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Lol, the only shot that Atlanta or Seattle had at being more urban than Baltimore was if the city completely burned down two months ago. Guess what - it didn't. You can keep pretending though.
Your links go straight to overhead shots, with the second one being a not overly impressive shot of Downtown.
There's no doubt that Baltimore's urban fabric of rowhouses gives it far better bones than Seattle or Atlanta, but I'm not sure it's that clear cut that it's more urban than Seattle overall, at least. For instance, does Balitmore have a neighborhood outside of Downtown that can match the combination of vibrancy, population density, foot traffic, concentration of bars/restaurants, and structural density of central Capitol Hill (from I-5 to 15th Ave along the Pike/Pine Corridor, I-5 to 11th btw. Pine and Denny, and I-5 to Broadway Btw. Denny and Roy)?
I think comparing Baltimore to Seattle in terms of urbanity really does depend on your definition of urbanity. It depends on how you weigh the attributes I mentioned above (vibrancy, population density, foot traffic, concentration of bars/restaurants, and structural density).
I mean, the Inner Harbor has the National Aquarium and some other notable places, but the Mall has the Lincoln Memorial, Reflecting Pool, WWII Memorial, MLK Memorial, Cherry Blossom Festival, the Smithsonian, Washington Monument, Capitol, etc. It's hard to believe the Inner Harbor would be anywhere close in visitor numbers.
Please don't yell at me I'm just the messenger
You can find all dc tourism statistics here in one source. Destination DC Baltimore's version of Visit Baltimore provides the following documents for additional and historical information about the Washington, DC hospitality industry. "Please note that our statistics are released annually; full 2014 data will be published in summer 2015." Now I know a lot of people made that Smithsonian/National Mall argument with 25 million visitors so I looked into it on Destination DC website and what I found is this:for visitor statistics at the member museums of the Smithsonian Institution.
"Because the Smithsonian museums are free, we cannot base our visit tallies on a number of tickets sold.
Smithsonian guards use hand clickers to count everyone entering the museums through public entrances during the hours the museums are open. The counts sometimes include staff, as well as visitors who leave the museum and return. A person visiting three Smithsonian museums on any given day will be counted three times. For these reasons, we always refer to the numbers below as "visits" rather than "visitors". Which makes since on how and why some numbers are so inflated in comparison with other sources regarding DC tourism.
Please don't yell at me I'm just the messenger
You can find all dc tourism statistics here in one source. Destination DC Baltimore's version of Visit Baltimore provides the following documents for additional and historical information about the Washington, DC hospitality industry. "Please note that our statistics are released annually; full 2014 data will be published in summer 2015." Now I know a lot of people made that Smithsonian/National Mall argument with 25 million visitors so I looked into it on Destination DC website and what I found is this:for visitor statistics at the member museums of the Smithsonian Institution.
Visits to museums on the National Mall doesn't have to by synchronous to visits to the National Mall. People can go to events and such on the grounds of the National Mall without setting foot in any of those museums.
Visits to museums doesn't have to by synchronous to visits to the National Mall. People can go to events and such on the grounds of the National Mall without setting foot in any of the those museums.
That's the same as people walking on the harbor promenade to people watch and not spend a dime by going into the National Aquarium.
That's the same as people walking on the harbor promenade to people watch and not spend a dime by going into the National Aquarium.
I would say going to an actual event on the grounds of the National Mall is different than walking around (i.e. not going to an actual event) on the harbor promenade to people watch.
I would say going to an actual event on the grounds of the National Mall is different than walking around (i.e. not going to an actual event) on the harbor promenade to people watch.
Well never say never. But, DC would need to do something drastic with current zoning to reach the 1.1 million mark. Under current zoning, the Distict only has the capacity to add about 100,000 new housing units (from the 2010 base, so actually less now). In some cases the District could upzone certain areas upto the height limit area, but that really only gets you to about 150k new households. To get above the million mark will require the district to either raise the height limit (unlikely) or dramatically alter zoning to allow row houses to be knocked down and replaced with apartments (doubly unlikely). https://www.ncpc.gov/heightstudy/doc...020%202013.pdf
At the end of the day the District is largely built out. Sure there is room for growth in NoMa and Capital Riverfront. But, in the grand scheme of things those developments aren't that huge. The Capital Riverfront only calls for 9,000 units or roughly 15,000 people. NoMa is pretty similar in scale. http://www.capitolriverfront.org/_fi...overview09.pdf
None of this is a knock against DC. The reality is modern zoning has severely limited the growth potential of all American cities. All cities basically follow the same growth plan: limited growth in "urban villages or growth zones" and then compatible infill in the rest of the city. Seattle will never get as dense as Boston, DC will never get as dense as SF. SF will never get as dense as NYC, etc. Cities are basically tweeking at the margins.
Well never say never. But, DC would need to do something drastic with current zoning to reach the 1.1 million mark. Under current zoning, the Distict only has the capacity to add about 100,000 new housing units (from the 2010 base, so actually less now). In some cases the District could upzone certain areas upto the height limit area, but that really only gets you to about 150k new households. To get above the million mark will require the district to either raise the height limit (unlikely) or dramatically alter zoning to allow row houses to be knocked down and replaced with apartments (doubly unlikely). https://www.ncpc.gov/heightstudy/doc...020%202013.pdf
At the end of the day the District is largely built out. Sure there is room for growth in NoMa and Capital Riverfront. But, in the grand scheme of things those developments aren't that huge. The Capital Riverfront only calls for 9,000 units or roughly 15,000 people. NoMa is pretty similar in scale. http://www.capitolriverfront.org/_fi...overview09.pdf
None of this is a knock against DC. The reality is modern zoning has severely limited the growth potential of all American cities. All cities basically follow the same growth plan: limited growth in "urban villages or growth zones" and then compatible infill in the rest of the city. Seattle will never get as dense as Boston, DC will never get as dense as SF. SF will never get as dense as NYC, etc. Cities are basically tweeking at the margins.
Your numbers are off. For one, there are multiple office buildings in Capital Riverfront that have already switched over to residential. The neighborhood will have much higher residential numbers and much lower office numbers which is a really good thing.
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