Last night, I walked over to the Last Bookstore, bought an interesting old novel for $6, walked home and read it.
What does this have to do with real estate? Everything.
Regular readers know I’m constantly banging on about density. I can’t stand the way city planning works in LA and I’m up on my soapbox every week complaining about it.
You might think this is because I’m in the real estate development business and stand to benefit from looser restrictions on development. And you’d be right… I probably would benefit.
But that’s not the only, or even the primary, reason I love density.
Density is amazing because it allows for diversity. For example: Interesting used bookstores depend for their survival on dedicated readers, who probably represent a tiny fraction of the population. In a spread-out, suburban setting, there aren’t enough of those dedicated readers to buy enough books to make a bookstore work.
But, in a dense city, there are. And the same goes for weird/different/interesting juice bars, gyms, salons, restaurants, etc.
Basically, the denser the city, the more interesting the retail. And, since I prefer to have amazing, non-standard choices for everything I consume, I’m for density.