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I think the best agreed definition for downtown was something along the lines of a continuous area of Commercial/Business development at a higher intensity than adjacent areas.
So basically as dense as the Upper East/West side of NYC is, it should no longer be considered a downtown because it has blocks on blocks of residential-only streets. That qualifies it as a super dense neighborhood, but not a downtown.
Well since downtown's are becoming live-work areas, this definition does not really apply. Philly has neighborhoods with office buildings intermixed with residential buildings.
I think the best agreed definition for downtown was something along the lines of a continuous area of Commercial/Business development at a higher intensity than adjacent areas.
So basically as dense as the Upper East/West side of NYC is, it should no longer be considered a downtown because it has blocks on blocks of residential-only streets. That qualifies it as a super dense neighborhood, but not a downtown.
Atlanta has a continuous 3 mile long commercial corridor that is split into 2 districts: Downtown and Midtown. Would that all be considered downtown? If that's the case, then Atlanta has one of the largest downtowns in the entire country.
Atlanta has a continuous 3 mile long commercial corridor that is split into 2 districts: Downtown and Midtown. Would that all be considered downtown? If that's the case, then Atlanta has one of the largest downtowns in the entire country.
Well since downtown's are becoming live-work areas, this definition does not really apply. Philly has neighborhoods with office buildings intermixed with residential buildings.
That would still be downtown then, but its different than having a neighborhood with a commercial street that serves a mostly residential population.
- Is it contiguous from the CBD?
- Does it have commercial/business/retail development at a higher intensity than adjacent neighborhoods?
This is right next to your city's tallest building.
Pictures can be deceiving.
Then what would that be considered? It's commercial....it's within the city's core. I agree that structural density falls off between the northern end of downtown and around 5th street in Midtown, but it's still walkable and urban.
Atlanta has a continuous 3 mile long commercial corridor that is split into 2 districts: Downtown and Midtown. Would that all be considered downtown? If that's the case, then Atlanta has one of the largest downtowns in the entire country.
I don't think it's that simple.
Once you get near I-85/75, the development falls off and just becomes more utility, then spikes up again further north. Not the same as walking from the Mag Mile to the Loop in comparison, or Dundas Square to Yonge/Bloor. ATL could easily fill it, and yes you could say that its technically a downtown if that were to happen, it might be large in size, but not in relative intensity, but thats not really relevant. Every downtown in US and Canada isn't nowhere near as intense as NYC.
Once you get near I-85/75, the development falls off and just becomes more utility, then spikes up again further north. Not the same as walking from the Mag Mile to the Loop in comparison, or Dundas Square to Yonge/Bloor. ATL could easily fill it, and yes you could say that its technically a downtown if that were to happen, it might be large in size, but not in relative intensity, but thats not really relevant. Every downtown in US and Canada isn't nowhere near as intense as NYC.
Agreed. I was just saying that the downtown definition doesn't fit every city, especially those like Atlanta that doesn't have the urban intensity as a city like Philly outside of it's downtown. The main reason Atlanta even grew to the north in the first place is mainly because of it's subway system....that's why Midtown is densifying so heavily 1 mile north of downtown lol.
Well that was what I took from another thread on SSP, where forumers from each city made their own maps based on perception. It was in response to Toronto's city officially considering downtown as this enormous area, which include neighborhoods like this http://goo.gl/maps/Vnvy0
How did this thread get to be ~50 pages? LOL, I swear, with all this CSA, MSA, BBA, IRA, MMA scrabble-babble mumbo-jumbo, this site at times rivals reading instruction manuals for cameras
Well Philadelphia's downtown area has an older historic section and a modern highrise section. Architecture and building types spanning several hundred years. If the definition of a downtown is highrises and skyscrapers than D.C. does not have a downtown. Since Philly has the highest concentration of highrises/skyscrapers downtown in the U.S. outside of NYC, Chicago and San Francisco, I would say every other city has a pretty small Downtown than.
Actually, the definition of a high rise is 10 or 12 floors or more I believe and DC has more of those than Philadelphia with only half the area at 61 square miles.
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