Instapundit and downtown revitalization

An unusually insightful post from Glenn [link]. He seems to be on the roll ever since explaining to Krugman why Edwards can't represent the poor.

He's right that [bricks, banners, trees stuff] doesn't work. But downtown Knoxville has gotten better -- the Insta-Daughter and I had lunch downtown on Market Square today (her idea) -- and it was a bustling scene. Knoxville tried the trees, banners, brick-paved sidewalk stuff. But what mostly worked was businesses starting on their own, and people moving downtown. There's now a booming downtown scene, but it's pretty muched happened spontaneously, not because of the city's various development schemes, which have been going on since Nixon was President. But one thing has made a difference: Parking! It's easy and cheap to park, and that's key.

Tracy, fortunately, does not need an excessively robust revitalization program. We did have a functional downtown before. Now it is up to the city hall not to ruin the good signs by taking away our parking for brick-paved stuff, and take it easy on low-income housing assistance.