Quote Originally Posted by bartock View Post
Where people wish to live and where developers wish to develop usually go hand in hand. As to the infrastructure part, it would be disingenuous not to admit that there are definitely chicken/egg elements, but I would suggest that is fairly universal, and could just as easily be applied to anything. To suggest that there wasn't demand would be in error.

Which naturally leads to two questions:

1. When was the last time a developer asked you what you wanted? [[I think it's funny how suburbanites across America "want" to shop at the same stores, eat at the same restaurants, and have all their buildings look the same. It must be because Applebee's is just so gosh darn delicious!).

2. Why do people in Southeast Michigan "want" to live near Hall Road, while in other metropolitan areas, housing values are higher closer to the core, thus indicating a "want" to live in the core?

Are you attributing this phenomenon soley to geographic and cultural differences?

I know that you believe what you think is fact, but the empirical evidence shows otherwise. None of that tacky plastic crap on Hall Road would have been constructed without enormous inflows of infrastructure cash from state and local governments.

But hey, "market demand" is an easier sell because you can explain everything by attributing it to some mystical force that runs the universe, and don't have to bother with actual investigation, facts, or nuance.