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I have seen conflicting figures. Philly claims to be the 3rd largest downtown pop in the nation.
According to the city, it has has 54,096 within the 2 sq miles running from Callowhill to Pine. Under slightly a slightly larger area, maybe 3-4 sq miles it has around 92,000 people.
http://www.centercityphila.org/docs/SOCC2010_PeoplePlaces.pdf (broken link)
I am just curious, how this compares to other cities, such as Boston and SF.
It seems SF core density would come pretty close with Chinatown, Nobb Hill, Tenderloin, etc?
1. NYC 141K
2. SF 103K
3. Philadelphia 87K
4. Boston 80K
5. Chicago 40K
6. LA 40K
7. DC 38K
9. Miami 24K
10. Houston 22K
11. Detroit 17K
12. Atlanta 17K
13. Dallas 14K
Now to the Cores - 2009 Estimates of the Downtown (2 Mile Radius) I will also note based on the map there is very little water in any of these measures at two miles.
1. NYC 506K
2. San Francisco 300K
3. Philadelphia 243K
4. Boston 213K
5. Chicago 160K
6. LA 157K
7. DC 155K
8. Miami 103K
9. Houston 75K
10. Detroit 73K
11. Atlanta 72K
12. Dallas 49K
Where exactly is the center from which these radii are measured?
For Chi-town it was just east of the Loop, do you have best address for Chicago, I can recalculate from there. There are an attempt to center on the core and alleviate water
225 S Canal St for Chicago (Most used the Amtrak main station)
For Chi-town it was just east of the Loop, do you have best address for Chicago, I can recalculate from there. There are an attempt to center on the core and alleviate water
225 S Canal St for Chicago (Most used the Amtrak main station)
FWIW, a 2 mile radius from 225 S. Canal puts about a quarter to a third of the total area within the circle into Lake Michigan. Also a good portion of the remaining area is Grant Park, which has a total residential population of zero. Typically, the "downtown" area of Chicago is defined as North Avenue to Roosevelt Rd, and the lakefront to the Kennedy expressway (I-90/94).
Its fine to use metrics like radii, as long as you appreciate the limitations. Plus, there's probably a useful distinction to be made between day-time populations (employment) ersus night-time populations (residential).
Last edited by oakparkdude; 08-30-2010 at 09:21 AM..
In any case, two miles is a huge radius! It's unbelievable that Houston is number 9 because hardly anyone lives downtown (and there's no water to limit your calculation). It's mainly office towers and parking lots.
It doesn't sound like the best calculation method.
Yeah, even the 1 mile radius at canal includes a bunch of highway, abandoned train yards, river branches, and grant park. Not to mention its primarily all the CBD, hardly known for residential.
If you want a center that still contains the core and residential areas, I would center north of the loop, like chicago and wells. For residential, diversey and sheffield. Either way, the way chicago is laid out is a bit of a disadvantage in this calculation due to the lake and river.
FWIW, a 2 mile radius from 225 S. Canal puts about a quarter to a third of the total area within the circle into Lake Michigan. Also a good portion of the remaining area is Grant Park, which has a total residential population of zero.
Its fine to use metrics like radii, as long as you appreciate the limitations. Plus, there's probably a useful distinction to be made between day-time populations (employment) ersus night-time populations (residential).
would agree - Moving to 408 Milwaukee Ave in Chicago, removes park and lake and covers much of the downtown from the Southern edge of the Gold coast down through the Loop
1 mile 38K
2 Mile 179K
5 Miles 900K
closer to the mix but still a tab behind NYC, SF, Philly and Boston which honestly makes sense to me
Yeah, even the 1 mile radius at canal includes a bunch of highway, abandoned train yards, river branches, and grant park. Not to mention its primarily all the CBD, hardly known for residential.
If you want a center that still contains the core and residential areas, I would center north of the loop, like chicago and wells. For residential, diversey and sheffield. Either way, the way chicago is laid out is a bit of a disadvantage in this calculation due to the lake and river.
I understand your points but NYC, Boston, SF, and Philly all have rivers, bays, railyards etc. seriously this not unique to Chciacago, btw the chicago river is actually paltry relative to the Hudson or Deleware rivers. I recentered with no water and River North, the Mag mile, Loop, points west etc. it grew and is a bit behind the aforementioned, Chicagos downtown population is not a concentrated, neither good nor bad but is what it is
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