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This notion is so outdated. When was the last time you were in DC? When you visited downtown DC, which downtown neighborhoods did you visit? Penn Quarter? Mt. Vernon Triangle? Gallery Place/City Center? Logan Circle? DuPont Circle? Foggy Bottom? Golden Triangle? Midtown? NOMA/Union Market? or Eastend Union Station? Only Midtown and Golden Triangle are office parks and Golden Triangle has some of the busiest nightlife in DC on Friday and Saturday nights.
As for pizza, did you try Wise Guys Pizza in Mt. Vernon Triangle? I have never met anybody who didn’t like it.
MD everyone knows the truth or at least anyone that’s well travelled, why do you respond to statements like this? Just ignore is my motto…unless it just gets to be too much and you can’t help it arrrghhhh!
I'm sorry, but I didn't see 'a majority of the city's citizenry being in favor of water fluoridation' listed as a criterion by the OP. What careless reading on my part.
Lol false. Philly offers pizza is just as good or arguably even better than NYC.
LOL, definitely no. Philly is not a big neighborhood corner pizza town. A good street corner slice in Philly is about as common as good cheesesteaks in NYC.
I am surprised to not see Austin in any of these comments, especially when there are other cities such as, KC, STL, Detroit, Indy, Charlotte, SA, Cleveland, Dallas, LA, Houston, Portland, Pittsburgh, and other similar cities being mentioned. For a metro of under 2.5 million, Austin has a large and very vibrant downtown area.
This notion is so outdated. When was the last time you were in DC? When you visited downtown DC, which downtown neighborhoods did you visit? Penn Quarter? Mt. Vernon Triangle? Gallery Place/City Center? Logan Circle? DuPont Circle? Foggy Bottom? Golden Triangle? Midtown? NOMA/Union Market? or Eastend Union Station? Only Midtown and Golden Triangle are office parks and Golden Triangle has some of the busiest nightlife in DC on Friday and Saturday nights.
As for pizza, did you try Wise Guys Pizza in Mt. Vernon Triangle? I have never met anybody who didn’t like it.
I was talking about the downtown, not the neighborhoods outside downtown.
I was talking about the downtown, not the neighborhoods outside downtown.
FYI. Neighborhoods inside downtown DC: Penn Quarter, Chinatown, Mount Vernon Triangle, City Center, Judiciary Square, and Golden Triangle/K Street.
Expanded list of neighborhoods with Downtown (D) zoning that may be new to some posters on here: NoMa, Navy Yard
"Downtown" is a pretty useless term for DC in my opinion, considering there are 6+ distinct neighborhoods within what is considered Downtown DC, all with their own character. It covers too large an area to just label "Downtown" and expect that it is all the same and can be generalized. For instance, the Downtown DC Business Improvement District covers the Penn Quarter, Chinatown, and City Center neighborhoods. The K Street part of downtown is covered by the Golden Triangle Business Improvement District.
Penn Quarter, Chinatown, and City Center are the liveliest 18-hour neighborhoods in Downtown DC that offer much more than a slice of pizza (wink) and can compete with the top downtowns in the country for retail, restaurants, pedestrian activity, and entertainment. FYI.
NoMa and Navy Yard neighborhoods were recently updated to Downtown zoning with the most recent DC Office of Zoning code rewrite.
FYI. The National Mall is not in Downtown DC. There is secondary downtown emerging, which is south of the National Mall in Navy Yard and SW Waterfront area. The primary downtown is north of the National Mall. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Mall
Last edited by revitalizer; 05-13-2018 at 07:53 PM..
Toronto forced high-rises to paces garages underground. But it doesn't mean it offers more street-level. For Chicago it has its city underground garages for nearly 2000 cars and embraced the podium high-rise. Seems to work for it.
There are varying degrees of success that Toronto has had with respect to how highrises interact with street level vitality and vibrancy. Some very good, some horrible. Such as the case with a city building such a vast number of highrises.. In any event, I fundamentally agree with you that highriese or skyscrapers alone don't necessarily kill urban vibrancy. As a counterpoint to some narratives, the increased number of residents in said highrise may not necessarilty increase vibrancy in the ambient area, however they may increase vibrancy tremendously in others areas that already have established vibrancy since you have an overall increased number of resident in the area is far better than urban decay. Unless of course those resident always live in their condos or apartments which I find highly unlikely.
A highrise or skyscraper that incorporates restaurants, retail and other more embracing attributes to how it interrelates to the street however is more desirable to a podium dedicated only to parking. I mean this is just common sense.
Here I introduce you to Aura. It is the tallest all residential highrise in Canada at 270 Metres (900 ft) tall - it is a behemoth residential building of office tower proportions. It is not particularly beautiful or notable architecturally but its podium is NOT parking and at the very least has a restarants, shops, a gym etc so that to me is far more a better example of a building that marries highrise street level vitality/vibrancy than simply a parking podium that screams - stay away from me unless you are a car!
America's Best big city downtowns 2018 update: A lot has changed in the last few years. Some downtowns that were afterthoughts are among the best. Whole Urban Core is included here.
Criteria:
1. Vitality
2. High rises
3. Walkability
4. Ambiance
5. Safety
6. population
7. Cleanliness
8. Overall Appeal
1. NY
2. Chicago
3. Los Angeles
4. SF
5. Seattle
6. Boston
7. Philly
8. Houston
9. Miami
10.Portland
11.Denver/Washington tie
12.Dallas
13.Detroit
14.Minneapolis
15.San Antonio
16.Pittsburgh
Honorable Mentions: Austin, Nashville, Cleveland and Milwaukee
So the confusing part is how you're defining "big city". Including your honorable mentions, where Milwaukeeis your smallest listed city, you're basically including every city of a 1.5 million metro or larger. Looking at your 16, Pittsburgh is your smallest city, so you're including every city of 2.3 million or larger. So basically your "big city" list includes somewhere between 27 and 40 cities? This is very broad and confusing and should be broken down by size classes...
I can tell you right now omitting Atlanta was a mistake, just reviewing some of your other choices, and believe me, I'm no fan of Atlanta...Downtown Cleveland is okay, but there are gaps in vibrancy, and there are definitely other cities that should be ahead of Cleveland; iys not a Top 20 downtown. Cleveland is a cool city bit downtown is not its best selling point...
So the confusing part is how you're defining "big city". Including your honorable mentions, where Milwaukeeis your smallest listed city, you're basically including every city of a 1.5 million metro or larger. Looking at your 16, Pittsburgh is your smallest city, so you're including every city of 2.3 million or larger. So basically your "big city" list includes somewhere between 27 and 40 cities? This is very broad and confusing and should be broken down by size classes...
I can tell you right now omitting Atlanta was a mistake, just reviewing some of your other choices, and believe me, I'm no fan of Atlanta...Downtown Cleveland is okay, but there are gaps in vibrancy, and there are definitely other cities that should be ahead of Cleveland; iys not a Top 20 downtown. Cleveland is a cool city bit downtown is not its best selling point...
DC is really low on your list!
Cleveland is certainly above Nashville but yes there are omitted cities
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