Downtown Population increased 25% since 2000 (Pittsburgh, Washington: low income, rentals, loft)

[pman]

Prantl's Bakery and Mancini Bread Company -- both long-time, local favorites -- now offer their popular loaves and desserts in a shared, freshly restored Market Street site.

The pair first joined hands in September 2008 to rent the former Jenny Lee bakery site on Market Square

Prantl's, Mancini's team for selection, not just the dough - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

[gg]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

I also think the emergence of wireless handheld devices is making the long driving commute very unappealing for younger people. I'd say something like 75% of the people under 40 on my commuter bus route use a handheld device (for something other than a phone call) at some point during the trip, often for the whole trip.

Exciting times!

[gg]

I really do think the younger people that are staying in Pittsburgh are going to help the cities population increase and the quality of life will also benefit. Here is an article that will also boost city living.

Oil's surge in 2010 paves the way for $4 gasoline - Yahoo! Finance (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Oils-surge-in-2010-paves-the-apf-1258480888.html?x=0 - broken link)

Who wants to deal with all that expense and time of commuting?

[BrianTH]

Yep, a lot of factors are moving in the same direction.

[Blackbeauty212]

More Downtown News

Report cites Downtown dynamics

I must say when I was in the burgh the last two weeks...I did notice Downtown has more life later into the night...where downtown was ghost town immediately after the Rush Hour (6pm sharp), it now seems to have a pulse until about 8-9pm, of course the Cultrual District goes later on days...

Downtown is ever so slowy moving in the right direction. I also think PAT plays a big part in this with TDP in full swing Suburban Express Buses seem to have later hours where the last bus was 5-6pm causing people to shoot straight for their buses rather than hang around downtown, they're now more like 7-8 for the last Express giving people an option to hang around...

[pman]

article from first post

Since the 2000 census, Downtown's population has increased 25 percent and stood at an estimated 2,148 as of the end of 2008...
Add 2,428 university and technical students, as well as 89 private houses and other housing and the total population within the Golden Triangle was about 4,576 at the end of 2008, according to the Downtown Partnership.
If the total from the greater Downtown area that includes North Shore, South Shore, Lower Hill, the near Strip (up to 26th Street) and the Uptown/Bluff area is included, there are an additional 3,897 housing units
By the end of 2009, the Downtown Partnership anticipates a greater Downtown residential population of 11,106. That consists of 4,936 household population and 6,170 students.

Landlords like chances for growing population in Downtown area - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

article from today

It only makes sense to make Downtown development more affordable, he said, because the residential population there has more than doubled in the past decade, from 3,050 to 7,260

Read more: Report cites Downtown dynamics

given that there are new developments in the pipeline, is this true or is this really saying it costs more than the rents the market would bear for many projects? I suppose credits to renovate the upper floors of buildings would indeed work some magic...perhaps be more effective than the abatement?

Also of concern: The cost of developing new housing Downtown is 25 percent higher than what the market will bear.

Read more: Report cites Downtown dynamics

in support of BB's point

The use of public transit also jumped, from 48 percent to 53 percent in the same period.

Read more: http://post-gazette.com/pg/11004/111...#ixzz1A5AYU6BD
one cause for concern is the loss of 10k jobs

[BrianTH]

Anecdotally, I know that the new extended hours for our express bus has helped us spend more post-work evenings Downtown.

I'd still suggest the growing Downtown population is most important, however. As the studies suggest, those people spend a lot of money Downtown on a regular basis.

Edit: I'm not surprised about the subsidies, since you are mostly talking about relatively expensive conversions of existing office/commercial spaces. At some point you may be able to pare back or eliminate the subsidies, but for now I think it is a good idea to continue them--and of course they can be recaptured in the form of wage taxes, property taxes, hotel taxes, and so on.

[pman]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Anecdotally, I know that the new extended hours for our express bus has helped us spend more post-work evenings Downtown.

I'd still suggest the growing Downtown population is most important, however. As the studies suggest, those people spend a lot of money Downtown on a regular basis.

Edit: I'm not surprised about the subsidies, since you are mostly talking about relatively expensive conversions of existing office/commercial spaces. At some point you may be able to pare back or eliminate the subsidies, but for now I think it is a good idea to continue them--and of course they can be recaptured in the form of wage taxes, property taxes, hotel taxes, and so on.

I'd set a goal of 20k residents by 2020...you want to keep an eye on jobs though...and the cost of transportation/parking...to some extent, growth in residents and night visitors can make up for lost office sector jobs but not too much.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by pman

I'd set a goal of 20k residents by 2020...you want to keep an eye on jobs though...and the cost of transportation/parking...to some extent, growth in residents and night visitors can make up for lost office sector jobs but not too much.

Encouraging Downtown residents could actually help moderate the transportation and parking issues Downtown (this is assuming Zipcar is sufficient to encourage a lot of Downtown residents to go carless, and most of the working residents also work in the Greater Downtown area or at least somewhere nearby on the transit network).

With a few exceptions, most of the new residential units should be going into underutilized spaces (new builds on surface parking lots, conversions of empty upper floors, and so forth), not displacing active office units. The limited exceptions (like the State Office Building and Verizon Building) will hopefully be more than made up for with new office buildings in or around Downtown--my vision is of a dense mixed-use zone that extends all the way from the North Side/North Shore through Downtown and the near Strip to the Lower Hill/Uptown/Bluff. When you put all that together, there is plenty of room for a lot more square footage of all kinds, and you are still talking about a pretty compact area.

20K residents by 2020 is ambitious but doable. Ultimately I'd like to see Downtown pushing toward 30-40K residents. That would be a population density in the 45-60K/square-mile range . . . certainly not unheard of in the denser parts of U.S. cities, although you would likely need some big new residential developments to make it.

[pman]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Encouraging Downtown residents could actually help moderate the transportation and parking issues Downtown (this is assuming Zipcar is sufficient to encourage a lot of Downtown residents to go carless, and most of the working residents also work in the Greater Downtown area or at least somewhere nearby on the transit network).

more downtown residents will probably translate into very little improvement in PAT ridership...increases in downtown nightlife and offpeak offerings on the other hand could well put butts in empty seats.

Originally Posted by BrianTH

With a few exceptions, most of the new residential units should be going into underutilized spaces (new builds on surface parking lots, conversions of empty upper floors, and so forth), not displacing active office units. The limited exceptions (like the State Office Building and Verizon Building) will hopefully be more than made up for with new office buildings in or around Downtown--my vision is of a dense mixed-use zone that extends all the way from the North Side/North Shore through Downtown and the near Strip to the Lower Hill/Uptown/Bluff. When you put all that together, there is plenty of room for a lot more square footage of all kinds, and you are still talking about a pretty compact area.

20K residents by 2020 is ambitious but doable. Ultimately I'd like to see Downtown pushing toward 30-40K residents. That would be a population density in the 45-60K/square-mile range . . . certainly not unheard of in the denser parts of U.S. cities, although you would likely need some big new residential developments to make it.

I wasn't concerned with displacement just the loss of jobs that report identified. it's possible it was recession related but downtown needs to hang on to the jobs it has (in number anyway, not necessarily the exact jobs) and add residents. overall I think that 30-40 is attainable but first you have to get to 20k...I think goals are best when ambitions but attainable. it would have to be a downtown partnership goal as political entities rarely have ambitious goals IMO..at least publicly.