Kolek planning to go pro
Real questions about where cities in the West are going to get their water from if they continue to grow. That's a way bigger issue than homelessness.
I have no love for either party, but a comment from British Prime Minister Maggie Thatcher years ago was SO spot on: "The problem with socialism is that sooner or later, you run out of other people's money." I love the quote because it clearly identifies how governments do what they do.
Homelessness is a problem? I think I can come up with a solution...
First of all, Marquette isn't moving. Ever.Second, Marquette's mission is to Milwaukee, Wisconsin and the Midwest first. Marquette's commitment to the inner city is an essential part of the Jesuit mission of Men and Women for Others. The notion of Marquette on some leafy green campus in Mequon or Cudahy is theoretically appealing to suburbanites but not in keeping with who we are.
I'm just self aware. The meme doesn't fit here.
You made money the old fashioned way then, aina?
Porky concurs with Dgies and The Sultan. MU is not moving nor should it and it's urban location is its greatest strength! That said, Heisenberg is absolutely correct in acknowledging WASH U in STL as a great example of a National University that is thriving in an extremely declining area. It's not just perceived to be a National University. It is one in every sense of the word. MU may perceive itself as a National University but isn't remotely close to one in Porky's opinion with 75% of all undergrads hailing from two states. Wash U actually brags that 70% of its undergrads grew up more than 500 miles from STL. MU isn't ever going to achieve that and that's ok. Unlike downtown STL though, downtown MKE seems to be thriving. Porky's been to MKE twice this year already and Downtown was packed both times and lots of new hotels have been built in the last few years as well. MU needs to branch out and attract a lot more students from other parts of the country. That doesn't mean MU is abandoning its commitment to MKE in general or it's inner city in particular. Porky would argue strongly that if MU adopted such a strategy, the city of MKE would be strengthened considerably and might be able to offer more scholarships for qualified inner city MKE students to attend MU. The stronger MU becomes the stronger MKE becomes!
Interesting subject. NYC may be a bad example since it's an international city that doesn't really have a downtown in the same sense as MKE, but it's largely recovered from the pandemic. On any given evening, almost all decent restaurants and bars are packed in both midtown and the residential areas of Manhattan, and the better parts of Brooklyn. Rents are the highest they've ever been and demand among young people and recent college grads to live in NYC is as strong as it's always been. Anecdotally, Porky's been fielding 2-3 linkedin connection requests a week for the past two months from current MU seniors looking for jobs in NYC.The one area that still hasn't yet recovered is return to offices. It's better than it was this time last year, but most suburban folk like Porky are only commuting to the office 2-3x per week, so businesses that are dependent on commuters are still struggling, although not to the same extent that they were a year or two ago.
So, if the answer is MU will never move, and that is a reasonable argument, then either MU has to transcend the plight of being in a big northern city, like Wash U, or it will be worse in 5 to 10 years, and decline further in 15 to 20 years.
Office usage in NYC is 50% of pre-pandemic. And it is setting NYC back.Bloomberg detailed this a few months ago.https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2023-manhattan-work-from-home/Remote Work Is Costing Manhattan More Than $12 Billion a YearThree years into the pandemic, business leaders and city officials around the world are still trying just about everything to lure employees back into offices and revive local economies. But new data on in-person work analyzed by Bloomberg News show that in a number of cities across the US, Fridays at the office are dead. Mondays are a crapshoot. And returning to pre-pandemic work schedules looks like a lost cause.The supply of NYC restaurants is way down versus pre-pandemic. https://ny.eater.com/2023/2/3/23580317/nyc-restaurant-closings-february-2023#:~:text=Close%20to%20three%20years%20after,caused%20by%20the%20coronavirus%20pandemic.Close to three years after New York’s first indoor dining shutdown, restaurants and bars continue to struggle. More than 4,500 have closed since the onset of the pandemic due to the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Since it’s difficult to track restaurant and bar closings, experts say that number is likely much higher and will take years to fully assess.Rents are also a poor metric of the health of a city. https://www.curbed.com/2023/01/nyc-real-estate-covid-more-apartments-higher-rent.htmlNew Yorkers Never Came ‘Flooding Back.’ Why Did Rents Go Up So Much? Getting to the bottom of a COVID-era real estate mystery.
I think he just wants to have a discussion. The trap is that there is often a conclusion made with political undertones added.The reality is that cities will continue to grow and rural America will become smaller and smaller. Trying to pin this trend on one thing or another is a fool's errand.There are a myriad of reasons why populations grow in one place, and shrink in another, and then change back over time. If you want my true opinion, Heise 2.0 has always presented himself as a conservative around here, and he is trying to correlate an uptick in crime with a decrease in urban populations. That is his political undertone, and his argument is wafer thin. But most people are simple. They want logic or data to all fit nicely into one box or another. It doesn't. You can't describe why anything as complex as population variation over time in a single sentence. But "crime is bad in big scary cities and that's why people are fleeing in record numbers" is a great way to drive clicks to a website or draw eyes to a television. ESPECIALLY, if the person who is reading or watching has recently moved away from a city or is considering moving away from an urban area. It adds to their confirmation bias that they've made a smart decision. A little dopamine is released, and they run and tell their friends.
Rents are also a poor metric of the health of a city. https://www.curbed.com/2023/01/nyc-real-estate-covid-more-apartments-higher-rent.htmlNew Yorkers Never Came ‘Flooding Back.’ Why Did Rents Go Up So Much? Getting to the bottom of a COVID-era real estate mystery.
You found a guy that writes for teh entertainment section of NYMag. Also, in his own article, he called his point a "conspiracy theory."I get that you have strong opinions, but you need to get better at finding sources to back them up. How about Manhattan rentals months of supply, listing inventory, and new leases (source for the charts below: https://millersamuel.com/charts-category/manhattan/)Interesting how the inventory tracks with the prices. Seems like things are starting to normalizeAnd home sales have recovered nicely in Manhattan as well, moving as quick as ever in spite of rate spikesAlso, regarding restaurants returning to business centers due to WFH, here's a much better source with much better data: https://www.osc.state.ny.us/osdc/reports/nyc-sectors/restaurantBusiness centers will have to pivot. They already are in major metros, with those former business centers spiking in population. Funny enough, it's much easier to convert the ancient buildings into condos/lofts than it is to convert the newer construction. Commercial real estate folks will have to figure it out. I can't imagine what they're going to do with those nightmarish suburban 4-story office parks once everyone's leases are up. Nobody wanted to be in those in the first place.
Good postBut I remind everyone that every city has a hot trending neighborhood, and always will. Third Ward in Milwaukee, Fulton Market in Chicago, FiDi (Financial District) in NYC.And it is a gigantic mistake to think that one hot neighborhood means all is well.
I'll say it again!If you want to revive struggling urban neighborhoods, promote an active and vibrant GAY AND LESBIAN COMMUNITY.Where gays and lesbians have been allowed to prosper, the city around them prospers as well. They bring talent -- lots of it -- along with creativity and an understanding of the possible that stretches expectations.In San Francisco a few years ago, enough straights were buying around the Castro that the gays were afraid they would soon lose their community. The gays provided the seed to upgrade the community and sure enough, the straights soon followed. Enough that the gays felt they were being bought out.The conservative Christians have it all wrong -- it's in their economic interest to foster cooperation with the Gays! The sooner they do, the better our cities will be. Maybe we might even have understanding!
The population of Milwaukee and Chicago are declining, which is a big problem for an institution I care about ... MU.
AGAIN, the population of the greater Chicago metro area is actually growing. Don’t you think Marquette gets students from Deerfield, Wilmette, Naperville, Homewood, Gurnee, Tinley Park and Park Ridge?