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Old Posted Feb 4, 2013, 5:12 AM
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wburg wburg is offline
Hindrance to Development
 
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 2,402
Well, actually, before light rail was built, there were a lot more parking lots downtown, on blocks cleared during the redevelopment era. One of my more prized possessions is a gigantic 4'x4' aerial photo of downtown Sacramento taken in 1974, showing most of the downtown core north of P Street and west of 16th Street. Just from a rough count, there are about 15-20 city blocks that were parking lots in 1974 (and were neighborhoods before the 1950s/60s redevelopment era) that are now occupied by buildings of one type or another--mostly by offices, but some by new residential buildings. And "not a ton" of infill actually is an understatement, in that there actually has been a lot of recent infill just in the past few years, as urban planning theory, zoning codes, and city government have caught up with the idea of residential urban infill. We're in the middle of a small infill boom--maybe you don't get out enough to see it!

I think you're under the impression that light rail was intended to bring massive population density to the central city and stop people from wanting to live in the suburbs--it wasn't. It is intended primarily as a commuter system, as that's what light rail is intended to do--move commuters in and out of a downtown core. That's not all it is good for, a point seemingly lost on you, and light rail (or any other transit system) doesn't stimulate infill in and of itself (which requires other changes like zoning policy, limitations on outward suburban growth, and enough economic pressure to drive demand for infill/TOD housing.) Streetcars (which don't work quite like light rail) are actually better at being "density-oriented transit" because they move within a neighborhood or between adjacent neighborhoods rather than throughout a region. But light rail does what it is designed to do--and by that metric, it's one of the most successful systems of its type in the country.

I suppose I'm not really sure what your expectations are for the central city, Ozone. Do you expect to everyone in the Sacramento region to live downtown?
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