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The Central Hillside in Duluth is a cool urban neighborhood in a smaller city. It is intact, old, dense and gritty without being a ghetto. Duluth has more rowhouses than many 1,000,000+ metros.
du201255 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/40863599@N05/6680649885/ - broken link) by afsmps (http://www.flickr.com/people/40863599@N05/ - broken link), on Flickr
University Circle, even if you don't include Little Italy, is an extraordinary place, but it still lacks in the commercial and residential property for me to give it a vote. If we're looking at Cleveland, I'd say Tremont has a great urban scene, with amazing homes, restaurants, galleries, and I suppose enough ghetto to desanitize the area so you don't think you're in the suburbs.
Well Little Italy is very much a slice of University Circle, so I do not think discounting it is an option (and plus 90% of the streets are commercial and residential). There are other unique slices of residential such as with Hessler St. AND Don't forget, much of the new construction in other parts of University Circle are residential and commercial:
I'd still argue University Circle is the top urban neighborhood in Cleveland even over Tremont, and after all the new construction is finished next year or so, I'm thinking it's no contest. Personally for Cleveland, I would put Ohio City #2 and Tremont #3. The biggest reason is the night and day difference in Ohio City over these past 12-18 months.
I obviously have eastside bias if you can't tell, but I do frequent and enjoy Tremont about once a week...especially for weekend brunch of Grumpy's, Southside, Tap House, or Lucky's Cafe:
Regarding University Circle vs Tremont, I argue UC blows Tremont out of the water in terms of architecture. For example, compare just the religious buildings/centers (3 Protestant, 1 Jewish, 1 Catholic, and 1 Islamic):
2) Jewish Temple Tifereth-Israel,
http://www.city-data.com/forum/images/statusicon/wol_error.gif[/IMG]This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1760$sx1168$s.[IMG]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/The_Temple_Tifereth_Israel.jpg
7) Harkness Chapel is used by Case Western Reserve sometimes for religious ceremonies:
http://www.city-data.com/forum/images/statusicon/wol_error.gif[/IMG]This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 2304$sx1728$s.[IMG]http://wiki.case.edu/images/0/0e/Harkness.jpg
Location: Cleveland bound with MPLS in the rear-view
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Cleveland DOES have some pretty nice neighborhoods.....in potential, anyways. If the city continues to turn itself around and takes back some of its urban neighborhoods, watch out world, Cleveland has the infrastructure to be a major player city-wise, IMO! I can't get over how much potential is here......it's great!
I guess it just depends on your definition and perception of neighborhoods in general. UC is sort of a collection of hospitals, higher education, museums, temples/churches, good public transport, Little Italy (a "true" neighborhood in my books), blight up north and west, and wealth down south. Now there are a ton of projects for high end residential properties as well as more businesses, and in a year or two, it will be unrecognizable. But whenever I'm there, I don't get that neighborhoody feel you see in Ohio City, Tremont, Detroit Shoreway, North Collinwood, and other similar venues. It's a bit more touristy and less insulated, maybe a little more artificial on some level too.
Cleveland DOES have some pretty nice neighborhoods.....in potential, anyways. If the city continues to turn itself around and takes back some of its urban neighborhoods, watch out world, Cleveland has the infrastructure to be a major player city-wise, IMO! I can't get over how much potential is here......it's great!
Agreed Cleveland continues to maintain its bare bones...train system, world-ranked Cleveland Orchestra, 3 major sports teams and 3 minor teams, health care, Playhouse Square, museums, urban neighborhoods, and a architecturally significant downtown. BUT Cleveland needs PEOPLE to keep these things intact and tap the potential is what is here/what is left. The potential screams everywhere.
Believe it or not, numerous neighborhoods are better and healthier now than they were 5 years ago...prime examples: (1st tier better) University Circle, Ohio City, Detroit Shoreway-Gordon Square, CSU's "College Town", (2nd tier better) Asiatown, Tremont, and North Collinwood. Much thanks to the spirit and commitment of the people living here.
A main dilemma is that other neighborhoods continue to crumble, especially after being gutted by the foreclosure crisis.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TBideon
I guess it just depends on your definition and perception of neighborhoods in general. UC is sort of a collection of hospitals, higher education, museums, temples/churches, good public transport, Little Italy (a "true" neighborhood in my books), blight up north and west, and wealth down south. Now there are a ton of projects for high end residential properties as well as more businesses, and in a year or two, it will be unrecognizable. But whenever I'm there, I don't get that neighborhoody feel you see in Ohio City, Tremont, Detroit Shoreway, North Collinwood, and other similar venues. It's a bit more touristy and less insulated, maybe a little more artificial on some level too.
To each his own; I still love the area
I can completely see your argument about Ohio City and Tremont feeling more "neighborhood" -- they are residential areas that happens to have commercial. Where as, University Circle is a commercial and institutional area that happens to have residential. But that residential is rapidly growing, making the place uniquely quirky and diverse--which is why it gets my vote.
btw, I am greatly enjoying the rise of Ohio City (Mitchell Ice Cream relocation HQ, Ohio City Hostel opening, Great Lakes Brewery expansion, dozens of storefronts being filled). These next 1-2 years will are great for both areas.
Last edited by costello_musicman; 01-22-2012 at 12:27 PM..
Ya when people always compare Indianapolis and Columbus they forget a major difference: Columbus' urban housing stock is more brick, more dense. Also, the neighborhoods were built with extensive retail districts.
Due to these two differences, Columbus' urban neighborhoods are much more lively and urban feeling.
Location: Cleveland bound with MPLS in the rear-view
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Quote:
Originally Posted by streetcreed
Ya when people always compare Indianapolis and Columbus they forget a major difference: Columbus' urban housing stock is more brick, more dense. Also, the neighborhoods were built with extensive retail districts.
Due to these two differences, Columbus' urban neighborhoods are much more lively and urban feeling.
STOP....stop now before you embarrass yourself! Columbus is not more structurally-dense and does not have more retail in its urban neighborhoods than Cleveland. I've lived in both cities now, and Cleveland, block for block and mile for mile, is denser looking, feeling and populated than Columbus is (on a whole and by micro-community). And Cleveland is at the BOTTOM of its life cycle right now, while Columbus is arguably still near its peak. 50 years ago this would have been even more epicly wrong.
STOP....stop now before you embarrass yourself! Columbus is not more structurally-dense and does not have more retail in its urban neighborhoods than Cleveland. I've lived in both cities now, and Cleveland, block for block and mile for mile, is denser looking, feeling and populated than Columbus is (on a whole and by micro-community). And Cleveland is at the BOTTOM of its life cycle right now, while Columbus is arguably still near its peak. 50 years ago this would have been even more epicly wrong.
This has nothing to do with Cleveland. We are talking about Columbus and Indianapolis. Sorry if it was confused. Read the article above that is why Indianapolis is looking toward columbus, in regards to developing more urban/lively neighborhoods. That has become Columbus' specialty: Gentrifying and retailing up it's urban, older areas. I love Cleveland's urban places too.
If we want to get back to talking about the best urban neighborhoods of the midwest, Columbus' short north (made up of Victorian Village and Italian Village) has to be on the list. German Village could also be on the list. Columbus doesn't have a the most impressive Midwestern downtown, but the city has done a fantastic job of gentrifying it's urban Victorian and late 1800s neighborhoods (while keeping the history, arts, and local culture alive.)
The Short North is an eclectic, linear retail district of art galleries, one of the largest LGBT populations, nightlife, restored historic retail buildings. The icing on the cake is that it abuts two gentrified and beautifully restored historic neighborhoods. One is Victorian the other 1920s/1930s Italian Village. One of the first Urban Parks in the US (goodale Park) lyes within the area. http://www.shortnorth.org/sites/defa...nightscape.jpg
The archways were reconstructed in recognition of the original archways from the 1900s. Those carried the "lines" on which the street cars would run.
Right next to downtown
Even more interesting is that this neighborhood lyes connecting to the northern part of downtown, with local markets, the arena district, etc. It is quite amazing to see such a restored, safe, and livable urban area next to a downtown.
Location: Cleveland bound with MPLS in the rear-view
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^Boy, Short North was just a shadow of its current self when I went to OSU (2000-2005)! Short North was pretty much ghetto crap from OSU till almost the "Cap", which was built while I was in school. The Cap really changed the momentum of that area and once Kro-ghetto (Kroger) was redone the final pieces of the puzzle were filled in for Short North and it's a completely different place than it was even 10-12 years ago! When I was a Frosh, The Spot and Pannini's South were fun places to go if you were under age, but just so $HITTY! Now the whole South Campus retail thing is there and the area is so much safer than it was when I was in school.
Short North definitely belongs on the list, but it's not the best. Don't forget, Short North is a relatively new hip area of Columbus. There are many areas of other Midwestern cities that have been hip or "it" for a LONG time that have really great aspects about them. Short North has its place in the list of "best" Midwestern n'hoods. Is it top 5, I dunno, I doubt it. Top 10? Maybe...depends on what you want. Columbus is still new to the urban scene in many senses and it's still a sprawly suburban style city, but there has been more growth in the core (and I mean "old" core here) since I've been there in college since 2000 and when I've visited since then I noticed the most change in Short North. Is it like Minneapolis, Chicago or even Cleveland with an amazing urban resurgence? Not quite, but it's doing very well for itself as a mid-sized Midwestern Metro.
Do you know what Columbus' downtown population is (downtown would NOT include Short North, btw)? When I lived there it was around 10K. If you give me anything over 20K I won't believe you, but it depends on your parameters (Downtown Columbus, by definition, is one of the largest land areas in the MIdwest -- if not THE largest). Downtown Minneapolis is like a square mile, or TWO....not 3 or 4 like COlumbus.
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