|
I presently live in South Bend, Indiana. Notre Dame University is just across the river and up a hill. The Studebaker Plant used to be the city's largest employer, and when they went bust 50-some years ago, it really destroyed our local economy. We do have the South Shore Rail line, which runs from South Bend to Chicago (right to Millenium Station). And when fiber was run across the country, it was apparently done along major railroad lines, an' several of those pass through here. We've got the 'combined sewer overflow' thing, with a consent decree signed with the EPA, pledging projects that will likely cost half a billion dollars over the next twenty years. AM General HQ is South Bend, and their major plant ain't to far. The culture is getting /super/ hip. The city's arts are thriving, though the artists are still starving. Lotta travellin' types too, rainbow kids an' whatnot. Young folk are moving downtown, and having a fun time there. There's this guy, Kevin Smith (not the director). He bought Union Station (designed by Burnham & Root!), turned it into a carrier hotel. Now it's a tier-4 data center, right on the railroad tracks, right where a couple major branches of fiber cross. He bought Building 84, one of the two remaining Studebaker buildings, which is just across the tracks from the Union Station Technology Center. Building 84 has 920,000 square feet of space. They've completed lead remediation and asbestos remediation; it'll be opening as a giant server farm, with plans for using the waste heat to warm nearby neighborhoods. In that neighborhood, there's a lot of homeless shelters, a minor league baseball stadium, and I guess there's a Potawatomi casino going in soon. I'd like to see Amtrak and South Shore move their terminals from the west side, over to the main bus terminal over on South Street (a block from Union Station), so people arrive in downtown, rather than way out at the airport. I also think AM General should collaborate with google to design and build a fleet of driverless electric cars - get the Studebaker brand on it - to operate downtown, solving the 'last mile problem' in public transit. I think we'll see a significant move away from cars. The Chase Tower has been purchased by Aloft, and is being redeveloped. That's he tallest building downtown. The JMS building was sold from Friedline to Great Lakes Capital, and they're converting it to residences. The old abandoned Hoffman Hotel has opened as an Artists Loft. The LaSalle Building is being renovated into condos. Matthews LLC has built up a lot of the East Bank Village. Panzica & Perri have a few other apartments going up in the Village, but they don't really help reach the population density targets that Matthews wants to see for that neighborhood. There's issues with gentrification and race, but I think the city's handling it better than most. We've got a *brilliant* mayor, Pete Buttigieg, who I think is likely to be in consideration for SecHUD in the future - the NYT has already profiled him as a potential presidential candidate in the future. .I'd like to see a proposal for a federal project with funding that could address the combined sewer overflow problem up and down the St. Joseph river, in a way that would allow cities to amend the consent degree with a plan that will cost less and be *more* effective than the present plan - but I'm not an expert on that stuff. The Mayor recently completed his '1000 homes in 1000 days' project, which addressed vacant and abandoned properties. It was a pretty brilliant plan, and well executed. I'unno. I'm very optimistic, and see good reason for hope 'round here 
|
#
¿
Sep 1, 2016 09:43
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 17, 2024 19:49 |
|