upscale retail and big business, not a "downtown" like they want it to be. The best thing planners can do w/ Troy is treat it the way it has been built. The best thing for Detroit planners to do w/ downtown is to treat it like the city it was built as...and not to suburbanize it.

Regarding BofA. It is great they are considering moving downtown. Why is the suburbs even an option? What other major market they are in is their regional/state hq not in the central city? All these moves to downtown DO help Detroit and the region, despite the unobvious short term affects. Doesn't anyone see what the long term effects of all of downtown's jobs moving to the suburbs has created?

Encouraging these types of moves is not the same as encouraging the death of the suburbs the way they raped the city years and years ago. In fact, it is the opposite. We want to see our communities thriving, not existing for 10 years then dying. Centralization of the workforce is the practice of most cities, while it is understood that suburbia has a very large share of the employment as well. However in Detroit, we've seemed to take the extreme and studies have shown that we here, live the farthest away from our scattered pattern of job locations, and in effect waste the most amount of resources, greatly diminishing the quality of life. So, while you hear the reports about the young and educated leaving Det and MI, this might help illustrate why. They want unique places to work, live, and play, which the current pattern does not represent.

Again, this isn't to destroy the suburbs, but the further encourage magnitism back toward the core instead of keeping our sights on the urban fringe. This could be our beginning of a profound practice of smart growth and growth control for all people, including the people of Detroit and inner ring suburbs who have been excluded for many years now. And that doesn't have to be.

Moving a bank downtown is the right thing to do, despite a few grumpy people who couldn't care less about quality of life. The impacts are considered to affect more than just those one or two people and they will be positive.

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Uh just cause an area has those elements doesnt make them urban. An urban area is about density and walkability. Big Beaver isnt dense and certainly isnt walkable. If you still dont understand then I would suggest looking it up on the internet to understand the major differences between those areas.

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I am going to agree wit Detroitcity99.

16 mile has all the elements to be considered a urban downtown area. It has shopping, condos, offices and hotels. This idea of walkability seems misplaced, from an era bfore the car became the main methode of transit for most people.

If one were to base the definition of an urban area on walkability, then every shopping mall in America would be considered an urban area. After all, what is a mall but a row of tightly packed stores and offices wrapped around a a central corridor.

Density in the 16 mile corridor is very high for metro Detroit. It has tall office buildings, and a mall that hold hundreds of stores (how many dose Downtown Detroit have?) in a small area. It has every thing a and urban area needs, just for cars instead of pedestrians.

Thank you

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Wow im absolutely blown away that people on a site called urban planet have no idea what urbanity is.

Where do i begin. Walkability is not misplaced. A city like Royal Oak, which you are from oddly enough, is automobile friendly but still walkable. It has a high density and all the elements you want in a city. You can easily walk from your home, to the store, and to work. Its about having things interact at a street level. Seas of parking lots along Big Beaver with Somerset and tall buildings is not urban. You can easily cross mainstreet in RO to get to a shop across the street. Its a helluva lot harder to cross Big Beaver, and if you do, where are you going? Theres nothing there worth walking to, its completely auto-centric and that isnt urban. HAVING to get into your car to go somewhere is different than wanting to. Tall buildings do not equal density. Having a few highrises spread throughout Big Beaver and surrounded by parking lots is not dense and it isnt urban.

It has every thing a and urban area needs, just for cars instead of pedestrians.
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I am going to agree wit Detroitcity99.

16 mile has all the elements to be considered a urban downtown area. It has shopping, condos, offices and hotels. This idea of walkability seems misplaced, from an era bfore the car became the main methode of transit for most people.

If one were to base the definition of an urban area on walkability, then every shopping mall in America would be considered an urban area. After all, what is a mall but a row of tightly packed stores and offices wrapped around a a central corridor.

Density in the 16 mile corridor is very high for metro Detroit. It has tall office buildings, and a mall that hold hundreds of stores (how many dose Downtown Detroit have?) in a small area. It has every thing a and urban area needs, just for cars instead of pedestrians.

Thank you

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Asking this question might help understand urbanity.

"How often do you walk down Big Beaver Road to do or take care of business?"

Even if you do, on occassion walk down Big Beaver, I don't recall ever seeing anyone walking down the sidewalks when I've been out there.

Now, on the flip side, ask: "How often does someone from Brooklyn walk down the street to do or take care of business?"

In regards to Royal Oak: It is a suburb, just like every other suburb surrounding the central city. It is a suburb that has urban characteristics, but it is still a suburb. SUB=below; less than. URB=urbane;urbanity. The M-59 Corridor, the next closest thing to Big Beaver is the gut of low-density suburban, while Royal Oak, Birmingham, Dearborn, and the Grosse Pointes are illustrative of high-density suburbs.

And lastly, Troy was INTENTIONALLY built as a suburb. That's its identity. To be less than urban. The suburbs began in this country as a response to overcrowding in the central cities. Their land use and housing policys excluded certain demographics (through federal policy) in order to achieve a NONurban character. Soon after the low density land use of housing took a strong hold, the job markets started to respond to the new pattern of middle and upper class citizens, arguabley the drivers of any economy. Troy was centrally located, and viola...The Big Beaver Corporate Corridor was born.

But remember, land use policy STILL excluded walkability and the mixture of uses for the exact same reasons people left the overcrowded city. To keep out the undesirables. Since the undesirables were less likely to own personal transportation, the suburbs were built strictly to be accessed by those with personal transportation (the automobile). This isn't unique to Detroit, by the way.

This is why Troy is the way Troy is. It's why there are little-to-no working class anywhere near the shopping venues along Big Beaver. It is why all the stores are housed under a roof and not integrated into a walkable street grid. It's why everything else surrounding it is auto-centric and you see little-to-no residential land use.

Now, all of a sudden Troy wants to build things like the Monarch highrise condo tower because they realize that economic trends are once again shifting, but shifting away from what Troy was built as. I give Troy credit for recognizing that, but they're going about it in the wrong way if they thing a few buildings with aerial views is going to instantly generate urban. It's not going to happen. It's what occurs from the built infrastructure on the ground.

BofA plays a major role in that economic shift back to urbanity. Which is why they are considering downtown Detroit as a corporate citizen. They may end up staying in Troy, but to me, that only means they didn't find it necessary to be a part of the central city like they are in most other urban centers.

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I case you guys didnt know, his whole next :downtown southeast michigan" is a joke. Its some thing that either the mayor of troy or some leader from the area said about troy when they announced those condo projects.

Anyway, this sounds awesome. Hope it actually happens.

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You guys do realize that the board has seen an influx of newbies who are learning, don't you? You all are acting as if those that don't know what it means to be urban are the majority, when it seems clear to me it less than a handful or relatively new forumers, making a lot of post, with a lot to say.

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You guys do realize that the board has seen an influx of newbies who are learning, don't you? You all are acting as if those that don't know what it means to be urban are the majority, when it seems clear to me it less than a handful or relatively new forumers, making a lot of post, with a lot to say.
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If learning is something that some of the new posters are interested in then they can ask questions or ask for clarification. I have absolutely no problem with that. What has been happening though is people going on and on about topics and things they really have no clue on, or talking about completely irrelevant things in many instances. Its gotten old for me considering this site used to be filled with great conversation. It has caused me to have a short fuse in many instances and probably come off as a complete ass but I cant help it sometimes.

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