UNT professor says Sept. 11 exposed vulnerability of cities as commercial centers
John Baen, professor of real estate, says the tragic events of Sept. 11 showed businesses just how vulnerable major urban commercial centers can be.

Those terrorist actions accelerated an existing trend of major businesses moving to the suburbs. The trend could lead to the permanent decline of large cities, he says.

Baen believes businesses are in the process of decentralizing and will never again locate all of their assets in one city or one place. In addition, he predicts they will continue to move away from big cities. Without businesses, city tax revenues will decrease while the costs of providing a safe environment for residents will climb ever higher. Both consequences will increase the burdens on major cities and make it difficult for them to survive in the form we know them today, he says.

"The concept that real estate is a long-term investment with a sense of permanence and safety has been altered," Baen says. "The choices of businesses and families to locate in big cities, and the whole concept of urban form, will change forever. Now that the U.S. has joined the international community as a recent victim of urban terrorism, investors, businesses and individuals will take a new and more pessimistic look at the urban landscape as a place for property investments."

Baen asserts that the recent acts of terrorism will result in the acceleration of the following trends in terms of development or lack of development in 21st-century urban frontiers:

• A rapid increase in the rate of suburbanization and decentralization of businesses and urban dwellers.
• A change in the way city government finances services offered and regulations.
• Increased businesses and property operating costs for additional security, insurance costs, and employee benefits that will offer no productive return on the expenses.
• A change in the perception of a safe workplace and community that can become a drag on productivity for the entire world economy.

BY RUFUS COLEMAN rcoleman@unt.edu

Other featured articles in this issue

• Hurley announces he will step down at fiscal year's end
• Search process for new UNT System chancellor is under way
• Campaign North Texas tops 75 percent
• UNT enrollment up 7.2 percent for spring
• Club at Gateway Center opens for spring
• UNT's Black History Month celebration under way
• UNT program participates in TRIO Day observance
• Two TAMS students named semifinalists in national Intel contest

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