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.
What I see in St.Louis is the remanence of a big city. Old decaying neighborhoods like what you find in Detroit. It's still very urban but feels really empty and gloomy. S.A on the other hand is lively and growing.
What I see in St.Louis is the remanence of a big city. Old decaying neighborhoods like what you find in Detroit. It's still very urban but feels really empty and gloomy. S.A on the other hand is lively and growing.
That's just not true. While StL has some decaying areas, it has many vibrant neighborhoods as well and they outnumber the decaying ones.
Just because the core of StL has lost a lot of people, doesn't mean it is empty. The entire southside and midtown/west end areas of StL City are quite vibrant. You really should spend some more time there.
st. louis does not exude a feeling of a city that has lost 60% of its population. the vast majority of neighborhoods are occupied and livable. population loss can be very deceiving in older cities in which multifamily housing predominates. a lot of buildings that once housed 4 families may now house only one or two. overall density is reduced, but that doesn't automatically mean the whole city was abandoned. st. louis is smaller today than it was 20 years ago, but it's also wealthier and many would argue, healthier.
Any city that lost population from their historical highs will feel bigger when compared to the newer cities. Most of the cities still have their built environment.
Cincinnati, St Louis, Cleveland all feel larger than they are.
I have only been to Cleveland, out of these cities, so I will make a case for it. It has a bigger feel than it really is because it is the largest city in a region (northeast ohio) of about 4.5 million. This is why it has 3 professional sports franchises and is the 14th (or so) largest media market.
Plus some of the large skyscraper projects of the 80's/90's (erieview, key tower, huntington, the chisel, etc) bring about a feel of a large city.
I have only been to Cleveland, out of these cities, so I will make a case for it. It has a bigger feel than it really is because it is the largest city in a region (northeast ohio) of about 4.5 million. This is why it has 3 professional sports franchises and is the 14th (or so) largest media market.
Plus some of the large skyscraper projects of the 80's/90's (erieview, key tower, huntington, the chisel, etc) bring about a feel of a large city.
Would agree Cleveland does feel larger. Akron is pretty close and well tied to it the area does feel quite a bit larger
Location: Cleveland bound with MPLS in the rear-view
5,509 posts, read 11,872,410 times
Reputation: 2501
Quote:
Originally Posted by unusualfire
Any city that lost population from their historical highs will feel bigger when compared to the newer cities. Most of the cities still have their built environment.
Cincinnati, St Louis, Cleveland all feel larger than they are.
True. By a level of X2 sometimes (Cleveland). CLE feels biggeer than Minneapolis-St. Paul in the city (sometimes), but the difference maker (and it's obvious to me) is the overall level of congestion and activity -- which is what make cities feel truly big to me (Minneapolis just buzzes more and in more areas of town). In Beijing, I saw lots of suburban high-rises and urban activity, and that was all good, but I didn't truly get just how damn big it was until I saw how BUSY it was -- ALL THE TIME! It felt bigger than Chicago and even LA (not sure if it is or not, since the true population stats are hard to measure in China).
True. By a level of X2 sometimes (Cleveland). CLE feels biggeer than Minneapolis-St. Paul in the city (sometimes), but the difference maker (and it's obvious to me) is the overall level of congestion and activity -- which is what make cities feel truly big to me (Minneapolis just buzzes more and in more areas of town). In Beijing, I saw lots of suburban high-rises and urban activity, and that was all good, but I didn't truly get just how damn big it was until I saw how BUSY it was -- ALL THE TIME! It felt bigger than Chicago and even LA (not sure if it is or not, since the true population stats are hard to measure in China).
yeah, beijing has something like 19 million people in the city limits alone, making it twice the size of new york city. therefore it's not at all surprising that it feels bigger than chicago. beijing has about 3 times more people than the cities of chicago and los angeles combined.
First off I lived in SA for 4 years about a mile from DT.
If you think DT SA is densely populated from your weekend visit you were greatly fooled. The people you saw were tourists like you.
The most recent census put DT SA's population at 1600 people. Houston, Austin, Dallas, FW and El Paso are the top five DT's in Texas by population.
Like someone said, you walk away from the river Walk and it all falls apart. You stop seeing the tourists.
Also you probably went on a weekend in the tourist season. Go there on a weekday in the off-season and SA's downtown is dreader than dread.
As for SA- Austin becoming a CSA, it has been discussed millions of times. Between CSA and Austin the development is just a strings of restaurants and walmarts, not enough of an economic engine to warrant any sort of connection.
Between DC and Baltimore is filled with commerce warranting the connection by CSA.
There are two counties separating Austin and SA and the number of commuters required to pass threw these counties to make it to the core county in the other metro is just too overwhelming. One of the two intervening counties would have to become a core county if any sort of CSA were to be formed, and like I said before their is not enough activity in those counties to warrant one of them becoming a core county. Comal county on the SA side is 500 sq miles and has a population of 100K. Its biggest city is New Braunfils (population 70K) Its biggest money earner is a water park. Its gonna take a lot more than a water park to employ the hundreds of thousands of workers needed to traverse the metros in order to bind the MSA's
It will be a rail with modest numbers of riders.
Mainly tourists, SA and Austin have good economies but to be able to join you need 200k from SA's core county Bexar going to Austin's core (Travis County) or 175K from Austin going to SA's core) honest question, do you ever see that happening???
at best I see 5-10K people going back and forth. far from the numbers need for the CSA
Its more like 15k but what is considered downtown area is over 20k. San Antonio and Austin are more comprable in downtown populations while Houston is far less populated. 1600 is two census tracts that does not cover the entire downtown area. 1600 that is ridiculous.
Yeah San Antonio have around 15k in its downtown area and expected to grow to 20k soon. Houston only have about 4k but much more surrounding it's dt. However Downtown is planning to build a 17 block shopping district that will attract alot of multi-used developments. Right now there's just too much competition with surrounding area like upper east end, midtown, 4 & 6th ward.
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.
