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Is it really a junior Seattle though? You're citing stats over a 9 year period to pwright1's 5 year period. There has been a lot of construction in that time period in DTLA, though fairly lopsided towards the residential side. DTLA also added a major museum (The Broad) in that time period. Los Angeles State Historic Park in Chinatown finally opened after a long renovation process. The shopping plazas that were sealed off from city streets have been renovated and opened back up while many historic buildings have been converted to more active use.
The Expo Line that terminates in downtown opened up and then was extended far into the westside and that line by itself is about three quarters of the length of the Central Link / Red Line in Seattle. The Blue Line / A Line, which also terminates in downtown and is longer than Central Link / Red Line, just finished a much needed though arduous renovation. The Gold Line, which serves downtown and is longer than Central Link / Red Line, also received an extension in the last few years. Those three lines are slated in the next few years to run in a grade-separated tunnel in downtown with new downtown stops.
Fair enough, but also the LA stats I believe cover a much larger area (or similar to the larger of the two areas I used for Seattle), and I believe they're still less on the residential side. On the office side it's no contest regardless. If someone creates areas of 2.7 and 4.5 square miles that are both centered on the CBD, I'd be curious to see the 2010 and 2018 (or 2019) residential numbers.
If we are including small cities then I would say downtown Lynchburg has improved dramatically in the past eight years. The downtown population has skyrocketed from a population of 367 in 2010 to about 1,400 - 1,500 today and the number of residential units downtown has more than tripled from 300 to almost 1,000.
The downtown has gone from really no nightlife in 2010 (there were two bars) to a dozen late night bars and music venues today, from zero to two breweries, and the number of businesses and restaurants downtown have skyrocketed. By next year we'll have two rooftop bars when there was none just two years ago. Also we now have a premier performing arts theater (Academy Center of the Arts) when there was little to no options just a few years ago. Finally, the number of restaurants and cafes downtown has more than doubled in the past six years from 21 to 44.
Amazingly most of the residential added downtown has not included new parking as there are no parking minimums downtown. Only about 250 parking spaces have been added for 1,000 residential units. The amusement tax is up 52% in the past 4 years and property taxes up 12% in the last two years downtown.
The entire vibe downtown has changed from a desolate ghost town with just a handful residents and a few restaurants to a vibrant urban core that has become the top destination for visitors and the preferred residential option for young professionals and empty nesters looking to downsize.
Granted this is small fries compared to LA, Charlotte, or Austin. But relative to such a small city and small downtown it is still quite the improvement. I have been to many small and medium size cities too that have dramatically improved their downtowns since 2010 (Greenville SC, Asheville, Chattanooga, Knoxville, Savannah, Danville VA, Roanoke, Richmond, Cincinnati including OTR, Cleveland, and Charlottesville to name a few).
If we are including small cities then I would say downtown Lynchburg has improved dramatically in the past eight years. The downtown population has skyrocketed from a population of 367 in 2010 to about 1,400 - 1,500 today and the number of residential units downtown has more than tripled from 300 to almost 1,000.
Granted this is small fries compared to LA, Charlotte, or Austin. But relative to such a small city and small downtown it is still quite the improvement. I have been to many small and medium size cities too that have dramatically improved their downtowns since 2010 (Greenville SC, Asheville, Chattanooga, Knoxville, Savannah, Danville VA, Roanoke, Richmond, Cincinnati including OTR, Cleveland, and Charlottesville to name a few).
Yes, it's very nice! I am continually surprised by how nice rural and small towns are in the state of Virginia. They are noticeably nicer and more vibrant than surrounding states, notably Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Tennessee, and even to some extent North Carolina (although NC has pretty vibrant small towns). They don't look as abandoned and appear to have some economic activity. Of course, there are a few that are still struggling (Danville, Petersburg)
The Shenandoah Valley towns in particular are beautiful. I was really impressed with Staunton because it has no sign of the typical small town decline or demolition of buildings to accommodate automobiles. It's a great glimpse into how vibrant small town America used to be.
I also love the fact that you can take Amtrak to Roanoke, Staunton, Charlottesville, etc. from DC Union Station. I head the service has been very popular and the state of Virginia is now studying the feasibility of increased service or even an extension down to Bristol!
Fair enough, but also the LA stats I believe cover a much larger area (or similar to the larger of the two areas I used for Seattle), and I believe they're still less on the residential side. On the office side it's no contest regardless. If someone creates areas of 2.7 and 4.5 square miles that are both centered on the CBD, I'd be curious to see the 2010 and 2018 (or 2019) residential numbers.
The DTLA 2000 population was 28,000. And out of those numbers, many were not high earners with college degrees. Today the population broke 80,000 and many are high earners with degrees. Downtown Seattle has certainly built alot but is it the most improved? I say no. Rail, retail, cultural amenities, restaurants, nightlife, restored old or abandoned buildings, hotels, parks, residential growth, I think DTLA is the most improved. National and international retailers went from practically zero to APC, COS, Theory, Acne Studios, Whole Foods, Zara, H&M, Uniqlo, Alamo Draft House, Paul Smith. And Apple coming in and investing $millions into a huge flagship store in an old rundown theater on Broadway, to me that says everything. So I still say DTLA is the most improved.
The north side of Downtown Seattle has added dozens of 400+ towers, including many underway now. LA is building a lot but nothing like that. It has no counterpart to DT Seattle's office boom or 99 replacement. An argument based on percentage probably has some valid points but it only gets LA closer.
The north side of Downtown Seattle has added dozens of 400+ towers, including many underway now. LA is building a lot but nothing like that. It has no counterpart to DT Seattle's office boom or 99 replacement. An argument based on percentage probably has some valid points but it only gets LA closer.
We're still talking about most improved though, and for a while there were seas of parking lots in downtown LA. There are still some surface parking lots now, but it's quite different. Not all developments downtown were high-rises. There were much smaller infill developments or conversions and those end up making a massive difference in terms of the feel of the street.
This is a streetview from 2012 and this is one from 2019. Sure, there's a high-rise in there, but it's really the replacement of surface parking lots with mixed-use development, whether it's a building of 4 floors or 40 floors, that's made the difference and there has been a lot of that in downtown LA and some other parts of LA's urban core.
Same with the north side of Downtown Seattle. It's also not just towers.
Much of that's the Denny Triangle (now a CBD extension) and South Lake Union (a large lowrise/midrise direct with a few highrises). This area has built tens of millions of square feet in this decade. That includes basically all of the Amazon HQ if you include the buildings that were just opening in 2010, plus many thousands of housing units.
A very large percentage of our growth overall is lowrise buildings, even within an easy walk of the CBD. Seattle has extremely limited zones that allow highrises, and even when they are allowed a lowrise will often pencil better. (This has changed due to our land prices, but the result has been countless new lowrises in a few square miles.)
Same with the north side of Downtown Seattle. It's also not just towers.
Much of that's the Denny Triangle (now a CBD extension) and South Lake Union (a large lowrise/midrise direct with a few highrises). This area has built tens of millions of square feet in this decade. That includes basically all of the Amazon HQ if you include the buildings that were just opening in 2010, plus many thousands of housing units.
A very large percentage of our growth overall is lowrise buildings, even within an easy walk of the CBD. Seattle has extremely limited zones that allow highrises, and even when they are allowed a lowrise will often pencil better. (This has changed due to our land prices, but the result has been countless new lowrises in a few square miles.)
Right, this is something that's occurring in a lot of different urban environments. However, there was a very low nadir for downtown Los Angeles as the downtown of the second largest metropolitan area in the US. It had myriad issues and went down in a way that was pretty appalling. Improving means the amount of change from where it used to be. DTLA has seen a massive shift in how the rest of the city and metropolitan area perceives it and how the city and metro interacts with it. I don't think downtown Seattle hit quite the same nadir as recently as DTLA has. I guess one question is what kind of timeframe we're considering for these improvements.
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