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As odd as it might be, I have come to realize that for my wife and I, our priorities for a neighborhood overwhelmingly boil down to walkability/vibrancy and Asian food. Most Asian cities work well for us (and we've long considered several of them for relocation) as do all the major Canadian cities. Obviously you've got your NYC/SF/LA and other top tier cities that we love very much, but I'm always wondering if there are some smaller gems that we've overlooked or just aren't as familiar with. So if you know of any vibrant+walkable areas that also have great Asian food but may not be front and center or in the top 10 US cities, please share here.
My thoughts: I think Houston has some amazing Asian cuisine, but the epicenter for this is far from vibrant or walkable. Dallas, Atlanta and Sacramento are pretty decent but they seem to have the same issue...good Asian areas aren't walkable at all. New Orleans? Mayyyybe with Vietnamese cuisine, but imo it wouldn't make the cut. Orlando has a semi-walkable stretch of E Colonial that is pretty borderline. I think the food is good enough and by my definition it is walkable, but not vibrant. If it was better connected to downtown then maybe. Jury's still out on MSP...I've had some decent enough Asian food there but not enough to really say for sure. Places like Phoenix, Detroit, Denver and Charlotte I just haven't spent much time in so I wonder about those (I have a hunch the first two have good Asian food while the latter two perhaps not) Las Vegas has some great Asian food but is it particularly walkable/vibrant away from the Strip?? Or this could just come down to which is most affordable among Seattle, Portland, Chicago and Philly. Anyway, look forward to hearing new thoughts and perspectives, thanks!!
TL;DR
Not seeking the most vibrant, most walkable, or best Asian food. Just adequately vibrant, adequately walkable areas with good Asian food (however you define those terms) which is the most affordable??
Cleveland has a fairly vibrant Chinatown neighborhood east of Downtown, south of the lake and just north of Cleveland State University's campus and Jacobs Field (Cleveland Indians stadium). It's in the midst of a bit of a renaissance with new construction residential sales/rentals and renovation of older historic properties too.
Perhaps look into college towns with a high Asian percentage. For instance, Ithaca NY is about 17% Asian and it has a walkable Downtown/Commons that has quite a bit going on for its size.
There's the Champaign/Urbana area of IL where the 2 cities have about 125,000 people and combined would be about 15% Asian.
Ann Arbor MI is similar in terms of being 15% Asian out of about 118,000 people.
Uptown, Chicago. Very walkable, urban and vibrant, and you can easily find a 2br condo under 200k.
Yes!! I have spent many days on Argyle.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kyle19125
Cleveland has a fairly vibrant Chinatown neighborhood east of Downtown, south of the lake and just north of Cleveland State University's campus and Jacobs Field (Cleveland Indians stadium). It's in the midst of a bit of a renaissance with new construction residential sales/rentals and renovation of older historic properties too.
This is totally what I'm looking for. Nuggets like this. Thanks!! I feel STL "chinatown" may also have potential, although the Chinese numbers just aren't as strong there. Any insight?
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Originally Posted by ckhthankgod
Perhaps look into college towns with a high Asian percentage. For instance, Ithaca NY is about 17% Asian and it has a walkable Downtown/Commons that has quite a bit going on for its size.
There's the Champaign/Urbana area of IL where the 2 cities have about 125,000 people and combined would be about 15% Asian.
Ann Arbor MI is similar in terms of being 15% Asian out of about 118,000 people.
So, that may be another thing to consider.
Nice suggestion. I've been to Ann Arbor and could definitely see that possibility. Never been to the other two. This made me think of my own college town, Gainesville, FL and what that looked like. Seems it was around 7% Asian at the 2010 census. But the thing is aside from several borderline examples, all of the great Asian restaurants (which honestly numbered less than 5) were not in the downtown or midtown (campus) areas. That is, not walkable at all. Perhaps Ithaca and Champaign-Urbana happen to have good Asian restaurants in the walkable areas??
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Originally Posted by mr roboto
Dinkytown in Minneapolis (the UofM campus area) has some great Vietnamese places.
Yep. I ate at a few of these and think there's definitely potential.
Uptown, Chicago. Very walkable, urban and vibrant, and you can easily find a 2br condo under 200k.
Uptown is becoming whiter as gentrification increases. If the OP is ok with that, then Uptown does fit the bill. Especially since the restaurants will likely stay, much like they did in Lakeview. If he wants a part of Chicago with a growing Asian population, then he could also look at Chinatown and the neighborhoods immediately surrounding it. The population is spilling over as Chinatown continues to grow.
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Originally Posted by projectmaximus
This is totally what I'm looking for. Nuggets like this. Thanks!! I feel STL "chinatown" may also have potential, although the Chinese numbers just aren't as strong there. Any insight?
I just wanted to point out that St. Louis's "Chinatown" isn't in St. Louis. It's in University City, and it's essentially a stretch of businesses and restaurants on Olive. It's going to be more suburban than what you would find elsewhere, but it does exist. The city's original Chinatown was demolished to make way for the previous iteration of Busch Stadium in downtown.
Uptown is becoming whiter as gentrification increases. If the OP is ok with that, then Uptown does fit the bill. Especially since the restaurants will likely stay, much like they did in Lakeview. If he wants a part of Chicago with a growing Asian population, then he could also look at Chinatown and the neighborhoods immediately surrounding it. The population is spilling over as Chinatown continues to grow.
I just wanted to point out that St. Louis's "Chinatown" isn't in St. Louis. It's in University City, and it's essentially a stretch of businesses and restaurants on Olive. It's going to be more suburban than what you would find elsewhere, but it does exist. The city's original Chinatown was demolished to make way for the previous iteration of Busch Stadium in downtown.
It is expanding a bit into the loop area which is crossing the line into City limits now. There have been more Asian places popping up lately. Just had some great Thai food last night across from the Pageant. 2 bubble tea spots with one more coming in the loop. The traditional Chinese area on Olive has some great food but isn't as much a place where people live and walk. Expanding towards the Wash U campus made more sense. (We are a mixed family, love Asian food)
It can vary by what Asian cultures you're looking for. Or is the point to have all the major ones covered?
Chicago strikes me as a great combination of walkable and affordable. However the population figures aren't compelling.
Overall Chicago is not very Asian...6.0% in 2015, with Chinese, Indian, and Filipino being the only categories over 1%. Cook county was a hair above that.
Seattle is more expensive and not as dense, but was 14.2% Asian in 2015 with every major Census category over 1%, i.e. more coverage of various countries. King County was a hair above that.
Houston's numbers were close to Chicago's. Harris County was a hair above that.
Portland's percentages were 7.6%, with the majority of that being Chinese or Vietnamese. There's no mega-county to be an equivalent.
The college-town focus might be a smart idea, but that seems like plentiful cheap takeout vs. great sit-down places.
Uptown is becoming whiter as gentrification increases. If the OP is ok with that, then Uptown does fit the bill. Especially since the restaurants will likely stay, much like they did in Lakeview. If he wants a part of Chicago with a growing Asian population, then he could also look at Chinatown and the neighborhoods immediately surrounding it. The population is spilling over as Chinatown continues to grow.
I just wanted to point out that St. Louis's "Chinatown" isn't in St. Louis. It's in University City, and it's essentially a stretch of businesses and restaurants on Olive. It's going to be more suburban than what you would find elsewhere, but it does exist. The city's original Chinatown was demolished to make way for the previous iteration of Busch Stadium in downtown.
Not specifically seeking an Asian population in the neighborhood, although certainly for the restaurants to be great and authentic there must be a supporting population somewhere in the region. Thanks for the STL info.
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Originally Posted by STL74
It is expanding a bit into the loop area which is crossing the line into City limits now. There have been more Asian places popping up lately. Just had some great Thai food last night across from the Pageant. 2 bubble tea spots with one more coming in the loop. The traditional Chinese area on Olive has some great food but isn't as much a place where people live and walk. Expanding towards the Wash U campus made more sense. (We are a mixed family, love Asian food)
Cool. It's been a long time since my last visit (8 years!!) and I have a good friend who lives there so I'm definitely long overdue. I hope I can make it back to check things out soon...
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Originally Posted by mhays25
It can vary by what Asian cultures you're looking for. Or is the point to have all the major ones covered?
Chicago strikes me as a great combination of walkable and affordable. However the population figures aren't compelling.
Overall Chicago is not very Asian...6.0% in 2015, with Chinese, Indian, and Filipino being the only categories over 1%. Cook county was a hair above that.
Seattle is more expensive and not as dense, but was 14.2% Asian in 2015 with every major Census category over 1%, i.e. more coverage of various countries. King County was a hair above that.
Houston's numbers were close to Chicago's. Harris County was a hair above that.
Portland's percentages were 7.6%, with the majority of that being Chinese or Vietnamese. There's no mega-county to be an equivalent.
The college-town focus might be a smart idea, but that seems like plentiful cheap takeout vs. great sit-down places.
Thanks for your thoughts. I chose to leave it as Asian so I could hear all the relevant options discussed, but for us the key would be Chinese food as a primary, with Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese and Malay being very welcome secondary options.
The population percentage is not important...Chicago certainly has enough Asians in absolutely numbers to allow for good Asian restaurants.
Cheap takeout in no way would suffice. In any case that exists in almost every single town in America so a comparison would be moot lol.
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