Comments on Commercial Development

[Moon Adamant]

Hello all,

Laetizia Coronet has sent us her thoughts about our commercial dev. I suggested that i would post these for her so we could start a discussion on this issue:

- - -

Some of you have been pulling at me hard to open up a shop here. I could, and I really would like to, but let me explain to you how shop renting goes out there in the rest of SL. Since I am not a citizen and not a lover of long meetings with loads of abbreviations anyway... I'll pop this card off to a few of the friends I have made here.

In any ugly mall or private sim I can walk into an empty shop and rent it by paying the rentomatic box. Pay every 4 weeks or month and you're home free. A small stall or shop has 25 or 50 prims, larger ones go at 100 or 120. No hassle, just remember to pay each period (you are reminded automatically). If not, the rentomatic reappears and anyone else could go in and take over.
Here, as TOPGenosse explained to me, I have to buy a shop with 33 prims for US$, then buy a prim parcel for another 33.
For me this means opening a bank account which allows me to sign up for PayPal, just to transfer a measily 12 US$ once for ownership rights to 33 or 66 prims which is *nothing* for any serious shop, and then there's still rent to pay. ( In my own shop I have about 12 prims just to dress it up a little. A plant, a backdrop, some signs... no wonder shops here are looking empty.)

I don't want the hassle. Walking in and renting through the rentomatic is perfect and I am happy to work out something else instead of that, but I simply want to rent a shop.
Now I am not complaining, I am doing fine as is, but I fear that unless you get rid of this rather difficult way of doing business you won't get many shops filled.

You need two things here: group owned shops that you can rent out, and zoning regulations which will help you move (mainly deadweight) offices and such into side streets and shops into main locations like the Marktplatz. This sim is not easy to find your way around in and I don't think shops want to be in any side street.

Just my two cents - think about it when you next have a meeting.

Happy Easter to you all,
love,
Laetizia Coronet

[Ranma Tardis]

Suppose if the vision of the CDS was to provide quick and easy renting of market space her message would make sense.
Were we not doing this to make resident run goverment work?

[Claude Desmoulins]

[quote="Ranma Tardis":1orxu7c9]
Were we not doing this to make resident run goverment work?[/quote:1orxu7c9]

I think one of our large scale problems is that we no longer have a sense of what making government work means. When making government work was mostly about keeping the CDS afloat and surviving transitions, we all agreed on what success was.

Now, some see making government work as being about creating an attractive commercial environment, some see it as creating more traffic, some see it as creating a judicial system and so forth.

I'm going to take a stab that Ranma is leaving because she didn't see the CDS as doing whatever she understands as "making resident run government work". What does that phrase mean to all of us? That's the key answer that will show us where to go.

[Aliasi Stonebender]

In essence, it's less about the 'government' and more about what the consensus is; government is a tool to that end, ideally.

So, while more commercial development may indeed be nice, I'm not entirely sure it's universally supported.

[Sleazy_Writer]

I didn't have time yet to properly read this thread, but I came across this antiquated law:

NL 4-7 Central Commercial District Land Allocation Act (That hasn't been 'reorganised' by the Reorganization Commission yet.)
[i:1vt2wqhe]The Guild is authorized to develop a mechanism for the allocation of lots in the Central Commercial District.[/i:1vt2wqhe]

I think the Old Guild was supposed to act like a mall manager, but with the New Guild being an NGO that doesn't do this, clearly Laetizia still has a good point.

PS. Any moderators present (Pat?) please move this to the Commerce thread.

[Patroklus Murakami]

>TOP: I think the antiquated law you came across was finally enacted. The lots in the Neufreistadt Central Commercial District (basically, the lots that face on to the Marketplatz) stood empty for a long time but were eventually sold off to citizens who wanted to open businesses here. (I think the reason they had stood empty for such a long time was because there was a desire to make sure that our Marketplatz didn't become 'just another mall' and that the shops projected the right image of NFS and were consistent with our brand).

I think Laetizia's comments are extremely perceptive. As I've mentioned before, I run a (moderately) successful parade of shops on the mainland. Renting from me (unlike the CDS) is a breeze - the rental bot tells you how many prims you get and the rent/week. Click it and you get a notecard with my rentals policy. Pay for two weeks (or longer) and the space is yours; all you need is an invite from me to join my rentals group and you're away. All this can be arranged in minutes without us ever having to meet up inworld. The rental bot sends automatic reminders when the rent is nearly due and, if people decide to leave, all I need to do is return their objects after checking with them.

Setting up a business in the CDS, by comparison with the mainland and most private islands, requires much more of a commitment and several more hurdles to jump, as Laetizia has pointed out.

Now, that's okay if we are content for NFS and CN business lots only to go to people committed to the CDS project rather than to outsiders. But then we get what we get and can't really complain if people are content to sell cobwebs or maintain a business presence for the sake of it provided they pay their rent each month.

Or we could decide that we want to operate the Marketplatz as a business concern along the lines of shopping malls elsewhere in SL. Then we will need to consider the current business owners, who may want to keep their 'cobweb-selling shops' and who will expect compensation if their/our businesses are to go, rentals policy and who the CDS could employ to manage the business for us. We'd also have to be clear about whether renting shop space in NFS or CN for a few weeks conferred citizenship on the business owner.

>TOP. I'm going to leave this in 'Sim and City Planning' for now as I think the original post was about the 'redevelopment of existing territories' as much as it's about 'business, commerce and the economy'.

[Ranma Tardis]

[quote="Patroklus Murakami":3sfqw8v6] Laetizia's comments are extremely perceptive. As I've mentioned before, I run a (moderately) successful parade of shops on the mainland. Renting from me (unlike the CDS) is a breeze - the rental bot tells you how many prims you get and the rent/week. Click it and you get a notecard with my rentals policy. Pay for two weeks (or longer) and the space is yours; all you need is an invite from me to join my rentals group and you're away. All this can be arranged in minutes without us ever having to meet up inworld. The rental bot sends automatic reminders when the rent is nearly due and, if people decide to leave, all I need to do is return their objects after checking with them. [/quote:3sfqw8v6]

I would agree with both of you however Phase III or the CDS was never made to make some "Land Baron" rich by renting lots. As my good friend would say "there are Sims for that". Renting lots like this is in direct violation of the Constitution, Public laws and Covenants.

[quote="Patroklus Murakami":3sfqw8v6] Setting up a business in the CDS, by comparison with the mainland and most private islands, requires much more of a commitment and several more hurdles to jump, as Laetizia has pointed out. [/quote:3sfqw8v6]

We are here to see if local government can work. The CDS is not doing a very good job at this. Already it seems to me that the government officials think they are better than those they serve. Again we were not made to run a rental mall.

[quote="Patroklus Murakami":3sfqw8v6] Now, that's okay if we are content for NFS and CN business lots only to go to people committed to the CDS project rather than to outsiders. But then we get what we get and can't really complain if people are content to sell cobwebs or maintain a business presence for the sake of it provided they pay their rent each month. [/quote:3sfqw8v6]

If most of the residents like "cobwebs" then they should have them. A lot of traffic in a mall will cause overcrowding and a very slow running sim. It is why a lot of residents left the mainland.

[quote="Patroklus Murakami":3sfqw8v6] Or we could decide that we want to operate the Marketplatz as a business concern along the lines of shopping malls elsewhere in SL. Then we will need to consider the current business owners, who may want to keep their 'cobweb-selling shops' and who will expect compensation if their/our businesses are to go, rentals policy and who the CDS could employ to manage the business for us. We'd also have to be clear about whether renting shop space in NFS or CN for a few weeks conferred citizenship on the business owner. [/quote:3sfqw8v6]

I do not like it when a government uses it force of power to take land away from residents. This is an ongoing concern in America as corrupt officials take land away from people to make shopping malls, condos or whatever. What happens when the government uses this to remove their political foe in the guise of "the public good"? This is dangerous talk in a "democracy".