I just read
this post and replied to it, asking for input, but I decided I ought to post this by itself in General Discussion.
I am doing serious research on the post-pandemic future of commercial real estate, workforce patterns and concentrations, community planning and economic development. As part of that, I would like to ask for your thoughts, if you'd care to give them. And any links to stuff you have read would also be quite appreciated. Many on here are quite bright.
If you read the Hudson Yards article it does beg the question of what our economy will look like post pandemic. Erstwhile retail stores converted to offices or industrial space, even residences. A vast, cold mall standing empty.
The philosophy of the capitalists, particularly the conservative Chicago School variety, is one of unlimited growth. But unlimited growth is also the philosophy of cancer cells.
There are economic development people who ramrod projects like this through by pressuring local and state governments to give massive tax incentives to investors, which then squeeze their ability to provide the local and state government services people count on. That has been an issue for some time - at least the last decade - and there are related articles at the bottom of this one about how NYC outdid itself to 'attract' this wonderful new thing.
Remember when AOC took all that flak about protesting against $3.5 billion politicians in NYC had foolishly offered Amazon to open its HQ2 there? That
would have amounted to a $146,000 handout to Jeff Bezos per job that was promised, and now look what has happened to this pile of foolishness called Hudson Yards.
Maybe we need a new paradigm. Maybe seeking unlimited growth is as illusory as chasing unlimited power, as the Emperor Palpatine did in Star Wars. It is stupid over the long haul. You know, China was a victim of this - it has
huge empty cities it built, to which no one ever came. Brand new, shiny, and filled with the ghosts of the hopes of politicians and investors.
Here's my question to you:
What, do you wonder, will our economy look like on the other side of this pandemic? What will economic development look like? What will the workforce look like? How will the so-called 'power of place' evolve? Will cities continue to rule the economic roost? Suburbs? Exurbs? Will rural America have a new (virtual) economic awakening?
I really want to know what you all think because I am doing a research project on this.
