Glad you asked.
Juxtapose this with the recent pull-back on drones--the latest toys for the boys. The big showstopper seems to be funding, but calling that out resulted in a closer analysis of, justification for, these drones, where it was revealed these have limited range and are basically useless outside the Perimeter area. Something about a radar unit on a Ravinia tower. To be fair, Perimeter is the source of a large portion of city revenue, and as has been pointed out by our elected officials, is also a crime hotspot. The reasons, or ponderings, range from lots of retail attracting thievery, to "this is what happens when you pack folks in real tight."
So the chirpers have a fix (double entendre intended): let's bring high density, retail and housing, to daVille. They're dreaming of shops and restaurants, and of course the housing required to obtain footfalls to make any of this viable. Only it kinda isn't.
Sunday's AJC had a relevant article regarding the devolution of West Midtown from a funky, innovative center with top notch, locally owned, award winning restaurants, to, well, not. Seems all these cool, local and relatively small enterprises cannot survive the "revitalization" of these mega, mixed use (nee live-work-play) developments. This happens because developers create enormous spaces, because it is less effort to lease out a large footprint restaurant space than, say, three smaller ones. That level of rent, and high upfront costs to equip a space to be a usable restaurant prices the award-winning, local, but small entrepreneurs out of the market. You end up with deep-pocket, national chains selling overpriced commodity food and experiences. Think: mid-level airport eateries, like you'd find at JFK. That's exactly what the chirpers are clamoring for in daVille.
The damage is already done at Perimeter. Sharing it with other parts of Dunwoody will not fix anything.
Posts
