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If I may go on something of a rant, I want to talk about the ways in which state/county/city policies are set up to take a place like Midway in St Paul and actively incentivize gentrification. https://twitter.com/MnNiceFC/status/1357366064275984385
(Caveat, I think gentrification is often broadly thrown around to just mean “development I don’t like” but I mean 2 things: 1) the movement of wealth from inside the community to outside
2) the upward spiral of development of middle class (often white) taste that prices out existing consumer needs (e.g. fancy coffeeshop instead of hair salon). (fancy coffeeshops are good, but, you know...)
Empty storefronts. Owners can often set a rental price above current market, waiting for the market to meet their price. The businesses that can meet that raised price are, you guessed it, either existing businesses (another sprint store!) or the yuppy kind that can charge more.
The storefront sits empty and the landlord writes off losses while less established businesses are disincentivized from moving in and starting up.
Empty lots. Developed lots pay more in taxes than empty lots. So someone who looked at the MNUFC stadium can buy a lot and assume that as the neighborhood grows, this will be a golden ticket (and they might not be wrong).
Now, because they pay less in taxes, they have no incentive to develop it themselves and put a business in. And because property taxes are far lower than the rate of land price growth, that means they have no incentive to actually sell the lot.
They could sell it to some random person who wants to build an ice cream shop, but they know that eventually there will be a big developer who will pay more for it.
So the only incentive is to sit on the speculation until the biggest possible developer comes in a decade later and gives you a profit of 10x what you’ve lost in taxes.
If you drive around Midway there are empty storefronts, housing, and lots and our state, county, and city have actively encouraged the situation. It’s time we started to think of mechanisms that can shift the incentives.
This is the end of the planned rant. I'm less schooled in the mechanisms. I'm just a simple frozen caveman bar owner. But 1 is forcing all properties to register as unoccupied & charging a fee. Lots of cities do this.
Another is raising taxes. You pay more in taxes on a home you don't reside in, you should pay more in taxes on undeveloped and empty sites.
We could also seize all commercial land and put it in the hands of the workers. UNITE!
But until then, we need more community co-ops for commercial land (Midway has one!).
Ok. I think I'm done, until 30 minutes from now when I have more thoughts.
But until then, we need more community co-ops for commercial land (Midway has one!).
Ok. I think I'm done, until 30 minutes from now when I have more thoughts.
