Raise the Hammer

"Continued speculation is particularly antisocial and perverse, because the speculators' land value will rise only once other, more responsible and dynamic, land owners develop their nearby properties."

"Unfortunately, however, that has not led the old guard of parasitic "developers", i.e. property speculators, to develop or sell many of the surface parking lots, used car lots and vacant sites they have been holding onto for decades."

Although I will be covering this in an upcoming Spec op-ed, I feel obliged to at least comment briefly (!), here.

We're in a (relatively) free-market, capitalist system. There absolutely are some ridiculous flaws, stuff that really needs to be dealt with. No argument here.

But developers, no matter what kind of brush you feel compelled to paint them with, operate within this system. In the end, not to put too fine a point on it, they will develop when they feel that the return on their investment is such that it benefits them. And not before.

Let me be clear: I mourn for the downtown every time I'm there, which is often every day of the week. I'm old enough to remember two interludes in its history when it was thriving. (The mid-60s and from about '75-85, each era with its distinct profile.) I mourn the loss of The Century theatre (a building that did not need to be torn down), especially in light of the fact that this was done in 2011, and it's still laying fallow. I still mourn the loss of The Capitol and The Palace, two Thomas W. Lamb buildings, two architectural gems. And I'm constantly enraged when a situation like the Blanchard non-development unfolds. However...

It would behoove anyone who, constantly tending to their high dudgeon, rants about this intolerable set of circumstances, to do as much research in development as they tend to be inclined to do towards something like, for example, LRT, a subject that at least a few on this blog unconsciously believe they're 'experts' on. (Throw in 'urbanism' as another example.)

These 'evil developers' are people, plain and simple. (No matter their legal status as, say, corporations.) Their morals may be suspect in your eyes, but they're not sitting around rubbing their hands together laughing maniacally at how their despicable speculations are panning out. They're looking at maximizing their investments. You may feel that what they engage in is reprehensible. The stuff deserving of damnation. But to do so without generating a solid understanding of how things work is, at the very least, disingenuous.

The downtown...you know, as in Raise the Downtown...will morph pretty much within the circumstances it's meant to. That is, beyond any controls that some would prefer to be in place. In the meantime, energies currently projected onto Those Who Will Not Behave As We'd Like could be better used in efforts to effect change in aspects of Life in Hamilton towards the eventual development of the properties currently laying in wait.

Comment edited by ItJustIs on 2015-05-06 11:08:45