Brandon Donnelly — Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly. — Page 536

This is perhaps the wrong post to be writing right now with gas prices where they are, but lately I've been thinking about parking garage designs. We have talked a lot about parking minimums and other related topics on this blog, but let's put all of these aside for today and assume that parking garages are a thing that will continue to exist in our cities.

Generally speaking, parking garages are fairly utilitarian spaces. They store cars and they usually aren't that nice. And in the case of public garages, they often smell like urine. But there are some extraordinary examples out there. Miami immediately comes to mind as a city with some pretty cool garages. I mean, when you have one designed by Herzog & de Meuron (1111 Lincoln Road) that is usually a pretty good indicator.

When I was there in January, we went walking one night through the Design District and we ended up on the roof of " Museum Garage " to take some photos and take in the views. Once we got there, we found people doing everything from eating dinner to filming TikTok videos. Great spaces attract people. It also helps when all of your parking is above-grade, which is the case in Miami.

Here is another example from Sydney (also pictured above). In this case, it's a residential parking garage and Craig & Karl were hired to create a colorful geometric mural. Garages are a perfect place to be a bit more playful and have some fun. I think we should do more of this.

Photo via Craig & Karl

Back in 2006, online shopping in the UK represented about 3% of total retail sales. As of March 2020, right before the pandemic, this number had increased to about 22%. Online shopping then spiked during the pandemic, as we all know, but it has since normalized and the January 2022 figure was about 27.1% . But if you exclude grocery sales (because food is special), I believe the percentage of online sales is now in the range of 35-40% for the UK.

What is clear is that there is a longstanding shift towards more online shopping. It has just become so easy. However, UK retailers, as well as many others I'm sure, have been arguing that part of the reason for this systemic shift is an unfair tax advantage.

Physical retailers tend to be located in high-traffic areas and so they are naturally subjected to higher municipal taxes. Online retailers, on the other hand, get to locate their warehouses and distribution centers in lower cost locations and so aren't taxed at the same kind of rates.

Because of this perceived imbalance, the UK is now studying the pros and cons of implementing an online sales tax (OST) as a way "to help rebalance taxation of the retail sector." Tax online so offline seems more attractive.

But this is a tricky thing. Nobody wants to see our main streets and urban centers void of retail activity. That would be like walking through a financial district that had decided to bury all of its retail activity underground or something. But at the same time, does it make sense to shift taxes to what the market seems to like and want? Though I suppose it could be a lucrative tax since you generally want to target things with inelastic demand.

What are your thoughts?

More info on the OST consultation, here .

I have long been interested in the possible relationships between climate and economy. Because my unproven hypothesis is that, given the choice, most city dwellers would probably prefer to hang out on Ipanema beach and drink caipirinhas in the sun than sit in a windowless cube farm toiling away on cover pages for TPS reports.

Well it turns out that there is some science to support this theory. A 2012 study by professors at Harvard and the University of North Carolina did in fact discover that people tend to work a little harder and focus a bit more when the weather is crappy outside and they're not distracted by the promise of glorious sunshine.

This Scientific American article from 2013 also argued that there are physiological reasons for why we're maybe not as sharp in extremely warm weather. The possible science is that excessive heat is more taxing on our body (compared to the cold) and so more energy is required to maintain homeostasis. That leaves less mental capacity for TPS cover pages.

Of course, these sorts of ideas aren't all that novel. For centuries, economists as well as many others have posited that climate could be one of the reasons why geographies like northern Europe have historically had a higher standard of living than the south. It instilled work ethic and an awareness of deadlines. If you didn't plan accordingly, you would starve to death in the winter.

But we also know that climate alone won't do it. There are many examples of tropical cities with advanced economies and high-functioning societies. (The invention of air conditioning surely played a meaningful role.) And on the flipside, there are many examples of cold shitholes. So it's complicated. But all this being said, doesn't a caipirinha on the beach sound nice right about now?

Photo by TAIS HELENA DE CARVALHO on Unsplash