America's Best Downtowns (Forbes) (Chicago: homes, live in, trash)

[sunnyandcloudydays]

Originally Posted by MannheimMadman

I was mostly shocked that Indianapolis is on the list. And, Indy is bigger than Portland? What wizardry is this?!?

Indianapolis is one of the cities who take the whole county into its population.

So to my understanding all of Marion county Indiana is taken into the population number.

If that was the case in Chicago all of cook county would be taken in as the population of Chicago

[msamhunter]

Originally Posted by sunnyandcloudydays

Indianapolis is one of the cities who take the whole county into its population.

So to my understanding all of Marion county Indiana is taken into the population number.

If that was the case in Chicago all of cook county would be taken in as the population of Chicago

Most of Marion county is Indianapolis, not all of it so about 50k Marion County residents are not Indianapolis citizens. A city's boundaries are its boundaries. If Chicago were all of cook county so be it, that's what it would be and it's population would reflect that, nor does it really matter in this case for consolidated cities such as Indianapolis or Nashville. Just taking Indianapolis, Unigov was formed in 1967, 45 years ago, the same with Nashville and Jacksonville all around the same time. 45 years is a bit of a stretch to keep trying to use that as an excuse. The city is landlocked and has been for oh, 45 years but yet the city has still grown after a 10 period of decline between 1970-1980 census. Several consolidated cities, Nashville, Louisville, Lexington, Macon GA, Jax, quasi consolidated Miami-Dade and Denver. Why pick on lowly Indianapolis.

[linicx]

It's ironic that the best downtown is in a state Forbes can't even manage to mention.

[mjtinmemphis]

Its not a real list. What about San Francisco, Philly and Boston. Winston Salem and Greensboro are nice small places but pleez!

[14thandYou]

Originally Posted by downtown lover

Best downtowns cores in order

San Francisco
Seattle
Indianapolis
NY
Philly
Boston
Portland
Denver
San Diego

Hmm, your list is suspect. Indy, Denver and San Diego, but no Chicago? Indy and Seattle ahead of NYC, Philly and Boston?

I'm simply going to assume you aren't being serious and take this post in the spirit of jest in which I'm sure it was intended.

[LGERMAN]

Superbowl XLVI was just here in Indy and it got rave reviews. Originally being from Chicago, I am biased and I think Chicago's downtown is the best. But because of Indianapolis's performance as host of the big game - Chicago may benefit. I's like to think of Indy as Chicago's other little cousin along with Milwaukee.

[14thandYou]

Originally Posted by LGERMAN

Superbowl XLVI was just here in Indy and it got rave reviews.

The Super Bowl was in Jacksonville, too. I don't see what that has to do with a city's downtown being "good." Indy is what it is: a mid-sized city with an appropriately mid-sized downtown. It's fine for what it is, but I cannot for the life of me come up with any meaningful measure by which it places among the ten best downtowns in the country. Unless, of course, "peace and quiet" is something you look for in a downtown.

[sunnyandcloudydays]

Originally Posted by msamhunter

Most of Marion county is Indianapolis, not all of it so about 50k Marion County residents are not Indianapolis citizens. A city's boundaries are its boundaries. If Chicago were all of cook county so be it, that's what it would be and it's population would reflect that, nor does it really matter in this case for consolidated cities such as Indianapolis or Nashville. Just taking Indianapolis, Unigov was formed in 1967, 45 years ago, the same with Nashville and Jacksonville all around the same time. 45 years is a bit of a stretch to keep trying to use that as an excuse. The city is landlocked and has been for oh, 45 years but yet the city has still grown after a 10 period of decline between 1970-1980 census. Several consolidated cities, Nashville, Louisville, Lexington, Macon GA, Jax, quasi consolidated Miami-Dade and Denver. Why pick on lowly Indianapolis.

Not picking on Indianapolis. A previous poster had made a comment about Portland vs. Indianapolis.

I only made a factual statement about the size of Indianapolis.

In this case the footprint would be smaller than the size of lets say a city that did not have a uni-gov.

The cities population is spread out over a larger area vs. compact tighter area.


So no, I was not belittling Indianapollis one bit.
Pretty familiar with the uni govs but you did give some nice examples.
All middle to small sized cities that used this type of system 45 years ago.
Maybe some more should join the pack.

[sunnyandcloudydays]

Originally Posted by linicx

It's ironic that the best downtown is in a state Forbes can't even manage to mention.

Ha,
Comes as no surprise......

[Chicago76]

Originally Posted by 14thandYou

The Super Bowl was in Jacksonville, too. I don't see what that has to do with a city's downtown being "good." Indy is what it is: a mid-sized city with an appropriately mid-sized downtown. It's fine for what it is, but I cannot for the life of me come up with any meaningful measure by which it places among the ten best downtowns in the country. Unless, of course, "peace and quiet" is something you look for in a downtown.

I think what you're not getting is that the raves came from the fact that people were pleasantly surprised by the amenities within that downtown. Indy is a mid-sized city w/ few interesting peripheral neighborhoods, which makes downtown more of an entertainment focus for it than larger cities like Cleveland, St. Louis, etc.

A couple hundred restaurants and about 100 bars squeezed into the 2/3 of a mile isn't bad. But yeah, it's not going to be in the realm of the largest US cities when it comes to a downtown experience. It just happens to be one of the best downtowns for cities in that 1 million to 3 million metro spot.