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Even Philly has cleaned up drastically since the 70s
In comparison to the 70's, absolutely, but it still has plenty of dirty pockets, and the subway carries...a rather strong odor throughout. There are significantly cleaner cities just in the U.S., nevermind the world (Zurich, Tokyo, London).
Charlotte, Nashville, Raleigh-Durham, Austin, Oklahoma City to name a few. All of those cities have completely re-invented themselves since the 1970s and are like completely different cities for the better. I can't comment on the Pacific Northwest because I don't know much about the history of places like Portland and Seattle. I do know they both today are like miniature San Francisco and are among the best places for young people. Were they always as liberal and trendy as they are today?
Seattle Seattle and Seattle, along with Portland. They used to be humble family cities with some liberalism. They used to be very Northwestern, and now, they're extended yuppyville, California. I love the Northwest until 1990 before the yuppies and Californians taken over those cities and made them very expensive and hip.
This is one of my favorite quotes from someone on the Portland forum describing ......."Portland's transformation from a gritty but highly livable middle-class town to a fad-obsessed theme park."
I think Indianapolis deserves the honor of one of the biggest Urban transformation of a city since the 1960s-1970s The Urbanophile » Blog Archive » From Naptown to Super City
sums up the movie and i recommend watching the documentary of it to get pictures and first counts from the Hoosiers that made the Urban Transformation possible. WFYI Indianapolis - Naptown to Super City
click on the link to the right of the screen that says *watch online here*
Some highlights include:
Indianapolis had no skyscrapers since its founding in 1840 until 1962 or until even 1970 when One Indiana Square was built.
Indianapolis downtown was just downright dead in the 1960s and 1970s. after dark there wasnt a human body in the streets. As Richard lugar put it: About 5:30 in the afternoon you can go outside on the sidewalk and see nothing going on at all the lights were out.
Mayor Hudnuts famous quote was: You could shoot a cannon down the street after 5:00 and not hit anybody and that sort of thing.
The Central Canal was filled with rusted tires and junk.
Abandoned Meat Packing plants where the Indy zoo is today.
White Flight like Crazy out of Center Township: Population Change (Historical)
Downtown Indy in the 1950s. take a look at the black and white photo.
Then look at the one from Today. Downtown Indianapolis from Indiana Avenue.
Heck Indy just hosted one of the best Super Bowls ever. 99.9% of Media reviews of Indy were positive.
the 5 Mayors of Change i like to call them are: Richard Lugar, Bill Hudnut, Stephen Goldsmith, Bart Peterson and Mayor Greg Ballard today.
Charlotte, Nashville, Raleigh-Durham, Austin, Oklahoma City to name a few. All of those cities have completely re-invented themselves since the 1970s and are like completely different cities for the better. I can't comment on the Pacific Northwest because I don't know much about the history of places like Portland and Seattle. I do know they both today are like miniature San Francisco and are among the best places for young people. Were they always as liberal and trendy as they are today?
They're pretty different from San Francisco and also from each other. Seattle is a global city and has a depressing vibe to it, Portland is a national and a regional city and feels much more spacious and green than Seattle.
They've gotten more expensive but overall I don't see how modern day Portland and Seattle have changed that much since the 1980s. At least Portland has held on to its record stores, small theaters, has kept Wal-Mart out for the most part, and has relatively little new development.
This is one of my favorite quotes from someone on the Portland forum describing ......."Portland's transformation from a gritty but highly livable middle-class town to a fad-obsessed theme park."
Pretty much sums it all up for Seattle too.
Maybe if you're in the core of the city, but go south of Powell or north of Sandy and it's a completely different story!
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