Quote:
Originally Posted by Kingofthehill
Great tour! The new homes in those photos look abhorring, though. Why do American cities have such a hard time with building good-looking infill?
Is Chicago the last big, urban city doing strip malls? It really is disheartening to see that they *still* are building that shit. Same for the stand-alone banks and drive-thru restaurants. You would think that since we are in the 2010s, the popular consensus for the construction of such would, unequivocally, be "No". I don't even think LA is doing strip malls these days!  |
I hard to get developers to build quality infill in poor or rebounding neighborhoods for two reasons. (1) Sometimes they build "as of right", meaning they own the land, meet the zoning criteria and, need nothing from the city. In these cases they slip thru the permit process w/o the community's input. Usually the alderman is contacted by the Dept. of Buildings by mail. If they can't contact the developer, you usually get the shit that you dislike. (2) In poorer hoods, the developers will not invest a lot of effort in designing quality buildings. Most alderman will not challenge those developers because they are desperate and don't want to chase development away. Elections are lost that way.
For the most part strip malls are not being built in the city. There are some areas of the city, mostly poorer neighborhoods, where smaller strip centers are being built. In the more affluent areas, residents are more vocal about their dislike for this type of development.