Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
24,544 posts, read 56,060,466 times
Reputation: 11862
Advertisements
LA seems to be improving, but I suppose it would still be rather low compared to Chicago, SF etc. Which of the top 10-20 metros in the US have pretty unspiring, dead down areas APART from the daytime commute of workers? I'm thinking of measures like vibrancy at night and the number of people residing there.
Los Angeles simply does not have its offerings consolidated. Don't let that fool you into thinking there's little overall. The same applies to many cities.
Atlanta: Retail shopping dried up with the "Mall explosion" in the late 70s and early 80s. There was a half-successful attempt with the reopening of "Underground Atlanta" in the mid-80s, but in recent years it too has pretty much dried up. After the '96 Olympics, the area around Centennial Park has had some growth with the Aquarium, World of Coke museum, and the old CNN center and GA Dome in that area, so that's got SOME life to it. Overall though, for a city of this size, the downtown area isn't really a happening kind of place. The excessive problem we have with so many bums downtown doesn't at all help to attract folks down there outside of that tourist district, either.
Charleston, WV: Smaller Capital City in WV. Once had a very lively typical downtown area with department stores, restaurants, etc. In the early 1980s though, it got it's first mall (Town Center Charleston). The developers had what was technically a good idea... build a mall downtown, and then people HAVE to go downtown to go to the mall, so, the downtown area won't dry up like it has in a lot of cities. Two issues - they built a parking deck instead of a parking LOT, so people just wound up driving to the mall, parking in the enclosed deck, went into the mall, then left into the deck and drove off without ever stepping foot "downtown", even though that's where the mall was. Also, the mall was too large for that area - 180 stores (approx). Most of the businesses downtown wound up moving into the mall, and closing their downtown stores. So the main streets downtown literally dried up for many years. Only now has it somewhat come back to life, and not even close to what it was years ago pre-mall.
Downtown LA used to be terrible. It has improved a great deal recently, though it still lags well behind its peer cities like NY, Chicago, SF, etc.
Phoenix was quite depressing when I visited. St. Louis was pretty dead too, though it's supposed to be getting better.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
