Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Rank these North American cities by their shopping districts and commercial corridors
Here are the 10 North American candidates and the districts and/or corridors that I have in mind for comparison in this thread. It is up to you on how you decide to weigh these corridors and these cities overall. I may have missed some, so feel free to add more in if I missed a major corridor or something.
What I am sort of looking for, however, in this thread are responses that tier these cities with regard to their strengths based off of their shopping districts and commercial corridors. By that I mean rank cities or tier them based off of the ones that have among the best qualities and best all around shopping scene, give people the most to do, have the most liveliness, keep aesthetics in mind (architecture, streetscape), and in general just the overall package that makes an experience out in these places worth having. For those with extensive knowledge, please feel free to talk about what you think any of these lack or what their absolute strength is and things of that nature. If folks have a good understanding of the brands and stores offered in these places, by all means feel free to compare their shopping collections.
If you feel that there is a lack in understanding or experience in any of the cities below, then feel free to skip it in your evaluation.
Boston:
- Newbury Street
- Boylston Street
- Copley Square
- Downtown Crossing
- Charles Street
Chicago:
- Magnificent Mile on Michigan Avenue
- Oak Street
- State Street
- Wicker Park
- Clybourn Corridor
- Bucktown
- Gold Coast
- Lincoln Park
Los Angeles:
- Abbot Kinney Boulevard
- Melrose Avenue
- Sunset Strip
- Fairfax District
- the Miracle Mile
- Robertson Boulevard
- Sawtelle Boulevard
Mexico City:
- Avenida Presidente Masaryk
- Francisco I. Madero Avenue
- Nuevo Polanco
- Altavista Street
- Santa Fe
Miami and Miami Beach:
- Miami Design District
- Coconut Grove
- Flagler Street
- Bal Harbour Shops
- Lincoln Road
- Collins Avenue
- Washington Avenue
- Ocean Drive
- Española Way
- Alton Road
Montreal:
- Saint Catherine Street
- Saint Laurent Boulevard
- Saint Denis Street
- Mount Royal Avenue
- Golden Square Mile
New York:
- Fifth Avenue
- Madison Avenue
- 57th Street
- Seventh Avenue
- SoHo
- West Village
- South Street Seaport
- Columbus Circle
San Francisco:
- Union Square
- Union Street
- Haight Ashbury
- Fillmore Street
Toronto:
- Mink Mile on Bloor Street
- West Queen West
- Downtown Yonge
- Yorkville
- Roncesvalles
- Fashion District
- Midtown
Washington, D.C.:
- Wisconsin Avenue in Georgetown
- Dupont Circle
- Friendship Heights
- Penn Quarter
New York is probably #1 and I contemplated not including it in this thread but that's not entirely fair to the city. Anyhow which cities have the best collection of shopping districts that showcase the best the cities have to offer?
The poll will be multiple choice so that way you can vote for all the cities you believe have top notch attributes with respect to this comparison. Oh and bonus question: anyone have anything special that the others don't have? (stores, features, something cool to do)
Last edited by Trafalgar Law; 11-17-2017 at 03:06 PM..
Are we talking urban, transit oriented shopping districts only?
I would leave NYC out of the discussion. It has more urban shopping corridors than all the other cities combined.
I might also leave out Mexico City. It's kinda a different beast, and most of the shopping isn't traditional urban, but not sprawl either. It's more a Latin American hybrid.
That said, taking out NYC and DF, I would rank as follows:
1. SF or Chi
2. SF or Chi
3. Boston
4. Toronto
5. Montreal
6. Washington DC
7. Philly
8. Vancouver
9. Seattle
10, Portland
That's it, more or less, if you're talking traditional urban core retail. LA and Miami have tons of in-town retail but very little traditional downtown retail.
Preferably as urban as possible. Though if it has a suburban design, is really popular, has top notch offerings, attracts people from all over then I suppose we could squeeze a few of those in as well but more as exceptions rather than the rule.
That said though, preferably urban. I think along with urban city parks in the core region of the city that shopping districts and commercial corridors are some of the best showcase attributes a city can have. They're a bonafide way to introduce yourself to a city and get a sampling of what the city is like IMO.
Let's see...urban experience with the most coveted brands and boutiques, imo:
1 Golden Triangle, Beverly Hills
2-tie Mag Mile, Chicago
2-tie Union Square, San Francisco
4 Las Vegas Bl, Las Vegas
5 Waikiki, Honolulu
6 Mink Mile, Toronto
7 Newbury St, Boston
8 Av Masaryk, Mexico DF
Miami is probably 3rd in high end shopping overall after NY/LA, but does the city have a vibrant street or district similar to the above mentioned? idk
For Montreal, you forgot to add the underground city, which has multiple clusters of shops. If you added Bal Harbour shops for Miami, then you should add underground city as well. St. Hubert is also a very busy commercial street, as well as Parc, Jean Talon and a few others that I can't think of right now.
Let's see...urban experience with the most coveted brands and boutiques, imo:
1 Golden Triangle, Beverly Hills
2-tie Mag Mile, Chicago
2-tie Union Square, San Francisco
4 Las Vegas Bl, Las Vegas
5 Waikiki, Honolulu
6 Mink Mile, Toronto
7 Newbury St, Boston
8 Av Masaryk, Mexico DF
Miami is probably 3rd in high end shopping overall after NY/LA, but does the city have a vibrant street or district similar to the above mentioned? idk
I would generally agree with all this, but, to me, Beverly Hills, Las Vegas, Honolulu and Mexico City don't really "count" as traditional urban shopping hubs.
Beverly Hills is an older suburb, Vegas is a highway strip, Honolulu is a neighborhood tourist corridor, and Mexico City is a suburban commercial street. In terms of shopping typology, they're a little closer to suburban shopping mall-type experiences than, say, Manhattan. You're gonna drive to the shopping, it tends to be in mall-type layouts, etc.
For Montreal, you forgot to add the underground city, which has multiple clusters of shops. If you added Bal Harbour shops for Miami, then you should add underground city as well. St. Hubert is also a very busy commercial street, as well as Parc, Jean Talon and a few others that I can't think of right now.
Montreal has a very good cluster of downtown retail, but very little luxury retail.
Montreal probably has less luxury retail than really any U.S. metro of at least 2-3 million or so.
Location: That star on your map in the middle of the East Coast, DMV
8,128 posts, read 7,550,614 times
Reputation: 5785
Quote:
Originally Posted by 18Montclair
Let's see...urban experience with the most coveted brands and boutiques, imo:
1 Golden Triangle, Beverly Hills
2-tie Mag Mile, Chicago
2-tie Union Square, San Francisco
4 Las Vegas Bl, Las Vegas
5 Waikiki, Honolulu
6 Mink Mile, Toronto
7 Newbury St, Boston
8 Av Masaryk, Mexico DF
Miami is probably 3rd in high end shopping overall after NY/LA, but does the city have a vibrant street or district similar to the above mentioned? idk
On coveted brand/ boutiques probably, but Las Vegas BLVD offers no outdoor urban shopping experience whatsoever. The high end retail is almost exclusively in shopping mall like buildings or inside of casinos.
Location: That star on your map in the middle of the East Coast, DMV
8,128 posts, read 7,550,614 times
Reputation: 5785
Quote:
Originally Posted by Facts Kill Rhetoric
Preferably as urban as possible. Though if it has a suburban design, is really popular, has top notch offerings, attracts people from all over then I suppose we could squeeze a few of those in as well but more as exceptions rather than the rule.
You're kinda bending the rules here, it's a little ambiguous. Are we talking urban strips or a series of urban streets together with storefronts aligned on almost every street corner in a certain stretch? Or can enclosed indoor malls that are not a part of the street grid and no retail on the outside be included and considered as "urban shopping".
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
