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I'm going to go the unconventional route and say Los Angeles by a long shot. I feel it is vastly underated - it may be less gentrified than San Diego but there are actually many urban pockets in downtown LA.
Check out "South Broadway and West 7th Street" in Los Angeles on google streetview. Can anything in San Diego come close to matching that?
Last edited by overunder12; 01-06-2011 at 11:50 PM..
I'm going to go the unconventional route and say Los Angeles by a long shot. I feel it is vastly underated - it may be less gentrified than San Diego but there are actually many urban pockets in downtown LA.
Check out "South Broadway and West 7th Street" in Los Angeles on google streetview. Can anything in San Diego come close to matching that?
Id go with LA, easily. Here's the link to the intersection you referenced:
Location: Austin, TX/Chicago, IL/Houston, TX/Washington, DC
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Well I want to say a few things before I get started here. San Diego is one of my favorite cities in not only the country but in the world. In the country I only have 4 big favorite cities and San Diego is one of them. I've noticed with every time I've been to San Diego that in large a lot of what makes San Diego a baller city is the fact that it is not urban in the same way like Boston, or Philadelphia, or New York City, or Chicago or even Los Angeles.
I cant imagine what San Diego would be like with it being that dense, a lot of the natural scenery would be crippling and getting destroyed due to over population, a lot of pollution due to chemicals and above average auto dependency, & just a lot of clutter unnecessarily. For San Diego its also nearly impossible to become that urban to begin with, geographically its restricted and thank god for that, San Diego doesn't need to be something that will harm it naturally.
However, I will say that San Diego does make better use of its Downtown area than Los Angeles does. Yes Los Angeles's Downtown isn't "dead" per se, but neither are Atlanta's, Miami's, Houston's, or Dallas's. They are just underwhelming for their size. Los Angeles MSA is actually ranked as one of the least Downtown dependent city in America (Only Phoenix ranks less Downtown dependent) and only 2.5% of its population relies on Downtown as the employment center whereas 5.0% of San Diego's MSA population relies on Downtown San Diego as an employment center.
I will say that for sure Downtown San Diego overall is a bit more ahead of Downtown Los Angeles. There's more activities going on in Downtown San Diego which serve as the core for its MSA. Los Angeles, its got scattered districts throughout the city that make it more widespread and less dependent on one area.
Percentage of Total Metropolitan Area Employment Working in Downtown:
01. New York City: 20.1%
02. New Orleans: 19.0%
03. Washington DC: 18.7%
04. Austin: 17.7%
05. Hartford: 15.4%
06. Columbus: 15.2%
07. Richmond: 15.1%
08. Honolulu: 15.1%
09. Chicago: 14.3%
10. Charlotte: 13.4%
11. Louisville: 12.5%
12. Nashville: 12.4%
13. Bay Area: 12.2%
14. Denver: 12.2%
15. Cleveland: 12.2%
16. Pittsburgh: 12.0%
17. Jacksonville: 12.0%
18. Seattle: 11.3%
19. Boston: 11.1%
20. Sacramento: 10.5%
21. Rochester: 10.5%
22. Milwaukee: 10.3%
23. Cincinnati: 10.2%
24. Baltimore: 10.0%
25. Portland: 10.0%
26. Salt Lake City: 09.9%
27. Indianapolis: 09.5%
28. San Antonio: 09.5%
29. Philadelphia: 09.4%
30. Houston: 08.9%
31. Minneapolis-Saint Paul: 08.2%
32. Dayton: 07.9%
33. Orlando: 07.4%
34. Saint Louis: 07.4%
35. Atlanta: 07.3%
36. Kansas City: 06.9%
37. Buffalo: 06.7%
38. Las Vegas: 05.1%
39. San Diego: 05.0%
40. Miami: 04.7%
41. Oklahoma City: 04.7%
42. Detroit: 04.5%
43. Providence: 04.4%
44. Memphis: 04.2%
45. Dallas-Fort Worth: 04.0%
46. Virginia Beach: 03.8%
47. Tampa-Saint Petersburg: 03.8%
48. Tucson: 03.0%
49. Los Angeles: 02.5%
50. Phoenix: 02.0%
LA by far is much more urban and has an urban vibe than SD. SD has a very limited "downtown" area, the Gaslamp and around Petco Park, but that only constitutes a few blocks really. Alot of business are leaving downtown SD, because rents are still high and there are much better locations to be (I know because I worked downtown for about 26 years and saw all the changes, good and bad). During the week, DT is pretty dead. Really, I wouldn't even consider DT San Diego on a par with LA, SF, NY, Boston, Chicago, Miami, etc... not even close.
Actually they both are pretty decent. San Diego is nicer and LA is more gritty. As to which is more urban it's LA and it's not really that close.
san diego is cleaner, prettier, and nicer than L.A.
Quote:
Originally Posted by loveautumn
LA by far is much more urban and has an urban vibe than SD. SD has a very limited "downtown" area, the Gaslamp and around Petco Park, but that only constitutes a few blocks really. Alot of business are leaving downtown SD, because rents are still high and there are much better locations to be (I know because I worked downtown for about 26 years and saw all the changes, good and bad). During the week, DT is pretty dead. Really, I wouldn't even consider DT San Diego on a par with LA, SF, NY, Boston, Chicago, Miami, etc... not even close.
Honestly are you forgetting Balboa Park? Balboa Park is part of downtown San Diego. I love downtown san Diego. I feel like it's cleaner and much safer and prettier than downtown L.A. It's not dead during the week either. There are a lot of people driving and walking around. I think you need to go back and spend more time down there. Is downtown like NY or Boston? of course not but it certainly isn't bad either.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DANNYY
Well I want to say a few things before I get started here. San Diego is one of my favorite cities in not only the country but in the world. In the country I only have 4 big favorite cities and San Diego is one of them. I've noticed with every time I've been to San Diego that in large a lot of what makes San Diego a baller city is the fact that it is not urban in the same way like Boston, or Philadelphia, or New York City, or Chicago or even Los Angeles.
I cant imagine what San Diego would be like with it being that dense, a lot of the natural scenery would be crippling and getting destroyed due to over population, a lot of pollution due to chemicals and above average auto dependency, & just a lot of clutter unnecessarily. For San Diego its also nearly impossible to become that urban to begin with, geographically its restricted and thank god for that, San Diego doesn't need to be something that will harm it naturally.
agreed! San Diego has many canyons and hills making up it's whole Metro and city. Coming down the 8, 5, and 15 make this all the more evident. You see homes on tops of canyons. it's so beautiful.
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