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I felt that way too when I lived in the center of a small, old town of about 12,000. Good planning had ensured downtown did not become a ghost town, which is the exception, not the rule.
Unless there happens to be a college within the city, of course. It that college students willingness to walk everywhere can really save classic old downtowns.
I actually wonder if that's what has really caused gentrification to take off. People are seeking to recapture the allure of living in a college town within the big city.
I think you're onto something there. I call one of our neighborhoods here, "frat row for the late twenties set."
The aforementioned small town sort of felt like a college town, but without the college.
Three of New Hampshire's small cities--Portsmouth, Manchester, and Concord--have downtown areas which many might find appealing. People might have varying opinions on which of these downtowns they would find most attractive, as the predominant feel is different in each. While each of these cities has a mix of the features that make for a nice downtown, Portsmouth stands out as being on the touristy side, downtown Manchester has a gentrified feel, and Concord appeals in somewhat more a lowbrow way as a throwback to a traditional downtown with a good variety (at least by today's standards) of small stores that serve everyday needs, unlike so many towns and small cities today where the bulk of retail activity is found in strip malls on the edge of town, while downtown is either faded or given over largely to coffee shops, art galleries, and trendy little restaurants.
Below is a list of mid-sized to large towns and small cities I've read about and get the impression might have nice downtowns, but which I've never visited, so I don't know for sure. Is anyone familiar with any of these towns? Are their downtown areas appealing and interesting, or has the information I've read given me an erroneously positive impression?
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Cities/towns of all population sizes deserve plenty of high quality investment put into them, and that includes for important exciting forms of investment such as for economy, architecture, urban amenities, entertainment options, nightlife, restaurants, cafes/espresso bars, diversity in options etc.
Sometimes it appears too biased towards cities with the largest population size. It should also be for medium and smaller sized cities/towns.
Europe does a better job than the USA for investment/development into small population sized cities.
Geneva, Nice, Cannes, Grenoble, Chamonix, Lille, Bayonne, Bordeaux, Nantes, Strasbourg, Rennes, Innsbruck, Linz, Graz, Bergen, Salzburg, Sanremo, Venice, San Sebastian, and Ibiza are proof of that.
However, the USA still has some good enough small cities too such as Burlington, Provincetown, Asheville, Olympia, Port Townsend, Eureka, Boulder, Telluride, Aspen, and Vail, even if they probably don’t compare to Europe’s best small cities.
It has a great city hall and courthouse, several commercial streets and a major centre for theatre that's quite popular with Torontonians.
City Hall: Stratford, ON - Google Maps
It would benefit from revitalizing Market Square though (currently a parking lot): Stratford, ON - Google Maps
And developing a few other parking lots.
Guelph, Ontario has a nice downtown too, with several old limestone buildings: Guelph, ON - Google Maps
Then there's Kingston, Brockville's bigger neighbour, it was Canada's capital for a short period of time. Kingston, ON - Google Maps
St John's, Newfoundland; Saint John, New Brunswick; and Sherbrooke and Trois-Rivieres in Quebec have nice downtowns too. Saint John actually feels much bigger than it is, it has a bit over 100,000 in the metro area but could easily pass for a city 5 times bigger with all the impressive masonry buildings: St John, NB - Google Maps St John, NB - Google Maps http://goo.gl/maps/yCMVv http://goo.gl/maps/JNSCX
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Anyone know about any of these?
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