If anyone has recently, or even years ago, come across any useful literature regarding downtown/urban residential markets, I would greatly appreciate links to those articles.
I am trying to refine my argument in advocating for investing in Moncton's downtown; however, I am having difficultly in the region as I've found people are totally uninterested in sustainable development.
I am frequently encountering a complete indifference from people in the Greater Moncton Area concerning the climbing debts of municipal governments, and obviously the provincial government, much of which is infrastructural debt.
I am hearing too often that, while debt is a concern, debt from the construction of new roads and highways is necessary for New Brunswick to burden because "no one
wants to live in the downtown."
And no one wants to live in a business park either.
The space between where people live and where people work and where people go to school and where people shop is growing in Moncton -- a pattern of city-building that is clearly unsustainable according to the city's budgets.
Many New Brunswickers with whom I've spoken downright say that absolutely no one should be living in downtowns of any city. Downtowns are, apparently, horrible places to raise families.
(For the cities in New Brunswick, this may certainly be the case)
I am trying to combat this mythology, this belief that developing the downtown is a wasted investment. Downtowns are for office towers, restaurants, roads, and nothing else...
I have argued that the majority of the new working demographics in Canada, fresh out of college/university with LOTS of student loan and credit card debt, are desiring to live in more urbanised settings due to the potential for finding a job and the potential for living more affordably, with the use of public transit instead of payments toward vehicle ownership, with the use of public green spaces instead of forking over money toward the property of land, with use of public forms of entertainment instead of paying for everything during your moments when you're not working, etc...
Aside from the monetary factors that are forcing people to live in urban areas, can anyone provide links to information showing that people are
wanting to live in urban areas?
Are there statistics showing that families
do want to live in the downtowns of cities, in which they raise healthy, happy children? I have seen cities with beautiful, diverse downtowns where many families (which are increasingly non-traditional in nature) thrive quite well. Me telling people what I've personally seen, however, is a poor subsitute to providing numbers to back my support for Moncton's downtown.
Absolutely any reading material is appreciated!