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A portion of D.C. does not feel urban in the same sense that a lot of other American cities do. Part of this is due to the height restriction.
Places in D.C. that don't give off "big city" feels
Capitol Hill/Eastern Market
Hill East
Far Northwest D.C is essentially suburban (Tenleytown, Friendship Heights etc).
Parts of Kenilworth.
Capitol Hill/Eastern Market? That is an urban neighborhood. It has a mix of uses, has rowhouses with taller multi-unit buildings mixed in, and walkable.
DC does not feel urban like a lot of other American cities do? DC is one of this country's most urban cities. DC is less urban than just a few (a handful) of other American cities.
All of this country's top urban cities have neighborhoods that are less urban. Cherry picking out DC's less urban neighborhoods is not insightful in the context of this thread. I could do the same for NYC, Chicago, Philly, etc.
Last edited by revitalizer; 07-19-2016 at 01:15 PM..
All the neighborhoods I mentioned don't have an extremity urban feel to me regardless of height.
Capitol Hill/Hill East are almost entirely rowhouses. It's hard for me to see how that doesn't feel extremely urban. It's the same built form as nearly all of Philadelphia.
I can see someone arguing that because DC has a smaller urban core it's less urban than Boston/Philly/SF/Chicago. But a neighborhood like Capitol Hill way more urban than the vast majority of the land area of Chicago and Boston - arguably San Francisco as well.
Capitol Hill/Eastern Market? That is an urban neighborhood. It has a mix of uses, has rowhouses with taller multi-unit buildings mixed in, and walkable.
I kinda get what he's saying. Much of Capitol Hill does have a more relaxed/languid feel to it with less mixed-use than the core areas of Northwest DC. There's a very noticeable lack of pace on Capitol Hill compared to, say, 14th Street in Columbia Heights or U Street.
Densities by City Propers in excess of 20,000 people per square mile:
- New York: 8,133,721
- London: 3,345,638
- Los Angeles: 1,957,346
- Chicago: 1,120,257
- Toronto: 993,659
- Montreal: 803,131
- San Francisco-Oakland: 746,826
- Philadelphia: 743,549
- Boston: 559,756
- Washington DC: 318,232
- Vancouver: 295,282
- Miami: 272,074
- Honolulu: 145,363
- San Diego: 99,539
- Baltimore: 77,946
- Seattle: 58,192
Densities by City Propers in excess of 30,000 people per square mile:
- New York: 6,638,237
- London: 1,632,807
- Los Angeles: 582,817
- Toronto: 404,272
- Chicago: 380,879
- Montreal: 376,068
- San Francisco-Oakland: 328,494
- Philadelphia: 237,754
- Boston: 213,268
- Vancouver: 145,090
- Washington DC: 146,061
- Miami: 92,969
- Honolulu: 90,672
- San Diego: 20,907
- Seattle: 19,134
- Baltimore: 15,506
Densities by City Propers in excess of 50,000 people per square mile:
- New York: 4,537,104
- London: 302,260
- Toronto: 173,254
- Los Angeles: 105,717
- San Francisco-Oakland: 93,803
- Chicago: 89,369
- Boston: 56,569
- Vancouver: 50,421
- Montreal: 36,338
- Honolulu: 31,009
- Philadelphia: 29,908
- Washington DC: 26,379
- Miami: 19,316
- Baltimore: 5,237
- Seattle: 4,921
- San Diego: 4,921
All credit goes to Memph for compiling all of the density data.
Seattle's population has increased from 608K in 2010 to 690K in 2016, and much of that growth has been concentrated in core urban areas and urban villages across the city. The point is these 2010 numbers are dramatically outdated as Seattle has increased by 50%-100% in these categories.
Seattle's population has increased from 608K in 2010 to 690K in 2016, and much of that growth has been concentrated in core urban areas and urban villages across the city. The point is these 2010 numbers are dramatically outdated as Seattle has increased by 50%-100% in these categories.
I kinda get what he's saying. Much of Capitol Hill does have a more relaxed/languid feel to it with less mixed-use than the core areas of Northwest DC. There's a very noticeable lack of pace on Capitol Hill compared to, say, 14th Street in Columbia Heights or U Street.
I used to live in Capitol Hill, and I know what you mean. Keep in mind that Capitol Hill used to have hundreds of additional storefronts peppered through the neighborhood. Mid-century zoning changes basically made stores distributed through the neighborhood illegal, which meant as the old properties changed hands they were converted into houses. I think it's silly to downgrade the "urbanity" of a neighborhood based upon this, given the urban fabric is still there, the use just isn't. It would be like saying an area isn't urban because it's economically depressed and most of the storefronts are vacant.
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