Quote:
Originally Posted by racc
And further more, all the economic activity and thus taxes generated by new construction totally would overwhelm any temporary loss in property tax revenue. Parking garages in general are a poor use of expensive real estate from any point of view economically.
They are really ugly too and add nothing to the quality of the urban environment. I, for one, can't wait until the one across from Waterfront Station is gone. I would pay for an opportunity to knock a bit of it down.
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What do you know of economics? Show us your degree.
Any 12 year old could figure out that construction activity downtown, while a real economic driver, isn't permanent. It ends when you finish building a building. And eventually, you're going to run out of spots to build them.
The revenue from a parkade going, or even the revenues from a permanent economic contributer like... oh... say a fully leased office tower, will inevitably put far more money towards mass transit than another residential tower ever will. No matter what, both a commercial development and a residential development will produce revenues from construction. What really matters is which drives the economy more in the long term, a place where people earn money and contribute to the economy through the generation of wealth, or where they live and spend this earned wealth?
At the end of the day, we need both. But it's better to concentrate office development on the remaining Downtown properties available than residential. You can stick residential developments virtually anywhere, it isn't quite the same for major office space. And at some point, we will run out of commercial space, likely long before we run out of residential space.