It's not about the retail, stupid

In my work I often talk about the need for communities to "get retail ready", but the truth is, it's all a ruse. What I'm often really saying is "please don't use your limited resources for retail attraction  just yet, because frankly you've got lots of other things to worry about!" The truth is, great retail streets are a manifestation of the communities that surround them, not the other way around. There is a maxim in retail that most can recite and that holds true here: "retail follows rooftops."

As a community development practitioner - which is truly what I am - I take this maxim very seriously. In urban communities where population decline has left pockets of poverty and what we have come to call "shrinking cities", the lack of rooftops is a major challenge. So often, the first step in building a great retail district begins with building rooftops - and the ensuing density and market demand that is ultimately required to support businesses.

In 2013, the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development asked our firm to lead an assessment of the economic development activities of community development corporations in New York City. The final report, entitled "Roadmap for Equitable Economic Development" laid out a framework for supporting the natural evolution of the community development industry. More and more, CDCs are building upon their success in housing construction (i.e. those all so important "rooftops") and expanding their role into a wider variety of community development activities, including small business support, commercial corridor improvement efforts, land use advocacy and workforce training, to name a few. This is truly a natural outgrowth that reflects the success they have had in community building efforts - success that has now positioned many of these groups to take on a new role - improving local commercial corridors and ensuring that residents have access to vital goods and services.

The hierarchy of community development, from ANHD's
"Roadmap for Equitable Development"

But let us not forget that getting there took decades - and the work is far from done. We must ensure that this work remains funded through financial tools that have played an instrumental role in helping to build much needed affordable housing.

I share all this because we recently started a project in a challenging urban community in New Jersey. At a forum discussion with local residents it quickly became clear that retail was a concern, but perhaps not a priority. What emerged was a portrait of a deeply troubled community where the complicated issues of poverty, lack of viable job opportunities and rampant crime were first and foremost on people's minds. One participant shared her experience holding a young boy in her arms after he had been shot and going through two towels to keep him from bleeding out. Her struggles are real. The challenges of her community are real. The fact that loitering at the local bodega might result in an assault, robbery or worse are real. In this kind of environment, local businesses struggle just like everybody else. They often cover window openings - or worse remove them entirely - to prevent being cased by thieves. Local business owners struggle to make ends meet, deferring investments and maintenance that might make them more attractive places to shop. It's a deadening cycle that can be difficult to break.

In the end, these efforts are really about improving the market dynamics of community, which may mean spending 15 years on housing development. So in the beginning, it may not really be about the retail, that might have to come later.

Landlords start rejecting package delivery. What does this mean for city life?

It seems that apartment dwellers are facing down with landlords in the delivery wars. As Laura Kusisto writes in the Wall Street Journal ("Web-Shopping Deluge Boxes in Landlords", WSJ, 10/20/15), one of the nation's largest apartment operators has stopped accepting deliveries to avoid the complications of managing what have become mini-post offices in their buildings. However, not every landlord is scrapping package acceptance, and the article seems to suggest that the failure of a building to accept packages has a number of tenants riled up enough to move when their lease expires. Yet it is notable - and perhaps an inevitable outcome - that concerns of landlords are occurring at precisely the same time as people are buying more and more on-line.

So how might this trend impact our local commercial districts, particularly in urban areas where most of these apartment dwellers reside? Will limited package delivery encourage residents to purchase certain goods and services at brick-and-mortar stores? For certain specialty goods - the saved time, energy and cost might make the additional hassles of delivery worth it for the consumer. I might, for instance, choose to send a special package to my office and tote it home because finding that particular item in a store might take too much time. But for convenience goods, it is likely that the lack of delivery will have an impact. If you are now required to go to your local Fed Ex store (good luck getting there before it closes!) the inconvenience of that extra trip makes local shopping a little more worthwhile. These days time is money, and the availability and ease of on-line shopping has increasingly made it a viable alternative to the brick-and-mortar store. But if landlords start making delivery hard, the pendulum might just start swinging back in the other direction.