comments for contributor Alec

Your blogs make interesting reading for sure, and are also fun.

Per your article on development in Tempe, I can't be that combative, but I've been looking for that kind of information! Yes, I'm sad about some real losses, terrific buildings that have been "replaced," some with rather poor ones. I do think documenting those losses* ... and documenting things in general ... is highly, highly desirable. I think, too, the core question is, what can we do with the city? Where's it headed, and where can we point it? (Same question.) The follies of the past inform that question - without them, any answer is impoverished - without, for me, being the central one.

Who is supposed to live in the condos? I've wondered about that, too. I'm very curious what the builders (planners/"developers") were thinking. I don't say that entirely as snark, though. Even if, as is clearly the case, folly was involved, that's human, that's life. I'm even enough of a capitalist to say it's essential to progress. (This is especially defensible if we use "essential" in the sense that it is "always going to be in the picture.") What I'm curious about is how they did their calculations, what projections they were using, who they actually thought were going to move in**? (Some of those people might end up moving in after all, for one thing, so I want to know.)

The other thing is, from my idealistic point of view, who moves in is something we can decide. My plan is to create and manage dozens of fantastic artists's studios. I hatched the plan even before it started to look like condos might end up selling for pennies on the dollar. Now I'm betting on that, meaning, it's my fantasy ... I could be one of those guys who seized an opportunity ... Plus, it's an example of how folly might create actual opportunities***. (Incidentally, I have sort of a thing for high rise condos, so, regardless of the absurdity and even half-assedness - meanness, even ... am I that crass? - of what is going on, I kind of like it.)

*and strategizing to prevent future ones
**i'm also really curious about their thought processes in general ... such as, re some of your other reporting, how they can be so ornery, etcetera (i'm interested in people's thought processes generally, too) ... although, maybe i'm more interested in whether we can get ahead while being more considerate ...
***meaning, resource that can be put to very legitimate uses ... it's like the derelict workshops that became the Soho art district, and other similar examples, have been re-created here out of whole cloth!