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.
The report includes secondary employment centers, but just for downtowns (and the surrounding area within a one-mile radius), the numerical ranking can be found here. For NC's largest cities, here's how they rank:
Greensboro's and Durham's figures seem about right while Winston-Salem's showing here is surprising. Now this Raleigh figure seems to be quite a bit inflated, especially when Raleigh's own downtown alliance says it houses 38K employees. Charlotte's is also surprising, with smaller cities like Louisville, Columbus, Cleveland, and Indianapolis posting higher figures. It's possible that having large universities in and around downtown, which Charlotte lacks, helps them in this regard and being that the data is from 2010-2011, the loss of banking jobs certainly hurt Charlotte there as well.
And oddly enough, RTP isn't listed as an employment center.
The researchers used a combination of Census tract population and employment data to come up with something of a standard way to define downtowns, and one-mile radius areas, across the board. I think that's where the discrepancy is coming in.
Off the top of my head Novant Hospital, CMC Hospital, Levine Hospital, CPCC college, Queens University, JCSU university, are right outside downtown & J&W University in downtown.
Exactly how man Universities are within 1 mile of downtown Raleigj?
Regardless... I still can't see Austin larger than Houston/Dallas & Raleigh/Hartford larger than Charlotte. Downtown Charlotte has 21 million sq. feet of office space vs. 5 million for Raleigh and we've always have had a higher occupancy rate. And all the large medical facilities & decent size colleges/universities within 1 mile.... So I'm not sure how it came to be.
Last edited by Charlotte485; 11-10-2013 at 04:30 AM..
Off the top of my head Novant Hospital, CMC Hospital, Levine Hospital, CPCC college, Queens University, JCSU university, are right outside downtown & J&W University in downtown.
Exactly how man Universities are within 1 mile of downtown Raleigj?
Regardless... I still can't see Austin larger than Houston/Dallas & Raleigh/Hartford larger than Charlotte. Downtown Charlotte has 21 million sq. feet of office space vs. 5 million for Raleigh and we've always have had a higher occupancy rate. And all the large medical facilities & decent size colleges/universities within 1 mile.... So I'm not sure how it came to be.
Yeah I'd like to see the actual boundaries of downtown for this study. Would have been nice if they were included.
But I don't think the numbers are that far off for the smaller cities of Greensboro, Winston, and Durham.
Yeah I'd like to see the actual boundaries of downtown for this study. Would have been nice if they were included.
But I don't think the numbers are that far off for the smaller cities of Greensboro, Winston, and Durham.
Some of it depends on how you define "downtown." In Durham's case, the downtown is relatively compact and focused. Yet immediately next door to downtown (literally one block removed from downtown) is Duke's East Campus, which connects to West Campus and the medical center, the largest single-site private employer in the state. The businesses and the thousands of apartments opening up on the immediate west side of downtown (or in downtown) are catering to Duke as much as they are downtown. In Durham's case, I don't think the 1 mile radius works as an accurate reflection of employment.
Here is an exercise from a ULI event a few years ago; the yellow blocks show housing unit density and red shows jobs for the Triangle. RTP is the low-slung job area between Durham's downtown/Duke area and Raleigh. Note that downtown Raleigh and NC State are both major centers in the City of Oaks.
Last edited by Bull City Rising; 11-12-2013 at 05:11 AM..
Reason: forgot something
And oddly enough, RTP isn't listed as an employment center.
RTP is not a "downtown" if that is the criteria.
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.