Saving America's Cities: A Tried and Proven Plan to Revive Stagnant and Decaying Cities Second Edition

By David H. McDonald

"Many cities have a rich past. No one knows if many have a future" Richard C. Longworth Caught in the Middle, 2007, p. 28 "In the last six decades, no stagnant or decaying city has been globally or signifi cantly saved - never" David H. McDonald "More and more, federal and state governments are growing their already out-of-control fi nancial problems. Cities are on their own to sink or swim, now more than ever" David H. McDonald "Only two states in the nation have, over time, lost population. If the states are gaining population but the cities are losing, then it is the cities' fault" David H. McDonald "Occasionally a city will, usually by accident, 'back into' attempting growth in the right manner. It always works" David H. McDonald "Virtually no city has a workable vision of how to even achieve stability - let alone a return to vibrancy. Th is book presents such a vision and a clear path to beginning the process of stabilization and growth" David H. McDonald "Whatever is going to save your cities, it won't be government. Both political parties are largely trapped in the past, driven by a desire to protect old sacred cows"

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jun 23, 2011
• ISBN: 9781463417062

David H. McDonald

Over the past 37 years, Mr. McDonald has founded two retail chains and co-founded two additional chains. He has been director of development for one of the largest real estate investment trusts in the nation, and has directed the strategic growth initiatives of 13 retail chains. He has managed a high-rise offi ce building in downtown Charlotte, has managed and leased shopping malls and strip shopping centers, and has been in commercial lending and appraising.

Book preview

Saving America’s Cities:

A Tried and Proven Plan to Revive Stagnant and Decaying Cities

Second Edition

David H. McDonald

Published by AuthorHouse

Bloomington, Indiana

AuthorHouse™

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN47403

www.authorhouse.com

Phone: [phone]

© 2011 by David McDonald. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 06/1/2011

ISBN: 978-1-4634-1708-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4634-1707-9 (dj)

ISBN: 978-1-4634-1706-2 (ebk)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011909239

Printed in the United States of America

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only. Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Editor/proofreader/page designer: William and Nancy Brooks, Write Away Editing Cover designer: David Sparks

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Prologue

1

What Happened to Our Cities — and When?

2

Not All Cities Are Created Equal

3

The Role of Government

4

Bleeding to Death, One Drop at a Time

5

National and Regional Statistics of Importance

6

Beginning the Process of Saving Your City

7

The 10 Commandments for Stabilizing and Growing Your City

CONCLUSION

Appendix

References

About the Author

Acknowledgments

I owe many debts to others for their contributions to this book, primarily to those who have helped me learn and grow during the past nearly four decades. Years ago, Ron Withrow, who has created retail chains and developed real estate very successfully, said to me: Come help me lease shopping centers and handle the operations of my mall- based chain of amusement centers. I told him I had no experience in operations, and Ron said, That’s not a pro b- lem. I will teach you. He did teach me, and then we stumbled our way through creating another mall-based chain that, to this day, is the most attractive chain of multi- flavored popcorn shops I have ever seen. I had already been successful at corporate real estate, but Ron really gave me my start in retail.

A year or so after the popcorn shops were fully up and running, I walked into a cafeteria at SouthPark Mall in Charlotte. I was by myself, which almost never happened during that period, and there, by himself, sat Wayland H. Cato, Jr., president and chief executive officer of one of the most successful ladies’ ready-to-wear companies in the United States. The odds of that happening have to be about one in a million. Years before this, I had been associate director of real estate for the Cato Corporation, and Wayland remembered me. Wayland asked me to join him, and two hours later I had agreed to enter into business with him again and to found a chain of ladies’ accessory shops to compete with Claire’s. Wayland is smart, down- to-earth, and so perceptive that he could stare a hole right through you so that he can understand immediately who you really are and what you are really saying. I have spent the rest of my life trying to conduct myself the way I think Wayland would approve of.

To this day, Ron Withrow and Wayland H. Cato, Jr., are two of the finest men I have ever met, and they created my future for me.

While I was still relatively new at the corporate real estate game, I met Bob Tucker, who owned (and still does own) what has become probably the most successful popular-priced shoe store chain in the nation, The Shoe Show. I was the first director of real estate that Bob ever had. Bob is a very good man who is more focused, driven, and determined than any man I’ve ever met. Along with being honest and having a good heart, these three charac ter traits have made him successful, and I have never forgotten the experience. I have tried as best I can to follow his lead.

After founding one chain and helping to found two others, I went back into corporate real estate for a number of years, primarily with Elder-Beerman Department Stores. While there I met a man named Jeff Brown, who ran the design and construction department for Elder- Beerman. I thought I understood the importance of design elements and construction until I met Jeff. He is the best I have ever seen, and I have seen many. His ability to design effective fixtures and floor layouts and to build quality structures on time, under budget, and less expensively than anyone else opened my eyes. I cannot begin to emphasize how important it is to hire professionals like Jeff.

Prologue

This book is about my observations of the history of decaying cities as well as solutions to enable these cities to once again become healthy and vibrant. It is about what caused the decay — the history of urban flight and of what cities have done wrong — and what they could actually do right to start the process of recovering what they have lost. It also gives healthy cities a structure from which they should be able to grow even healthier. I have a vision of what works, and I will share it with you. My vision is based on observations of cities that have managed, mostly by accident, to do the right things to improve their cities. It is absolutely possible for most cities to stabilize themselves, to stop the loss of population and businesses and in many cases actually begin to grow again — taking back what they have lost to the suburbs. Reversing years of neglect, decay, and urban flight takes time, but in most cases, it can be done. I will lay out this process, explaining the steps that need to be taken and why. I will even include the kind of people needed for the job and where to find them.

During my career, spanning approximately 37 years, I have directly or indirectly observed cities of all sizes, shapes, and localities try to stem the flight to the suburbs, and I have seen just about all of them make the same mistakes in trying to save themselves from this loss. The significance of this book is that I have observed what works and doesn’t work, and I know how to begin the process of truly stabilizing and growing most of them.

I will explain the process to you in Chapters 6 and 7, but first I will show how cities got into their current mess and the mistakes that most of them made along the way — usually the same mistakes. Understanding this history of failure will help the reader to better understand why this book reveals just about the only structure that will work to stabilize and grow America’s cities. Yes, I will present a structure, step by step, to begin the process of saving America’s cities. Libraries are full of books written by pundits that talk about the bad histories of cities, and their ideas of what caused these cities to deteriorate, but I cannot find any that include concrete details on how to fix anything. This book does! Many cities want to blame their ills on the economy, forced bussing, or loss of our indus trial base. However, all but two states in the United States are growing. It is the cities that are, for the most part, losing population and their good health. And for the most part, it is their own fault!

Of the largest 300 cities in the United States, roughly 183, or 61%, are in a state of stagnation or decline. That is, they are losing population, barely holding their own, or experiencing only very slow growth. These 183 cities need significant help to regain their health or at least to stabilize themselves. Only 39% of America’s cities are healthy — experiencing a good rate of growth in population. America needs help in saving her cities.

No future exists for many cities except the future they create for themselves.

Many books written by urban planners, city planners, professors, and architects tell how to create a better city by developing a bike path or a beautiful park or attracting what has been called call the creative class to the city. It has also been written that a city must be improved by a whole series of small steps. This is all well and good with the minority of cities, the roughly 39% that are healthy. But with the majority, the stagnant, decaying, and slow-growing cities, then without reservation I would have to say these books are way off the mark. I have never seen a city planner, an urban planner, a professor, an architect, an institutional think tank, an economic development group, or an elected official save a decaying city globally and significantly — never. At best, they get small projects completed, but they don’t even come close to implementing a global initiative to stabilize a whole city.

Additionally, many healthy cities are growing at minimum rates and competing with other healthy cities to attract new high-tech industries and population. Therefore, even healthy cities cannot just sit there and for all practical purposes, do nothing. They have additional priorities, but they need to focus primarily on the same goals and initiatives as the decaying cities. In this book I will present a vision and a road map for how to create the structure needed to truly begin the process of stabilizing America’s decaying cities and enhancing healthy ones.

MY EXPERIENCE

For the past 37 years, I have been lucky enough to have held multiple careers — all different, but related. I have been a commercial property lender and appraiser. I have appraised office buildings, apartments, shopping centers, and residential homes. For several years I did appraisal work for the Federal National Mortgage Association. I have managed and leased high-rise office buildings, strip shopping centers, and regional malls. I have directed the strategic growth initiatives for 13 retail chains, including department stores — 13 years as a senior executive with a department store chain and then as its consultant in the same function (it should be noted that being selected to do site search work for department stores means you have, in effect, attained a Ph.D. in the site search field) — shoe stores, ladies apparel stores (popular priced and high end), ladies accessory shops, gift shops, popcorn shops, and amusement centers. I have been vice-president of development for one of the largest real estate investment trusts in the nation. Lastly, but most important, I was one of two primary team players who founded two retail chains, and I was the original founder of two additional retail chains.

I have done my own demographic analysis for all 13 of these chains. If you know what you are doing, demographic analysis can be a major tool to help you analyze cities and markets and choose the right locations. If you pick a bad location, you may have to live with the results of your failure for years; so I quickly sharpened my analysis skills to ensure as few demographic analysis er rors as possible. Many people say they understand demographics and what all the numbers mean, but very few actually do. I was never any good at football, basketball, or baseball, and I have a dreadful singing voice; but I grew up with demographics — living with the results of those analyses all the way. I have 9,600 pages of demographics in my office that I update annually and that I know like the back of my hand. I became a commercial pilot so that I could fly myself to more potential sites faster, which I did for years to gather my own real estate data. Almost no one who does site search also does their own demographics. They should. It makes sense to learn both skills, but it almost never happens. By having to personally analyze the markets that I selected and live with the results, I have come to understand which numbers are important and which ones are not — and the ramifications of those numbers.

For nearly four decades I have seen every kind of business imaginable leave downtowns. I have observed hundreds of cities lose their population and their tax base, and I have seen what they did to try to bring it back. It is fascinating, if not depressing, because they have invariably made the same mistakes, and they almost never seem to get it right. The few cities that have gotten it right have more often than not done it by accident or because of some external force that they were not directly responsible for creating. Time after time I have seen these cities create action plans, raise millions, and waste millions — waste in that rarely have they achieved their goals of making their cities vibrant once again. Rarely have I seen these cities even slow the bleeding.

THE BEGINNING

I grew up in the 1960s — a time when downtown meant businesses, shopping, dining, and entertainment. I moved from my small hometown to Charlotte, North Carolina, and I remember when the first true regional mall in Charlotte opened in the early 1970s. It was brand-new, dazzling, and centrally located with easy ingress and egress. It had great visibility from two main highway arteries through Charlotte, and it had around 90 separate retailers and restaurants — all in one spot. What convenience and excitement! At that time, I was working in commercial lending and appraising. Part of my job also included managing and leasing apartment complexes, office building complexes, and shopping centers.

The retail industry as a whole was just taking off. For several decades these malls were as easy to build as falling off a log. The anemic overbuilding of today was not even a bad dream yet. Suburbs were not congested with a mall in every quadrant, so the malls and peripheral commercial developments that they spawned were in great demand and were very, very successful. All that was required to get a loan to build a million square foot shopping mall was to get letters of intent from two or three department stores saying they were interested in locating a store in the proposed mall, and the developer was off and running. Department stores were more or less lining up in droves to get into these malls. The immediate response from shoppers was overwhelming. The regional malls and superregional malls were immediately the only places to be and to be seen. Office building developers took immediate note of the success of the regional malls and they began building their office buildings beside the malls. As you can imagine, these developers were