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Page added on December 4, 2016
Smart growth is the way
We recently took a trip to Orlando, Florida, to attend the National Association of Realtors annual conference. It’s a big deal with all the best and brightest in the industry and keynote speakers like Colin Powell and Lawrence Yun. We wanted to look at what global and national economic issues are affecting real estate and how they are relevant back home in Santa Fe. After attending many lectures, workshops, and roundtable discussions, we came up with three prevailing themes: densification, innovation, and the environment.
Urban living is on the rise and cities are on the offensive to attract a new generation of homeowners from rural and suburban areas. From an economic point of view, it is more cost-efficient to feed and service people in cities so high-quality, high-density living with walkability is booming. As a result, businesses are moving back into cities, municipalities are working to improve schools in cities, and it is projected that 85 percent of the world’s population will live in cities by 2050. Likewise, Santa Fe, albeit a small city, will become more crowded, too. Growth is not an option; it will happen. Choosing to grow smarter is the option, so we all need to ask ourselves what that will look like and how we can be Density Different.
As a market town for over four hundred years, our economy is dependent on people coming here for our goods and services. But traditional businesses and service providers are losing ground daily to the emerging virtual economy of Amazon, Uber, Airbnb, and WeWork, to name but a few. People are moving toward online, shared, and experiential commerce. Traditional mom-and-pop stores and local commerce will need to innovate so outside commerce doesn’t dictate to us. Instead, we will provide to it. More investment in a better broadband infrastructure will allow Santa Fe to create new business models for the digital future.
In 1913, the National Association of Realtors adopted a Code of Ethics and the first words to the preamble begin, “Under all is the land.” With the growing world population, there is pressure not only to figure out how to best use the land, but how to best protect the land. Businesses and investors are becoming less interested in cities that are fossil fuel-dependent and looking for cleaner, alternative-energy-minded cities for long-term investment. The economic powerhouse of Germany is thriving with investment and industry and it is not only one of the largest economies in Europe but is one of the greenest. Germany will be off oil and nuclear power this century. Solar energy is now 75 percent more efficient and 75 percent less expensive than it was a decade ago. Santa Fe can attract more business by making a stance with solar energy. Commercial real-estate owners can attract new business tenants by investing in solar energy. It’s that simple.
So, with all that in mind, we believe our real estate here at home is in a pretty good place. We have for centuries been addressing many of the issues that the rest of the country is just now waking up to. By continuing to grow smarter and greener, we will preserve our history and grow our economy. Let’s continue to make smart choices and keep Santa Fe one of the most desirable cities for our future generations to live and visit.
15 Comments on "Smart growth is the way"
Mark Ziegler on Sun, 4th Dec 2016 2:46 pm
The hard part will be to get the Auto companies to change to rail road work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQAyVnawdbU
Apneaman on Sun, 4th Dec 2016 3:00 pm
Here is another fine example of that “smart” growth.
Why Are Developers Still Pouring Billions Into Waterlogged Miami?
The Faena Forum cultural center is open, but for how long? Rising tides and groundwater will almost certainly seep into the ground floors of such developments in a few years.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-29/why-are-developers-still-pouring-billions-into-waterlogged-miami
penury on Sun, 4th Dec 2016 3:11 pm
To update a previous observation;Never expect people who depend on selling real estate to have a valid opinion on sales prospects, They will continue selling “homes” when the area is under water, In Miami that would be littoral
peakyeast on Sun, 4th Dec 2016 3:33 pm
@ape: That article really points out how insane people are. Staggering to say the least.
These people are not just grade A morons – they are a nation-class liability in themselves.
Apneaman on Sun, 4th Dec 2016 3:51 pm
peak, that’s what religion does to the humans. Never has a religion swept the world like neoliberal capitalism. Growth growth growth. Why? Because it’s written in the holy book (econ 101).
And the angle Milton Friedman appeared before me and said “thou shalt be a cancer” and I came to be a cancer.
Anonymous on Sun, 4th Dec 2016 5:24 pm
Like Al Bartlet said, there is no such thing as ‘smart growth’, there is just growth.
makati1 on Sun, 4th Dec 2016 6:44 pm
“Smart growth is the way”
“Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of a cancer cell.” – Edward Abbey
makati1 on Sun, 4th Dec 2016 6:47 pm
“…the National Association of Realtors adopted a Code of Ethics.” They modeled it after the used car salesman’s code. “This car was only driven to church be a little old lady once a week…”
makati1 on Sun, 4th Dec 2016 9:25 pm
“Here is an excerpt from my book “When Trucks stop running” about what would be required to store just one day of U.S. electricity generation (11.12 TWh), using data from the Department of Energy (DOE/EPRI 2013) “Electricity storage handbook in collaboration with NRECA”, to calculate the cost, size, and weight of Sodium Sulfur NaS batteries capable of storing 24 hours of electricity generation in the United States. The cost would be $40.77 trillion dollars, the battery would cover 923 square miles, and weigh a husky 450 million tons.
Using similar logic and data from DOE/EPRI, Li-ion batteries would cost $11.9 trillion dollars, take up 345 square miles, and weigh 74 million tons. Lead–acid (advanced) would cost $8.3 trillion dollars, take up 217.5 square miles, and weigh 15.8 million tons.”
http://energyskeptic.com/2016/how-is-californias-ab2514-experiment-with-utility-scale-battery-storage-coming-along/
So much for batteries replacing hydro or nuclear back up for ‘alternate energy’ sources.
makati1 on Sun, 4th Dec 2016 9:54 pm
Is this “growth’?
“Missouri struggles to pay for road, bridge repairs”
http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/missouri-struggles-to-pay-for-road-bridge-repairs/article_c0a1426e-f82e-5002-82ab-40130d8c42f7.html
““The people of Missouri have made it very clear they are pretty opposed to raising taxes,” said incoming House Speaker Pro Tem Elijah Haahr, a Springfield Republican. “That’s the dilemma we face. Any sort of tax increase is just dead on arrival.”
The funding shortfall takes its toll over time, said Patrick McKenna, director of the Missouri Department of Transportation. Most of the available money has to go toward trying to maintain the quality of roads and bridges at their current level, with little left to make improvements or expansions. That leaves about 70 percent of less-traveled roads in rural Missouri in good or fair condition.”
Pay or walk. The choice is yours. LMAO
Davy on Mon, 5th Dec 2016 5:54 am
Our roads are fine here Makati. In fact we have too many roads for what is ahead. Missouri has made great strides in replacing old bridges and we have many because of our terrain. Roads are being repaired and replaced better than 20 years ago when we definitely had issues. We had issues then because we were growing suburbs and neglecting what we have. Missouri is not a Sunbelt state in hyper growth. Our growth is modest at around 7% in the last decade. From my point of view that is a big advantage. We are doing fine here makati but good try.
Davy on Mon, 5th Dec 2016 6:37 am
Here is some growth makati can be proud of:
“Forget Ghost Cities, China Builds 10-Billion-Yuan Replica Titanic”
http://tinyurl.com/hyuh2v5
Davy on Mon, 5th Dec 2016 7:01 am
So much for the EV breakout spoken about so much around here.
“BMW Sees Battery Costs Causing Years of ‘Tears’ on E-Cars”
http://tinyurl.com/zw99la4
“We simply have to walk through the valley of tears” to figure out how to save more money on producing battery-powered cars, Stefan Juraschek, vice president of electric-powertrain development, told reporters at a briefing at a BMW testing facility in Munich. With driving ranges limited by current technology, the company expects it to take about seven years to double the amount of energy stored in a battery, which weighs about 230 kilograms (510 pounds) in the squat BMW i3 hatchback. Improving battery performance is key, as “there’s a clear trend to bigger electric cars and longer driving ranges,” Juraschek said.”
“We’ve learned that people aren’t prepared to pay a higher price for an electric vehicle,” BMW Chief Financial Officer Friedrich Eichiner told reporters in Lisbon last week. “I don’t see some kind of disruptive element coming from electric cars that would prompt sales to go up quickly in the next five to six years.”
penury on Mon, 5th Dec 2016 12:16 pm
I do not know how rural Missouri is doing,have not been there in years. But if memory serves the majority of the roads were county maintained. Like the largest number of U.S. States road money is mainly spent on new construction to avail themselves of Fed funding, repairs become the problem of state tax payers and are usually neglected until the collapse becomes life threatening.
Apneaman on Mon, 5th Dec 2016 12:30 pm
Looks like obesity overeating might save us from peak oil.
Fuel from sewage is the future — and it’s closer than you think
“The technology, hydrothermal liquefaction, mimics the geological conditions Earth uses to create crude oil, using high pressure and temperature to achieve in minutes something that takes Mother Nature millions of years. The resulting material is similar to petroleum pumped out of the ground, with a small amount of water and oxygen mixed in. This biocrude can then be refined using conventional petroleum refining operations.”
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/161102134504.htm
We’ll shit our way to eternal prosperity.
Makes a good economic justification for Krispy Kreme and Taco Bell subsidies.
The next hurdle is figuring out what to do with all the undigested peanuts and corn.