What downtowns were nice and vibrant in the 70's and 80's? (best, places)

[the topper]

What big city downtowns were nice and vibrant in the 70's and 80's?

Criteria:

1. vibrancy
2. cleanliness
3. safety
4. cohesive

[RocketSci]

Generally, almost every city's downtown area (big and small cities) still contained significant major retail sections as late as the 80s and into the early 90s in some places - think multiple local and regional equivalents of Macy's, etc. plus thousands of smaller stores. The full shift to the suburban malls hadn't finished yet, and retailers like Woolworths and Grants still existed.

Buffalo, for example, in the 70s and 80s had at least 5 major department stores downtown all of which closed by the 90s.

Vibrancy varied by specific area, but with urban flight occurring cleanliness, safety, and cohesiveness were all being strained. Outside of islands standalone office complex development (think GM in Detroit) many older downtown areas became vacant and decayed until the next wave of urban redevelopment began in the 90s and 00s for many cities.

[the topper]

My take:

Best and Vibrant Downtowns during this era

1. Boston/SF tie
2. Chicago Loop
3. Minneapolis
4. Atlanta
5. Buffalo
6. Cincinnati
7. Dallas
8. Miami
9. Seattle
10.Denver

Honorable Mention: Fresno

[SkyDog77]

Originally Posted by the topper

My take:

Best and Vibrant Downtowns during this era

1. Boston/SF tie
2. Chicago Loop
3. Minneapolis
4. Atlanta
5. Buffalo
6. Cincinnati
7. Dallas
8. Miami
9. Seattle
10.Denver

Honorable Mention: Fresno

Downtown Denver outside of the 16th Street Mall and Larimer Square was pretty dead until Coors Field was built. I’m not familiar with too many of the other cities during this time period, so maybe it does deserve to be on the list, but that would tell me the bar is pretty low.