Originally Posted by
motz
Hey, I heard you guys at the Gem Theater are having a rough time making money. Instead of encouraging you to book events that draw customers, I think we'll build a jail right down the street from you. Jails are great destination points in New Urban America. Go visit Tim at the lock up, get a nice dinner at Vincente's and then catch a show at the Gem :) Sounds like an amazing night!
In case you missed my point through the sarcasm, a jail won't help the Gem do better business. Moving the courts and jail from downtown and using the land to add more destinations WILL attract more people to the Gem. That is, if the Gem decides that "having events" is an important part of "owning an event center". If you have a good selection of restaurants, night life options for after you catch a show at the theater, and people feel like they are walking around in a downtown that is alive, you'll end up with more people down there. Period. If you put a court room and a jail down there, both of which are never really active after a certain evening hour, it's going to feel dark and desolate in that part of downtown and neighboring businesses WILL be affected.
Seriously, are we unable to look into the future on this? Are we unable to build with the assumption that this growth spurt will continue and eventually mature out to a semi-functional [[I never think it'll be fully functional) downtown? Or should we just build what we need now and then tear it down later when the CBD is out of room to expand?