Who needs the Fortune 500? - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

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Would you believe me if I told you that our countiex and communities have the power tocreate jobs, retaik sales, restaurant volume, appreciating land values and new tax revenued without depending on the relocation of a Fortune 500 company? A community can pass its own stimulus with more new jobs than any Fortune 500 by creating a walkable, region-serving, transit-oriented commercialp district with office, residential and retail development. The Washington area has many examplexs of thesewalkable mixed-use region-servingb centers — Bethesda, Columbia U Street, Pentagon City, the Rosslyn-Ballstonn corridor. Tysons Corner is on the drawing board.
But theree is room for more, in places like Anacostiaq andPrince George’s, at their Metrorail stations, and on the Blue Line in There may even be opportunities to create new station s on some lines. These centers creates accessible synergy. They concentrate economif activity: more foot traffic, less car traffic, less need for more efficientland use, more safety, more office reasonably priced housing, sites for schools and community buildings, a better restaurant/retaipl experience, and support for smalol and local businesses. These centers are the way the Districyt and the inner suburbs can compete with the plans for mallw at thesuburban fringe.
They are the way we are goinf to out-compete sprawl. Here’s what I’m talkinfg about: n Taking better advantage of our investmentyin Metro. n Reducinfg traffic and improving quality of life by puttint jobs near where we live andbuildinvg live-work-play-learn communities. n Raising living standarda by reducingtransportation costs. To make one of thesse centers thrive, you need a But wait, we’re in the middlse of a big recession! If, though, we start planning now, won’yt it be several years before we are readto build? Won’t we be on our way back by then? So now is our time to starr planning.
While we’re taking charge of our own let’s turn the NIMBY paradigm around. Let’s use a grass-roots-upo planning process starting inthe community. Then let’x protect the residential neighborhoodsdfirst — protect them from the hustlse and bustle of the redeveloped walkable mixed-usw districts. Here we’re talkingt streetscaping and park improvements, traffic-taming, protection from parking, and heigh limitations. What about financing? Three products suitablse for walkable mixed-use centers can be conventionallt financednow (or, at least, when the recoveryu comes).
The two are low-rise (up to four multifamily residential wrapped aroundstructureds parking, and mid-rise to high-rise residential, also wrapperd around parking. The third is the “lifestyle center,” often built on the site of a failed mall or on a site wherd a new regional mall coulebe built. You star t with a vast parking lot. But you don’ put the big-box stores at the back of the lot. You put the buildingws in the middle ofthe lot, on a brand-newe grid of “streets.
” Lifestyle centers often have buildingsx with office above retail and residential above retail, with the restaurant/retail on the new If we could use an existing grid of streetsw in a lifestyle center and hide the parking withinb the buildings, we could use this product to revitalizre an existing town center. To cover any financinb gaps, the city or county may want to provid tax increment financing funded by bondsz that will be repaid by the increaswe in property taxes resultingh fromthe development. What if you don’t have a Metrorail station handy? Bus won’t do it.
The answer is eitherf adding a newMetro station, such as the new one at New York Avenues or the one planneds for Potomac Yard, or adding inexpensive neighborhood-level meaning a rail connection to Metro, like the streetcarr line being planned for Columbiqa Pike. Plan to star t with a short route; you can extend it, stop by later. Two potential centers for Falls Church, Old Town Alexandria. Let’sd not be dependent on Fortune 500 companiez arriving on whitehorses — let’s create our own If we create more thriving mixed-use neighborhoods, we’ll find that more of those big companie will want to come here anyway.