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May 16, 2006
May I Build Something in Your Neighborhood?
How About a Skating Rink?
Civic Strategies
What? Developers who get projects done by reaching out to the community? Listening? Negotiating? And they still make a profit?
That's crazy talk:
To most people's minds, real estate developers and neighborhood activists are the Mars and Venus of urban politics, meant never to talk civilly with one another, nevertheless get along. And no question, the history of building new things in old neighborhoods is filled with tales of broken promises, end-runs, threats and screaming matches. But some developers are reaching across that reservoir of mistrust these days. What they're finding is, if not open arms, at least a willingness to listen, talk and, in time, even work together.
The Wall Street Journal recently profiled such a developer, Rick Caruso of Los Angeles, who has learned to do what others couldn't, which is include neighborhood associations in designing his projects. Caruso is no bleeding heart; he's a bottom-line guy, and there's a limit to how much he far he can go with neighborhood demands. "The question," he told the Journal, "is how many (neighborhood) benefits a project can support before it no longer makes sense."
Posted by lumi at May 16, 2006 7:14 AM