"If I were a neighborhood advocate at this point my focus would be on the street-level spaces. Try to get the developer to agree to a) some small spaces, so a small business could conceivably be interested in taking a risk and opening there, and b) that they'll line up along the street so there's actually a chance for meaningful foot traffic. I feel like we're getting to a place where in addition to 'low income' residential units we need some 'low rent' commercial units - not sure how they'd be apportioned but the problem I had with all these new developments is that they create these massive ground floor spaces and then the only people that can afford to rent them are high volume national chains, banks, and luxury brands willing to lose money on the store because they like the marketing."?anon [Two Trees' SHoP-Designed Domino Development, REVEALED!]
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