Talk is Cheap

 

I'll be the first to say it: talk is cheap. I've done quite a bit of talking over the two years that I've been working on RetroMetro. I've speculated, postulated, pontificated and even played a little bit of a rumor-monger from time to time. I've had my head in the clouds and worked towards a lot of dreams. Some of those dreams are achievable and I have already realized them, some are not so realistic. I've come down to earth just enough recently (OK I was pulled down - call me Icarus) to realize that I was a bit higher off the ground than I thought and...WHAM! All of a sudden it's good to remember what dirt tastes like...so I don't end up in a place where I have to swallow as large a mouthful again. (more:)

 

http://columbusretrometro.typepad.com/columbus_retrometro/2006/07/talk_is_cheap.html#more

More pessimism from Paul.  Let the city leaders do thier jobs and not constantly revise our business plans every year.  What will come of knowing some of the data he's asking for outside of a reduction in available manhours for city employees to work on development?

 

RiverSouth should deliver a huge chunk of those units by 2012, so should Jeffrey Place, and hopefully the city can come of with something to salvage the Whittier Peninsula.  Those three right there put us close to the goal.  I wouldn't be suprised to see a few more megaprojects (city center?) pop up in the next 7 years either.  That's a long time.

10 years from now...it seems possible. There seems to be a lot of faith in Columbus and God knows they have more than enough room to expand downtown. I think its silly to project population 30 years from now. Columbus could see rapid growth or a rapid decline by then, no one really knows for sure what's in the distant future.

Whenever you start a big project involving many different organizations the first few years is spent hashing out the details so you can't expect much to happen during those years. I'm sure the city has benchmarks in their plan that they plan to meet at certain points during the project. There are probably some assumptions as well. You can't possibly take everything into consideration so maybe they won't reach 10,000 units but having lofty goals is never a bad idea. Personally, I think it's bad to be too realistic because it kills your motivation. As someone else mentioned any number of things could happen causing a drastic decline or boom in population. You have to go with the facts you have now and leave some things up to assumption.