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Lots and lots and lots and lots. Some parking structures, sure, but in all but the densest cities, parking lots preside. And in most (if not all) cases, those blocks were cleared areas that were once neighborhoods and businesses, swept aside for parking.
Every city. There is no city in the U.S. where lots of parking garages weren't built in downtown cores.
NYC probably has the least, but even there, there are tons of garages (though almost all underground).
That's not what wburg said though. Here's what he said: "leveling multiple city blocks to create parking". Where'd this happen? And what is wrong with parking garages? They're far better than surface lots. And really, what's wrong with underground lots? That leaves room on the surface for other uses.
Denver has plenty of surface lots downtown. NOLA didn't say there was anything wrong about parking garages.
No, he didn't. I asked where multiple blocks had been razed to build parking lots and he said "every city". He then went on about parking garages, as part of a response to the same question. You will note even wburg disagreed with him.
Yes, Denver has surface lots in its downtown, but they are scattered around. There are no blocks and blocks of nothing but parking, not even at Mile High, which is NOT downtown, and certainly not at Coors Field, which is in lower downtown. Of course, wburg cherry-picked his view of Denver; Coors Field is considered "Lower Downtown", not downtown proper. But no matter.
Yeah, there are a lot of medium sized cities similar to Syracuse that seem to be fairly dead. Most major cities have seen gentrification in variable degrees, and there are a decent amount of small cities like Santa Fe or Portland, Maine that have a good level of downtown vibrancy. But it seems several medium sized cities like Syracuse as you mentioned have weak downtowns with good bones but no much vibrancy or activity such as....
These cities have their bright pockets for about a few blocks, but after about 45 minutes of wondering around its just kind of like ...meh. For the most part given their size and history one would expect a lot more going on in these cities. Especially somewhere like Richmond where the historic feel is very palpable, but it only really has just a few charming blocks abutting some derelict areas among the historic buildings and not very much activity going on. Raleigh's downtown is clean and given the prosperity and abundance of educational capital it has, I expected a lot more from it, but it just feels very workaday and basic to me. One of the most vibrant downtown cores I've seen in a medium sized city is Providence.
I lived in Hartford for 5 years and it's just not that big of a city to have a lively downtown scene.
DC's downtown is boring in my opinion. I actually prefer old-town Alexandria to DC. Most people would disagree with me, though.
@OP
Most downtown areas have been subject to gentrification. Whereas a few decades ago anyone could afford to live in the urban core, it has now become an area for the rich. For example: in the 70's much of Manhattan was a gritty, dirty place. You would walk down Times Square and see bunches of sex shops, tramps, prostitutes, shootings etc. with little police interference. As a result of gentrification, NYC has become a little more vanilla than it was. They pushed the poor out along with the small, mom-and-pop shops common in the city. The trade off is that the city is now MUCH safer. Not saying it's a good or bad thing but it happened...
I don't remember DC having much of a downtown, is it small?
Downtown of major cities like NYC are busy 24/7. I think the OP is referring to smaller cities and towns. Often in a smaller town when the supporting industry dies out a Walmart (or some other chain place) is built which ends up killing many of the downtown small businesses.
Yes, Denver has surface lots in its downtown, but they are scattered around. There are no blocks and blocks of nothing but parking, not even at Mile High, which is NOT downtown, and certainly not at Coors Field, which is in lower downtown. Of course, wburg cherry-picked his view of Denver; Coors Field is considered "Lower Downtown", not downtown proper. But no matter.
I haven't been to Denver, but that area did seem like the city center, it seems rather restrictive to not count it as downtown, though I can't argue with what the locals call it. It would be hard for a non-visitor to not realize it doesn't count. Technically, Downtown Boston is barely more than the Financial District but the whole surroundings are heavily built area is almost as built up just no skyscrapers. It does seem Denver has some oddly vacant areas in between the downtown and adjacent neighborhoods.
Anyhow, this thread on another forum mapped surface parking for many North American cities. The most parking full one is Tulsa. New York City is the least, but a few others come close (San Francisco). Boston doesn't have much, either except in a nearby former industrial / seaport area.
We tore down half of our Art Deco buildings, HALF of them. We had the Art Deco Congress in Tulsa a few years ago and its said that one of the people from Europe said that our downtown looked like Potsdam after the war... except that we did it to ourselves.
Garrison Keillor was in town doing a show a couple years ago and said something to the effect... "You all have some beautiful buildings in your downtown. Its interesting how you have it set up now so that you can enjoy looking at each one individually."
Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FBJ
I lived in Hartford for 5 years and it's just not that big of a city to have a lively downtown scene.
I disagree, look at nearby Providence which is relatively the same sized city and metro area. Its downtown has a lot more atmosphere, vibrancy, shopping, dining, and attractions to bring people into downtown with interesting neighborhoods abutting downtown to walk around. Downtown Providence is a destination, downtown Hartford is just a workaday kind of place at best.
One of downtown Hartford's biggest problems is the highway chokehold it has on three sides by I-84 and I-91 and the river is pretty much completely cutoff from the city by them, along with the demolition of historic structures. The river and the old city were elements that Mark Twain admired, cleared away for cars and modern office towers with river being walled off by I-91.
Last edited by Champ le monstre du lac; 11-30-2014 at 03:07 PM..
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