quote:

With Downtowns Staying Abandoned, Put Tiny Businesses Back into Residential Neighborhoods

What if we started creating tiny storefronts (ACUs, or accessory commercial units) in neighborhoods to serve people where they are—and give businesses a chance at new customers.

https://getpocket.com/explore/...source=pocket-newtab

This one needs more thought.

The primary complaint about business located in residential are parking and noise. This might not be a problem in some neighborhoods but will certainly be a problem in others.

I'm pessimistic. I think the day of the local "non-and-pop" store in close proximity to residences is a long-gone idea unlikely to return. The shopping alternative, those that existed in recent times, and the rise of on-line shopping and delivery services leaves a very thin niche for a local store. The possibility for neighborhood restaurants and some sorts of specialty bakeries, delis, or other destinations within walking distance of a fairly dense neighborhood community has better possibilities and I know of a number of neighborhoods in Pittsburgh and neighboring communities that have fairly prosperous small business districts. A lot of this is catering to some aspects of community identity and linking to community activities, both to be visible and to be considered a neighbor that people want to do business with.

The outer suburb of Sydney I lived in in Australia did something of that sort, plotting a small commercial group (think a little strip mall) within each residential neighborhood. They typically housed some small businesses such as real estate agencies, doctor or dentist offices, a milk bar (the Aussie version of a sandwich or snack shop), and a handful of other small hardware shops, repair services or similar businesses. The suburbs were still automobile-centric for adults in that work destinatons were outside the neighborhood and larger stores were clustered in local and regional shopping destination, but it did give access to some services near home and opened social opportunities to the younger people who had no car and walked or biked to the local shops.

Big Al

I'm used to driving past the many small business districts scattered throughout Chicago. The buildings along busier streets may be three or four stories; the upper levels are apartments. The first floor units house small businesses such as grocery stores, liquor stores, real estate agents, dentists, restaurants, bakeries, and coffee shops.

The adjoining streets are mostly single family residential, though sometimes you may see some apartment buildings near the "business district", sort of a buffer between the light commercial and the single family dwellings. And of course there is a ton of public transit.

We also have a version of that model, commercial on the street level and residential above, in the downtown areas of a number of suburbs around Chicago. They are towns located along various commuter rail lines that travel like spokes out of downtown Chicago. Many of these towns go back to the late 19th century.

When they reworked the Central Business District in my town back in the 1990s, they built several multi-story parking garages to supplement street parking. And a lot of old buildings were torn down and much taller commercial/residential buildings went up. It's been fairly successful.

But as Steve pointed out there are some problems when commercial meets residential. There are a lot of restaurants in our downtown and during COVID some streets were closed to traffic to allow the restaurants to move outside and offer outdoor dining during the summer.

One of them offers live music every night, and they moved their stage outside, too. The music wafts up and the condo residents sitting on their balconies (which are a thing in the suburbs but not in the original Chicago incarnations) are not happy about having all the noise late into the evening, night after night. The town is working on solutions (like requiring the musicians to be under some kind of canopy to help keep the sound from broadcasting upward) but it's definitely a work in progress.

quote:

The primary complaint about business located in residential are parking and noise.

Yes, I would be concerned about this. Although, even if it's not "businesses," it's happening with AirBnB and game day rentals etc.
Our neighborhood seems ok so far, but there are neighborhoods around here where AirBnB was becoming a concern before covid. Now things are kind of weird and it's hard to tell what's happening (although college football is trying very much to be "business as usual")

What Big Al described, neighborhoods with smaller shops, is sort of happening in some upscale planned communities. There's one down the road from our neighborhood. There's a bakery, a brunch place, a super good (upscale) pizza place, and then a handful of officers with lawyers, specialty clinics, that sort of thing. The houses are twice as expensive as ours (at least before covid-era real estate market) but on plots that are a third of the size....

Sorry, thread drift.

Anyway, the point is, that planned community has a lot that's appealing to me. The option to walk to a bakery would be awesome. But the housing prices are insane.

OTOH in my neighborhood, which has been here at least since the 1960s, adding little businesses like that just would not work. No where to park, for one thing.