Here’s a fun chart from an 1980s Urban Geography intro textbook that I picked up in a free pile on the University of Minnesota campus today…
This kind of relationship is referred to in “classic urban geography” as the “bid-rent curve,” about how land values decline from a theoretical peak intersection in the CBD. In Minneapolis, that intersection would be Nicollet Mall and 7th Street, right by the IDS Center.
Do you think this kind of analysis is still useful today?
Useful in some ways for certain business types. For instance it might explain the shortage of child care facilities near the density on Lake between Hennepin and Lyndale, but just outside that to the east there is an abundance. No real change in demand but the rent costs push that business type elsewhere.
This calls for responses from folks in the Econ Dept. and Carlson School at the U of MN.