Underrated Growth of Central Business Districts of Large Cities?

[Builder Refused]

Hoboken, NJ is in a state of continual war as big time developers try to break out of the bulk constraints to build residential buildings much taller than the 4 to 5 story structures currently allowed. That is why the one square mile city went from 50,000 to 60,000 in the last 10 years.

Meanwhile, Jersey City has no interest in giving any ground to the anti-development types in the so-called "war", transcending the absurdity altogether and not conceding any ground to the NIMBYs. It's also much more affordable. Wonder why that is...

Setting aside how the Mayor of Jersey City is the most based person in America and discussing the thread in general, this should be pretty intuitive. The overwhelming majority of new housing stock in America is 1) sprawl on the built-up fringe or 2) infill wherever permits can be pulled in top 35 metros (in areas that are already built up so replacing 3-4 story buildings with 3-4 story buildings wouldn't add any density.) For an example of this, you can see that basically the fastest growing parts of the DC metro have been Navy Yard, NoMa, etc.--and the Loudon County fringe. Fairfax, etc. got built out and stagnated. In the city of Los Angeles, about 25% of new homes since 2010 have been built Downtown--less than 1% of the city's land area. This is pretty intuitive. To the extent that normal urban densities in America have jumped from ~3-4 story apartments to 7-20 story apartment blocks, developers are going to site them as close to the center as they can until its entirely built out. This has happened in NYC--but most of America still has some pretty underutilized lots close to the city center. Moreover, these are usually the parts of the city with the least political opposition to such housing. Nobody cares if you throw up a 20 story building on a parking lot or warehouse within spitting distance of '80s office towers. Once you touch the bungalow belt it's another story altogether...

Yes, quite. And in the meantime, as long as I have a breath left in this desiccated old congestive heart failure ravaged body, I am going to do all I can to wrestle to the ground with my own emaciated bare two hands the artist’s conception of the hideous behemoth depicted below.* I pinned it to the ground once already by swinging a council member my way on a 5-4 vote, and have since wooed and I think won over a now newly elected council member at an adult beverages  bar for 4 hours, so I think the vote if Dracula comes back for more is a redux of a stake in his heart, this time 6-3. The satanic apparition will have to await effecting corporeal form until after that last breath has manifested itself. That’s the plan man!

*I live in the historic Schoolhouse Building to the left of bestial apparition on the top floor and would face the damn spot from the kitchen and great room windows. You can savor Wall Street West in all its soulless glory in the distance across the rail yard in what you characterize as developer dominated Jersey City. The chic parts of JC are not themselves remotely “affordable” btw, but I digress. Check out the zone around Van Vorst (you can’t get any more Dutch than that) Park.

Thanks for doing your part to rob younger generations of even more wealth! So nice of you! Because of your actions, personally, hundreds of people won't get a decent home so you can be slightly less annoyed when you look out a window. You must really feel like you're making the world a better place, hm? I don't know what exactly you were expecting when you moved from Hudson to Hoboken, but thanks for illustrating why development should be by-right and neighbors don't deserve public input for these sorts of questions.

Also, retirement must be so boring. Do you really not have anything better to do with your time?

No absolutely not. Being a class enemy is job one in my life - always. Thanks for asking.

Decent prose but could you provide photo evidence for your boomer talking point of “muh historical building” because I’m very bad I’m visualizing text sometimes?