PARKING TRENDS REDUX

Posted on by

I just came across an article in the New York Times, “Higher-Priced Developments Providing Parking” by C. J. Hughes, (published on May 26, 2011) that cites two new upscale housing development projects in Manhattan that are providing on-site parking using hydraulic or   “robotic” technologies:

  • An eight-story condo  building on West 24th Street, near Seventh Avenue, with 24 units. the building also will have eight internal parking spaces that are available  through a hydraulic lift.    
  • Also on West 24th Street,, …
    Read More...

Some Interesting Research About E-Commerce

Posted on by

The Online Articles

A May 5, 2011 posting on ClickZ,  “Is Facebook Marketing Behind Macy’s Online Sales Jump,” suggests that that Macy’s efforts to pick up Facebook “likes”, which in 2011 grew to 800,000 was responsible for the 50.3% rise in the Macys.com and Bloomingdales.com monthly sales. The article also mentions that Foursquare and Twitter were used in this campaign.

A May 10, 2011 posting to the Business Insider by Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry, “Turns Out Social Media Marketing Doesn’t Work” reports on recent research done by Applied …

Read More...

Trying to Assess the Impact of E-Retail on Downtown Merchants

Posted on by

The ObjectiveSince I started working on downtown revitalizations there have always been ogre-like competitors that local merchants see as the primary threats to their financial well-being. First, it was the department store anchored regional malls, then the catalog mail-order operations, which were followed by the big box value retailers. Most recently, e-retailers such as Amazon, are seen as the primary competitive threat. Consequently, I decided to try to assess, as best I could from available data, how strong a threat …

Read More...

The Use of the Internet by Downtown Organizations and Businesses

Posted on by

About a week and half ago I went to a workshop put on by Downtown New Jersey that focused on the use of web sites and social networking media such as Facebook. While I learned a lot and thought the presenters did a good job — they certainly were enthusiastic — I still came away with my major concerns being unanswered.

 
Being Able to Afford the Time, Money and Skill Acquisition Needed to Create and Maintain a Website. For many years I have …

Read More...

The Often Slow Pace of Implementation

Posted on by

Last week we were in Garden City, NY. Back in 1996, DANTH had recommended that the site of a gas station on the very important corner of Franklin Avenue and Seventh Street would better serve the community’s needs if it were redeveloped by a project having retail on the ground floor and residential units above. I was happy to see that our recommendation finally was being implemented (see photo on right).

The fact that close to fifteen years had passed between recommendation …

Read More...