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I've often read about how similar these 4 cities (Kansas City, Indianapolis, Louisville, and Columbus) are...but how are each of them different? What stands out as unique in each of them compared to the others?
I think Louisville is the outlier in the mix. It is noticeably smaller, significantly more southern and more of a "river city".
Columbus is the densest in terms of population and has a significant collegiate influence. It's also a little smaller than Kc and Indy, which are basically the same size.
Kansas City has the most developed, contiguous pre-war urban core. It also has the most rust-belty vibe (of the options), including negatives like significant ghetto, depopulation and white flight. KC is like a mix of Indianapolis and Cincinnati.
Indianapolis is like a Kansas City-lite, almost like a mix of Kansas City and Omaha.
I think Louisville is the outlier in the mix. It is noticeably smaller, significantly more southern and more of a "river city".
Columbus is the densest in terms of population and has a significant collegiate influence. It's also a little smaller than Kc and Indy, which are basically the same size.
Kansas City has the most developed, contiguous pre-war urban core. It also has the most rust-belty vibe (of the options), including negatives like significant ghetto, depopulation and white flight. KC is like a mix of Indianapolis and Cincinnati.
Indianapolis is like a Kansas City-lite, almost like a mix of Kansas City and Omaha.
Columbus is the most progressive and democratic of these four too. And obviously the furthest east- it's urban housing stock, urban core has a lot of Victorian and turn of the century styles. Its metro is not as spread out and denser too
Been to all four. Louisville is definitely Southern, friendlier, and has more interesting neighborhoods. I live in Indy and like it better than KC, have only been to Columbus twice but it's seemed newest of bunch.
No knock on the others. All are very good, very healthy cities.
But KC stands out to me as being the best of this bunch. The city has great jobs, a very good inner urban fabric and (like Omaha) is within an 8 hour drive to a very diverse array of some very cool places. More so than the others.
Indianapolis is the only city on the list, that lacks vibrant destination points and neighborhoods outside of downtown (although Broadripple is nice). There's also a lack of student life, that you get from major universities, and the neighborhoods that support them. It makes a HUGE difference.
Seriously?
Lack of student life? Broad Ripple is the very definition of student life. Butler and other college students love Broad Ripple.
As stated earlier, Broad Ripple is nice, but you can find places like that in suburban Cincinnati. There are zero college neighborhoods in Indy. There are only a few areas you can park your car, and walk around bar to bar, store to store. Butler is a small school, and doesn't influence commercial activity in the neighborhood in which it's located. There are over 800,000 people within 300 sq miles, yet there are only 4 distinguishable hoods. Minus the pro sports, you'll get more of a big city vibe in Louisville. Although Columbus is similar in geography, demographics etc... It blows Indy out of the water as far as urban environment and vibrancy are concerned. That says something! Indy is kind of out of place when it comes to the other three cities that are in the poll. It only compares in size.
As stated earlier, Broad Ripple is nice, but you can find places like that in suburban Cincinnati. There are zero college neighborhoods in Indy. There are only a few areas you can park your car, and walk around bar to bar, store to store. Butler is a small school, and doesn't influence commercial activity in the neighborhood in which it's located. There are over 800,000 people within 300 sq miles, yet there are only 4 distinguishable hoods. Minus the pro sports, you'll get more of a big city vibe in Louisville. Although Columbus is similar in geography, demographics etc... It blows Indy out of the water as far as urban environment and vibrancy are concerned. That says something! Indy is kind of out of place when it comes to the other three cities that are in the poll. It only compares in size.
As a resident of Indy, I don't disagree with this. We don't have a college neighborhood in the traditional sense - what you find around UC on Vine or the area near Tulane/Loyola in New Orleans. While Butler U students do frequent Broad Ripple, I wouldn't consider it a college neighborhood so much as just a commercial district for that entire side of the city, which happens to contain Butler. Even walking from Butler to the main drag in Broad Ripple would be a haul compared to the distance between most schools and their bar/commercial districts. However, I really think there is a sort of "non-traditional" college neighborhood blossoming near the IUPUI campus, which has a student body of between 30-40k I believe. While historically a commuter college, they're building student housing on campus at an incredibly high rate, and some already residential areas immediately West of campus across the white river are becoming *slightly* more attractive to older students (by older I mean 21-25) wanting to live very close to campus, but not in student housing. When I was attending IUPUI, student housing literally did not exist, and the thought of living on the west side of the river was crazy, so that in and of itself is certainly a paradigm shift. There are already a lot of dining options within a few blocks of campus - admittedly almost all chains - but it stands to reason that more traditional retail nodes could follow along Indiana Ave by the brand new Marsh grocery store, or possibly even West of the river on Michigan or White River Blvd. The form may never be the same as what you see with older, more established university neighborhoods, but the function could be. They're even redesigning the streets to make them more pedestrian friendly, and changing the main two streets through campus from high speed 1 ways to calmer 2 way streets. I guess we'll have to wait and see how it plays out, but i'm fairly optimistic. The near westside is past due for some revitalization, and IUPUI could be a hell of a catalyst.
Also, and i'm just genuinely curious as i've never been to KC, but do they have a "traditional" college neighborhood? Outside of UMKC, which I would assume serves a similar role to KC as IUPUI does to Indy, i've never thought of KC as a College City the way I do Columbus, for example. Also curious as to which of our hoods you believe are the "4 distinguishable" ones.
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