Key Issue 1

1. Key Issue 1 Why do Services Cluster Downtown?

2. ‘Downtown’ is generally the best-known and most visually distinctive area of most cities. Most cities are easily identifiable by their distinctive collection of large buildings clustered downtown- the SKYLINE.

3. The official name for ‘downtown’ is the CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT. Though CBDs take up only 1-5% of a city’s total area, they contain a highly disproportionate concentration of services.

4. Services are attracted to the CBD because of its accessibility. CBDs are located at the heart of transportation networks; larger cities often feature specialized CBD transportation, like subways or trolleys.

5. US 84 Union Station (Rail) US 91 Parking Garages/Lots CT FastTrak/City Buses

6. CBDs are often the oldest part of a city, at or near the location of its founding. Buildings representing a wide historical span can usually be found downtown.

7. SERVICES in the CBD

8. Downtown BUSINESS Services Most CBDs are dominated by large structures housing offices for business services. Business services locate here to take advantage of the accessibility of the CBD; thousands of workers are able to move into/out of the area efficiently every day.

9. Downtown BUSINESS Services Despite advances in communications, many business services still require face-to-face contact; lawyers must be able to meet with their corporate clients, f/e. Locating in a central location like the CBD facilitates this type of interaction.

10. Downtown BUSINESS Services As the highly-skilled professionals they seek are more likely to live in or around cities, businesses cluster downtown in hope of attracting such workers- sometimes from other companies.

11. Downtown PUBLIC Services Most of a city’s prominent public services are usually located downtown. Common structures include City Hall, libraries, agency buildings, and courts.

12. Downtown PUBLIC Services Capital cities have an especially high concentration of public buildings. CT Capitol Building Legislative Offices State Agencies CT Supreme Court

13. Downtown PUBLIC Services Headquarters for public safety agencies like police or the fire department are usually located downtown, with neighborhood precincts spread around the city.

14. Downtown PUBLIC Services Semipublic facilities like churches are concentrated in CBDs. Cathedrals and other religious structures built in cities are often the largest and most ornate in the region, and serve important functions.

15. Downtown CONSUMER Services CBDs usually feature large public facilities like stadiums or convention centers. Cities place these facilities downtown in hope of stimulating surrounding consumer services like bars, restaurants, hotels, and shops.

16. Downtown CONSUMER Services • Traditionally, three types of CONSUMER services clustered downtown: • Those with a high TRESHOLD • Those with a high RANGE • Those primarily serving DOWNTOWN WORKERS

17. Downtown CONSUMER Services Changing shopping habits- particularly the shift of more affluent residents to the suburbs- have reduced the importance of retail services in many CBDs, particularly in regional cities.

18. Services with HIGH THRESHOLD In the past, retailers like department stores were located primarily in the CBDs of cities. Here, they were accessible to the largest amount of possible shoppers, and could attract the business of wealthy urban residents.

19. Services with HIGH THRESHOLD With the departure of many wealthy and middle-class residents from the city, most high-threshold stores are now found in suburbs, particularly in shopping malls. WESTFARMS

20. Services with HIGH THRESHOLD Consumer services relocate to suburban areas accessible by car, near highways or main roads. EVERGREEN WALK

21. Services with HIGH THRESHOLD Large downtown buildings once used by department stores have been redeveloped into mixed-use spaces in many cities, often housing a variety of services and residences.

22. Services with HIGH RANGE High-range services are often highly specialized, with customers who visit infrequently- like a high-end clothing retailer or a diamond store.

23. Services with HIGH RANGE Once located in CBDs to maximize accessibility, these services have also moved into suburban shopping districts accessible by highway and closer to their customers.

24. Services targeting DOWNTOWN WORKERS While high-range/threshold services are departing many CBDs, those serving downtown workers are expanding. These provide services ranging from food to dry cleaning for downtown workers during business hours, and generally have small ranges and thresholds.

25. Services targeting DOWNTOWN WORKERS Services catering to downtown workers are an example of the MULTIPLIER EFFECT. As more BASIC services like insurance companies locate in cities like Hartford, more NONBASIC services, like Dunkin’ Donuts or CVS, are needed to serve their workers.

26. Services Targeting DOWNTOWN WORKERS Because these services are focused on the regular working hours of their customers, many close after evening rush hour.

27. In many regional cities, this leads to the feeling a downtown seeming ‘dead’ after business hours, with most stores closed and foot traffic gone.

28. Activities Excluded from CBDs High rent and land shortage in most modern CBDs discourages two types of activity- industrial and residential.

29. Lack of MANUFACTURING in CBDs The changing needs of modern industry has seen most factories relocate away from former CBD facilities, which were usually multi-story buildings located next to a river. COLT BUILDING , 1800s

30. Lack of MANUFACTURING in CBDs Because modern factories are expansive single-story operations, they have relocated outside of the city were larger plots can be acquired more cheaply. New COLT factory in West Hartford

31. Because truck and rail transportation are more widely used than ships, factories no longer need expensive downtown waterfront locations.

32. Lack of MANUFACTURING in CBDs Like former department stores, former waterfront factories are being converted into shopping or leisure facilities to attract shoppers or tourists into the city to stimulate the economy. Navy Pier, Chicago

34. Lack of RESIDENTIAL SPACE in CBDs While many people used to live in and around the CBD, many regional cities today feature a notable lack of downtown living. Many residents were driven away from the CBD to the suburbs in the 20th century by a combination of push and pull factors:

35. Lack of RESIDENTIAL SPACE in CBDs This trend has begun to reverse in recent years, however. Many CBDs are starting to redevelop vacant buildings into apartments marketing ‘luxury downtown living.’

36. These new residences target young professionals or childless couples seeking the thrill of downtown living.

37. COMPETITION For LAND Because competition for land is so high in CBDs, the cost of a unit of land may be astronomical. While a hectare in a rural area might cost a few thousand dollars, it might cost a million dollars in a city like Hartford. In central London, a hectare of land would cost TWO HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS.

38. COMPETITION for LAND The BID/RENT THEORY helps to explain the high cost of CBD land. Business and consumer services OUTBID residential and industrial activity in CBDs, paying very high rent. As distance from the CBD increases, rents decrease and different groups compete for space.

39. COMPETITION For LAND This extreme competition for land has forced most cities to develop their CBDs vertically. One method has been upward development; in order to make a million-dollar plot of land profitable to develop, many tenants- and thus many floors- are needed.

40. COMPETITION for LAND SKYSCRAPERS are the most common way of making expensive downtown plots profitable. First built in Chicago in the 1880s, skyscrapers arose from the advent of the steel construction frame, and became more livable with advancements like elevators and air conditioning. Home Insurance Building, Chicago Flatiron Building, NYC

41. When Hartford’s TRAVELERS TOWER was built in 1919, it was the 7th tallest building in the WORLD.

42. COMPETITION for LAND • Many skyscrapers feature a ‘vertical geography’ based on rent. • At the BASE, consumer services cluster, paying high rents for access to foot traffic. • In MIDDLE FLOORS, business services concentrate, as they are not as dependent of foot traffic. • In HIGHER FLOORS, residential apartments provide sweeping views for a premium.

43. HARTFORD 21 has a bank at its base, bank offices above, and then many stories of apartments.

44. COMPETITION for LAND Many cities have enacted ZONING ORDINANCES to control where and how skyscrapers are built. Some, for example, specify maximum heights.

45. In Washington, DC, no building may be built higher then the top of the capital dome, creating a 13-story limit. Many buildings there take up entire city blocks as a result.

46. COMPETITION for LAND In Philadelphia, until 1988 no building could be built taller then William Penn’s statue atop City Hall. Construction since that year has far surpassed this height.

47. COMPETITION for LAND Development in some CBDs has been driven underground. All cities feature important underground infrastructural networks of cables and sewers; some also feature underground transportation networks.

48. COMPETITION for LAND Beyond necessary underground infrastructure, some cities have developed elaborate underground facilities to extend the services of the city below the streets.

49. COMPETITION for LAND Cities in frigid climates like Montreal and Minneapolis have developed extensive underground shopping and living networks. Some residents use these networks to live, shop, commute, and work without having to go outside into harsh winter weather.