The Opportunity

Empty or underused commercial space along transit corridors, like the bus-rapid transit line between Albany and Schenectady, could be redeveloped for a more sustainable future. Photo credit: blog.timesunion.com

Today, a half century, plus or minus, since Levittown and the beginnings of the Interstate system, there is an opportunity for an ingathering of the detritus of the sprawl system made possible in part by the proliferation of strategically located vacant commercial and retail properties.

Background

Like a wind-driven storm surge rolling over and changing the landscape, the demographic pulse of the post-World War II baby boom flowed across the land – touching just about everywhere and rearranging society and its institutions. The population bulge, and most particularly, the younger boomers, people born 1954-1964, arrived in such large numbers relative to anything that had ever happened before or for decades, in a much larger America, since.

Grade Schools and University were built to teach them. Homes were built, developments sprouted, towns grew and our American places sprawled. Farmland, forests wetlands and habitat disappeared.

Interstates proliferated and provided access. Home prices rose. Malls emerged. Retail prospered. Office space expanded. The stock markets surged.

Suburbia extended in leaps and bounds. The rich got richer. Exurbia appended. Meanwhile…

Our cities declined, were hollowed out, grew unsafe. Transit systems suffered. Air, water and food became threatened.

Government, ever trying to make all happy, grew big and weak trying to shore up and support the once dense while hopelessly chasing after the expanding, inefficient needs of the spread. Then, the bubbles burst — oil shocks, debt, high tech, real estate, debt, banking, and the auto industry. Did I mention debt? The poor got poorer.

Then suburbia went bad — abandoned strip malls, failed shopping centers, empty car lots, seas of unwanted, aging, runoff-inducing asphalt everywhere. Inequities exploded.

Redeveloping former strip malls, car lots, and vacant shopping centers, if done right, can accommodate:

1. The soon to be displaced working class populations of our fast-gentrifying cities and main streets;
2. The young in search of denser, livelier and affordable options;
3. The ex-exurbanite or suburbanite fleeing high energy and home maintenance costs in a world of declining home values;
4. The swollen ranks of the disabled engorged by the epidemics of obesity and diabetes;
5. The multi-lingual pulse of new immigrants still coming, needing housing, willing to work and yearning to breathe free.

Empire State Future will seek to advance pilot projects in New YorkState. We will work to see an assemblage of a property inventory: the number of vacant or derelict suburban strips, empty shopping centers, closed auto dealerships, etc. We will call for the priority in data gathering for properties that could be transit-oriented reuse opportunities. Sites that are along bus routes that have the potential to increase service (Bus Rapid Transit) or lead to important job centers are strongly preferred. The likelihood of redevelopment of these transit accessible sites could be enhanced through public investments in water, sewer, Complete Streets infrastructure and transit enhancements.

We will continue to make the case that gentrification and displacement may occur in urban areas that do not adequately provide affordable housing opportunities near urban amenities (close by jobs, transit, smaller rentals).

Providing equitable and affirmatively marketed opportunities, that maximize opportunities for minority and low-income communities, should be a stated goal in any redevelopment.  Universally accessible designs that are tailored to our elderly and disabled will be encouraged as well as features that improve our environment and are designed with respect to Climate Change realities and the needs of those displaced.

Lastly, we will research and identify best practices in mixed-use conversions (percentage of retail, commercial, residential – owner occupied, rental, affordable, cost, time frame, etc.), and assist in identifying pending markets. We will share research with New York State developers interested in a New York State pilot project.