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.
I'm surprised more people haven't mentioned Los Angeles here. Although the crime rate is going down, I was under the impression that it's getting harder and harder to get by speaking English there, as opposed to Spanish. Perhaps part of why Miami is getting listed is for that reason (although crime is going down there too).
English still largely dominates in Los Angeles and I don’t see that changing any time soon. Yes, there is a very large Spanish speaking population here, but there’s also a ton of people who speak Armenian, Korean, Thai, and pretty much any other major language from Asia. LA is much more diverse than people give it credit for and IMO, as long as LA remains this diverse, English will still dominate as the “unifying” language.
I am surprised at how much Detroit is being mentioned on here. I'd think that at this stage, Detroit has nowhere to go but up, and that it's already hit "rock bottom" so to speak. Or did the recession hit it while it was down? I've seen a bit of gentrification in Detroit in little areas around Wayne State University and downtown, but I'll admit it's far from Chicago. Still, I fail to see how Detroit could get much worse, aside from Wayne State and all the downtown businesses and casinos packing up and leaving.
I'm surprised more people haven't mentioned Los Angeles here. Although the crime rate is going down, I was under the impression that it's getting harder and harder to get by speaking English there, as opposed to Spanish. Perhaps part of why Miami is getting listed is for that reason (although crime is going down there too).
5Lakes, I think the reason Chicago is getting credit is because it's at about where NYC was 10 or 15 years ago in terms of the city getting cleaned up. It's clearly headed in the right direction, even though large swaths of undeniably dangerous neighborhoods still exist. San Francisco's murder rate today actually isn't THAT much lower than Chicago's
Anyhow, Atlanta is a city I definitely forgot to mention, that is on its way up. Much like Washington DC, its once ridiculously high crime rate is starting to take a tumble, and by what I've seen, there is a LOT of development going on in the inner city right now, both commercial and residential. As far as cities on their way down, I was somewhat disheartened but not surprised to see Orlando on here. I really don't get how they could allow "the happiest place on earth" to get so bad...or is the crime something that just doesn't effect tourists much at all? And also Philly is one city I saw mentioned...the crime rate seems to have climbed a bit lately, but is that more of a blip on the radar or the start of a trend? Is Philly generally going in the direction of becoming more gentrified or more ghetto, or just staying the same?
I agree that Detroit has hit bottom. The same can be said for Cleveland. I think the people mentioning these two cities do not realize how bad they were falling in the 70s and 80s. This is where most of the damage really occurred. I wish I could say otherwise, but I'm not very confident that Detroit can ever really recover. If it does it may take centuries to happen. Cleveland finally seems to be making positive strides, albeit slowly. It has a much better foundation to become a happening place than Detroit does, and it already has more centralized amenities in place than most cities its size. Cleveland just needs an influx of higher income people into the core.
As far as Chicago goes, I was not trying to downplay the improvements here. In fact I agreed that much of the city has improved. I just wanted to express a broader range of what is going on in the city. Chicago has had more construction in its core than anywhere but NYC in recent years. Although, I don't like to compare the two because NYC is much bigger and I don't find the cities to be all that similar. Both cities do have cores that are basically yuppie playgrounds though. Actually, I think this might be the case more so in Chicago in many regards.
I was in Philly last year and it seemed like a pretty cool city to me. It had areas that are defiantly improving and others that will probably be ghetto for a long time. City Centre is great though, as well as some other neighborhoods I got to check out. It did not seem as yuppie to me as Chicago, but like Chicago there is definitely a separation between the haves and have nots in the inner city. Philly seemed to have more blue collar types living closer to the city core than Chicago and also had less separation between the nice areas and ghetto.
It looks really nice. But I question rehabbing the buildings to look that nice, and then turning around and using some for section 8? Wonder how look the look will last?
English still largely dominates in Los Angeles and I don’t see that changing any time soon. Yes, there is a very large Spanish speaking population here, but there’s also a ton of people who speak Armenian, Korean, Thai, and pretty much any other major language from Asia. LA is much more diverse than people give it credit for and IMO, as long as LA remains this diverse, English will still dominate as the “unifying” language.
Yes it is! LA is easily the most diverse city in the country (save NYC perhaps). Its as if Mexico City, Seoul, Manila, and Yervan (Armenia) had a big orgy.
Even so, you dont need to know any other language besides english to get by.
It looks really nice. But I question rehabbing the buildings to look that nice, and then turning around and using some for section 8? Wonder how look the look will last?
The houses vary by location, but most is roughly 1/3 market rate housing, 1/3 low income, and 1/3 public housing all mixed together within buildings. The rules are MUCH more strict as far as getting and keeping the housing.
One good thing they did is restore the street grid where they've rebuilt housing projects. One of the worst things about the old projects was that they were extremely isolated, and almost asked to be taken over by gangs. The density of the actual public housing is not 100% like it use to be. Now it's sprinkled in with regular housing, and the buildings are all built with much nicer standards than if you're just throwing up a 15 story piece of crap concrete slab.
There have obviously been a lot of quirks and issues that have come up - but seriously what do you expect when you have thousands of people who are on their 3rd generation of living with no education, responsibility, respect or clear ideas of their future. The messiest time period will be the present. They're trying to clean things up and give people REAL houses so they can lead REAL lives and hopefully raise children in a much more rational home.
Right now is the painful and many times traumatic switch from old to new. Something had to be done though - there's no way the old Cabrini and other projects in Chicago should have ever stood in their final state for as long as they did. It created an entire generation of hopeless people. Those people have been "flung around" for the most part, and it's caused disruption that's spread all over the Midwest. Time will tell how it all turns out.
Hmm..maybe I had the wrong impression about LA. I was under the impression that the vast majority of recent immigrants to the LA area are Hispanic, and the vast majority of population growth is among Hispanics.
Anyhow, as far as Cabrini Green in Chicago goes, I read in another thread that a lot of the former residents are moving to the southside, and inner suburbs near the southside (which used to be more middle class and are now going downhill).
And Cleveland isn't anywhere near as bad as Detroit. At least it has fairly nice areas in the city limits, on the west side. The downtown is probably worse than Detroit's though in terms of how much there is going on there.
Hmm..maybe I had the wrong impression about LA. I was under the impression that the vast majority of recent immigrants to the LA area are Hispanic, and the vast majority of population growth is among Hispanics.
Anyhow, as far as Cabrini Green in Chicago goes, I read in another thread that a lot of the former residents are moving to the southside, and inner suburbs near the southside (which used to be more middle class and are now going downhill).
And Cleveland isn't anywhere near as bad as Detroit. At least it has fairly nice areas in the city limits, on the west side. The downtown is probably worse than Detroit's though in terms of how much there is going on there.
Anyhow, as far as Cabrini Green in Chicago goes, I read in another thread that a lot of the former residents are moving to the southside, and inner suburbs near the southside (which used to be more middle class and are now going downhill).
And Cleveland isn't anywhere near as bad as Detroit. At least it has fairly nice areas in the city limits, on the west side. The downtown is probably worse than Detroit's though in terms of how much there is going on there.
Yes, Chicago's outer areas and some inner ring burbs have taken on many of the people displaced from Cabrini Green and some other low income housing.
Not sure why you say Detroit's downtown is better off than Cleveland's, but that is certainly not the way I see it. Cleveland's downtown is the regional entertainment hub (with two nightlife districts), contains all the sports stadiums/arenas, serves as the region’s rail transit hub, has a mall (albeit crappy), a large theater district, the Rock Hall, and continues to add residents (albeit slowly). In the next 5 years you will see a new convention center, the east flats redevelopment, more residential, and most likely a casino. All of these things are in a compact area that I think has potential to create a critical mass of activity in the near future. Cleveland's downtown is certainly no suffering from lack of amenities.
Yes it is! LA is easily the most diverse city in the country (save NYC perhaps). Its as if Mexico City, Seoul, Manila, and Yervan (Armenia) had a big orgy.
Even so, you dont need to know any other language besides english to get by.
So true which makes it a lot different than Miami as well as the direction even Orlando is heading in..
So true which makes it a lot different than Miami as well as the direction even Orlando is heading in..
Got that right.
I live in Orlando.
It wont be long.
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.
