Originally Posted by raider.adam

I wouldn't say steady. I think there have been significant points to mark their decline.

Basically, the poor have to live somewhere and the poor have trouble maintaining homes due to lack of funds. Also, poor areas tend to have higher crime rates, so less middle class investment.

Add in the fact the poor have to live somewhere, they tend to congregate in groups due to housing pricing.

The best way to solve the problem is not throw money at it but to make sure the children and adults are properly educated (which they haven't been) and have jobs available for them to get out of low income life into middle income.

Building a bunch of new houses and giving them to people that can't afford to take care of them only helps a neighborhood for 5-10 years.

Government needs to give people the tools to have people improve their communities and the people then need to use them. That is what makes improvement sustainable.

Getting mad at a private corporation building a for profit building in the commercial sector, which will hopefully create jobs, is not the route to go.

Originally Posted by Swinefeld

Skyscrapers create JOBS! Jobs give people money to start living and contribute to society. They give people a chance to be useful and they contribute to the city's tax base and overall vitality.

Originally Posted by logansquare

Ding, Ding, Ding -- indeed, this is what we need to be moving towards -- with better zoning code (I guess two years coming now) Developers won't be held hostage by neighborhood organizations.

I am thinking of starting my own PRO-development neighborhood organization.

Originally Posted by phillyzcool

Easy now. Skyscrapers are just buildings. New skyscrapers do not create jobs. Just ask the commercial RE developers what happened in the late 80's when all those new buildings were built and the tenants didn't materialize for another decade. Remember, "Build it and they will come" is just a line from a movie!

New/expanding businesses create jobs. If Nutter finds ways to attract new business, we can fill up a skyscraper.

I'm not saying that this particular building is a good or bad idea, btw. I'm just saying that a skyscraper alone will not necessarily help our local economy.

Originally Posted by MayfairLover

Seems like we've been waiting for quite a while now... (taps foot)
This "eventually" you speak of,.. decades upon decades?
It seems to me the North Philly/West Philly areas have been on a steady decline since the 60's.

Originally Posted by Hospitalitygirl

Well, there are those pesky little construction jobs.

Originally Posted by mpennsky

With those union workers

Originally Posted by Hospitalitygirl

And?

If the financing is in place for this construction, then those costs should have been factored in. If the numbers still work, what's the problem?

Originally Posted by mpennsky

and maybe they can hire more to install plumbing to nowhere like the Comcast Tower