1 yr. ago • 98%

The hidden culprit driving America’s apocalypse of boarded-up storefronts is the banks

www.businessinsider.com The hidden culprit driving America’s apocalypse of boarded-up storefronts

The pandemic kicked off a "doom loop" that has gutted cities and towns across the country. Big banks are making it worse.

Hacker News @derp.foo Bank financing and bad urban planning make the retail apocalypse worse

45 comments

Corporations shouldn’t be allowed to sit on property. There’s an old fast food restaurant near my neighborhood, boarded up, trash everyone, it’s a eyesore to the community. The owner wants an unreasonable amount for it. It’s been sitting empty for 10 years.

The government needs to step in, tell the landlord to rent the place out, sell it or we’re going to take it and turn it into affordable housing or a park.

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- 50% vacancy tax. Any property that is vacant for more than 50% of the year would require the owner to pay 50% of the assessed value, unless they can prove there is zero demand for the property at any price.
  
  Would solve the problem very quickly. It's a fair, equitable, market driven solution to the problem of real estate vacancies. But governments are much more concerned with maintaining the illusion of value, than effective land use.
  
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  We have something better called eminent domain.
  
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- There’s an old fast food restaurant near my neighborhood, boarded up, trash everyone, it’s a eyesore to the community.
  
  Do you not have local ordinances requiring property owners to maintain them? Here's language in a local cities code:
  
  All buildings, both existing and new, and all parts thereof, shall be maintained in a safe and sanitary condition. All devices or safeguards which are required by this Building Code in a building when erected, altered or repaired, shall be maintained in good working order. The owner or the owner's designated agent shall be responsible for the maintenance of the owner's building.
  
  Not maintaining it would result in fines, which the property owner could pay, but the city could either keep increasing the fines to the point where its cheaper for the property owner to sell it.
  
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- Land value tax would fix this
  
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  @Zoboomafoo @J12 reforms don't work. Change the system and change the rules. #eattherich
  
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When you build a country on debt, don't be surprised when the banks end up holding all the cards. Those landlords took a risk and now it's biting them in the ass. And honestly, looking at the conditions in those loan contracts, those are pretty big gambles. I understand putting your money to work, but then it never was their money to begin with.

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- Interest rates were too low for too long.
  
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Culprit?

You say it like its a bad thing.

We dont need brick and mortar storefronts for most industries now, only a small handful still need people to go in person.

All of these stores and parking lots could become affordable housing instead, and the companies can move to warehouse+distribution models which work infinitely better, are better for business, better for consumers, and better for the environment.

1 truck delivering 20 deliveries uses a fraction of the gas as 20 individual people driving to the store to pick up their item.

Dozens of locations can amalgamate into a single warehouse, using a fraction of the footprint and centralizing all their storage, production, distribution, and management.

Required workers to get the product into a persons hand reduce substantially, which means overhead costs go down, which means better profits for the company and better ability to compete on the market.

And consumers have the luxury of items being delivered right to their doorstep.

The only industries that still actually need brick and mortar shops really are:

Restaurants, for obvious reasons

Clothing/shoe/etc stores, since it's extremely difficult to gauge if clothing will be a good fit for you over the internet so you still want to be able to try clothing on in person before purchasing.

Any other "You really wanna try and verify it is a good fit before purchasing" style industries, like mattresses.

A small quantity of locations specifically targeting emergency needs, that typically are open 24/7. Convenience stores, late night pharmacies, etc. Anything in the realm of "Its 1 am and I need this right now" is worth having a brick and mortar shop for.

Pretty much everything else is just strictly better to just order it online.
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- Ew. No. Give me small curated stores. Give me people to talk to and items to physically look at. Give me a walkable area so there isn't an absurd amount of energy usage past the initial delivery which bulk reduces. Give me people getting to pick their work and lifestyle rather than all working for monopolies.
  
  I really don't think warehouses and delivery is the answer for everything. I get that you like that from Covid but to some people that sounds awful, and I think you should hear that.
  
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  I care way more about the environment. Hundreds of people driving over to many individual stores is a big contributor to why things are the way they are.
  
  Deliveries are just way better for the environment.
  
  rather than all working for monopolies.
  
  Centralization of the stores is not the same as a monopoly.
  
  It just means instead of owning 8 individual locations across your city, they have 1 large location they can do everything out of. Manufacturing, storage, management, and delivery.
  
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- While you aren't wrong, sometimes it's just really nice to browse through a store and see what they have. I can scroll through Amazon and Etsy all day, but going into a store just brings a different, valuable experience.
  
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  I feel like a big factor here is that it costs Amazon basically nothing to add another item for you to scroll through. Brick and mortar stores are naturally more restricted so you get a more curated inventory. One thing I like about shopping at Costco is that I never have to decide if Xyzxel or Bimdang is the more trustworthy brand.
  
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  I can tell when something is a piece of shit when it’s in my hand.
  
  If I want to return something i got online I have to get my fucking inkjet printer working (or go to a Staples) to print the return label from my email and then go to the post office and ship it back.
  
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  Nice experience doesn't pay the bills for a store owner who has more overhead than an online store.
  
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- Your whole argument is based on "goods are driven to a shop, and then people drive to that shop." I live in a city, I just walk to the store and buy the thing. It's much better for the environment than a truck driving to my home to deliver a a package of an item that weighs 100g
  
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  I just walk to the store and buy the thing.
  
  The extremely vast majority of people do not have (insert their hobby here) available for purchase within walkable distance.
  
  Groceries, dentist, pharmacist, optometrist, alcohol, convenience store, etc? Sure, those are pretty much always within walkable distance.
  
  But everyone has other random stuff they need and that is almost never within distance. Everyone's got something they like to consume/buy/coolect/use/whatever, and its extremely common for whatever that thing is to be simultaneously too low in demand to have coverage across their entire city, but high enough demand that theres some locations for it here and there.
  
  Like, I dunno, 3d printing. Its common for most cities to have a couple places you can buy 3d printing stuff. But it sure isn't so widespread that even 5% of the city's population is within walking distance of a store to buy 3d printing supplies.
  
  So there will be a very very sizeable chunk of the population that occasionally buys (thing) and the nearest store simply just isnt within walking distance to get.
  
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- This is funny to me because I buy my clothes, and even my mattresses, online. But I go into my local hardware store, and even the dollar store, frequently. You actually forgot to mention grocery stores. As an online shopper, my real problem with stores is that they never offer the best product. But they COULD. And then I would go to stores all the time.
  
  You also make the delivery truck vs. passenger vehicle argument, but I'm gonna make the induced... Supply argument. I'm in my car anyway, going to the grocery store and then I go over to the next store. I run my errands all together, and never make a car trip to a specific store unless its an emergency. Strip malls are actually so much better than those big plaza (Walmart, big box stores) style shopping centers. But yeah the day it becomes safe to bike that trip I'm never looking back.
  
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- I actually just had an idea the other day, I have no idea if it's crazy or even feasible, but thinking of online shopping and behemoths like Amazon I was wondering why the government couldn't serve that role?
  
  Any corporation/business can go to the "government distribution center" that has its own online shop like Amazon, would distribute via USPS/ups or whatever, and has the added benefit of requiring all products be verified as "not absolute shit or dangerous." It's not the governments decision what to sell or what is allowed other than those deemed unsafe or whatever.
  
  No one actually loves Amazon they love the convenience of having so many things on one site. We break up a monopoly, get to employ people with better wages and working conditions, and still get the same access to the same products and potentially have an additional revenue if the costs aren't too high. Maybe we lose the same day shipping for some stuff, but for a lot of us we don't get that as it is. Prime doesn't even come in 2 days for me anymore.
  
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Is it hidden?

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- It sure is, if you’re insanely wealthy and out of touch or the ownership class thinking they’re being sneaky.
  
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It is one big teetering house of cards.

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Great system we've got there.

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