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Economy
'Urban Doom Loop' Hits Midwest
2023-06-26
[ZERO] Last year, NYU economist Arpit Gupta used the phrase "urban doom loop" to describe a decline of foot traffic in central business districts, which "adversely affects the urban core in a variety of ways," including lowering municipal revenues, and making it more challenging to provide public goods and services without increasing taxes.
Bruce School, Future City, IL
Now, as Insider's Eliza Relman writes, the 'Urban Doom Loop' has hit the heartland, as Midwestern states are facing a crisis of their own; struggling to attract workers, residents, and visitors to their downtowns - a problem which predates the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to economists and urban planners, Midwestern cities need to make major changes in order to boost quality of life in their downtowns, instead of just being a place where people are forced to go to work.
Posted by:Besoeker

#15  Last two times I was in a big downtown after dark, it was Dallas and Indianapolis and both times it was during the NRA convention and everyone I was walking around with was heeled.
Posted by: M. Murcek   2023-06-26 15:52  

#14  Unless I have to visit some business in an office tower, you'd never find me downtown in a big city. Why would I be? To enjoy the vibrancy (crime and drug abuse)? To go to some club that is exactly where I don't want to be after last call? To get caught in a mostly peaceful mass shooting on some holiday I don't observe?
Posted by: M. Murcek   2023-06-26 15:50  

#13  You go into a store looking for an item, you name it, any item, and the clerk tells you they don't have it in stock but you can order it online. After a while you don't bother going into the store anymore. Neither does anybody else so the store closes. More stores close. Tax revenue declines. The city dies. Everybody sits at home waiting for the Amazon, UPS or FedEx truck. But then the shirt you ordered doesn't fit because there are no dressing rooms online. The fabric doesn't feel right because some idiot at Amazon gave you polyester instead of cotton. You find the pants were Made in China because you can't read the label online. It costs you more to ship the item back to Amazon that the item costs so you throw it in the trash. All your socks have holes in them and you don't know where to get new ones.
Posted by: Abu Uluque   2023-06-26 15:11  

#12  The Electoral College makes the Red State and Blue State model useful. The Blue Cities in the Mid West seem more like a Blue Donut of liberal suburbs surrounding an increasingly empty downtown. The Libs are dispersed but not far away from each other.
Posted by: Super Hose   2023-06-26 12:37  

#11   Several "blue" states are actually red if you subtract one or two large urban areas where the left controls all the levers of power.

2020 Election map by county
Quite a different picture from the tradition Red state vs Blue state view. It all depends on how you slice and dice the data.
Posted by: SteveS   2023-06-26 10:34  

#10  Phoenix's tent city population INCREASED by more than 100 people despite massive effort to clear blocks of homeless people in controversial rehousing program
Posted by: Skidmark   2023-06-26 10:17  

#9  There was some guy who said he could kill 25 key people and destroy the left in America. I think the same could probably be said for maybe a dozen big cities.
Posted by: M. Murcek   2023-06-26 09:52  

#8  /\ Fulton County, GA being a prime example.
Posted by: Besoeker   2023-06-26 09:50  

#7  ^ Several "blue" states are actually red if you subtract one or two large urban areas where the left controls all the levers of power.
Posted by: M. Murcek   2023-06-26 09:49  

#6  A continuation of processes that have been on the move for 50 years or so.
Who is concerned? Bankers who are invested in urban real estate, and politicians who wish to control said real estate. They tell the rest of us that it's important to be in an urban area, because because.
Since towns stopped needing to be inside defensible walls, what's kept cities going has mostly been convenience and inertia.
Posted by: ed in texas   2023-06-26 09:44  

#5  Texas developer says Austin’s historic Sixth Street in ‘death spiral,’ aims to make area family friendly
Posted by: Skidmark   2023-06-26 09:34  

#4  
Posted by: DooDahMan   2023-06-26 08:25  

#3  Urbanism is a failed model. The gummint will continue to smear lipstick it cannot afford on the pig carcass.
Posted by: M. Murcek   2023-06-26 07:48  

#2  'Urban Doom Loop' Hit Midwest circa 1969.
Posted by: Besoeker   2023-06-26 07:45  

#1  Midwestern cities need to make major changes in order to boost quality of life in their downtowns,

Unlike our commie brethren by prioritizing accommodations for druggies, zombies, and feral urban utes.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2023-06-26 07:30  

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