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^^ And planning and public-investment purposes. But you're right atadytic19!
It's bizarre that people think someone is defining boundaries in an overall sense. People seem to think there's an "official" version of so many things, because...who knows why.
People here come up with the most ridiculous notion. Do you really think that cities decide their boundaries for their CBDs for silly bragging rights?
Most of these boundaries are for marketing, taxes and utility maintenance and had nothing to do with these **** city data squabbles.
Why...yes they do! Downtowns want to act bigger and more important than their competitor cities....you see lots of midsized cities advertising 30,000 residents downtown. That's complete GARBAGE without dozens of 30 story plus residential towers which no metro under 2 million has. These cities are inflating the geographic reach of their downtown to look more important than their peers. It's obvious. I'd say it would take 100 highrise condos to create that density.
It's not about this site, but its about overall perception with the talent the cities want to attract
Most of Philadelphia being a slum is a massive exaggeration, though maybe it was true two or three decades ago.
UPenn and Drexel steadily pushed far into West Philadelphia as I heard that a couple decades ago, incoming students were sometimes unofficially warned to not go west of 40th street, but now quite a few newcomers go west of 50th street (excusing from this the northwest portion of West Philadelphia like Overbrook Farms, Overbrook Park, and Wynnefield which were not slums to begin with).
Center City pushed southwards into much of South Philadelphia and that's where some of the most interesting neighborhoods and restaurants are.
The Northwest neighborhoods mostly stayed alright, and the northeast is essentially suburbs.
North Philadelphia is probably the only pretty consistently rough part of the city, whereas the rest sometimes have pockets but are generally alright. North Philadelphia actually now has some decent pockets of areas that are pretty good.
Good synopsis. Despite several unnecessary snarky/ignorant comments that really don't warrant response, Philadelphia's downtown residential population has obviously never been more robust than it is today and is continuing apace with growth. Certainly methodology can be disputed, but the facts are clear.
As you allude to, while many neighborhoods remain a "work in progress," the scale and scope of highly livable, in demand real estate touches all corners of the city and comprises more of Philadelphia than it has in essentially 60 years.
Why...yes they do! Downtowns want to act bigger and more important than their competitor cities....you see lots of midsized cities advertising 30,000 residents downtown. That's complete GARBAGE without dozens of 30 story plus residential towers which no metro under 2 million has. These cities are inflating the geographic reach of their downtown to look more important than their peers. It's obvious. I'd say it would take 100 highrise condos to create that density.
It's not about this site, but its about overall perception with the talent the cities want to attract
This is so silly. It's about attracting residents and promoting the area. It's marketing. That's what you're supposed to do. But it's not for bragging rights or anything silly like that. It's simply just trying to grow the ta base, etc.
Why...yes they do! Downtowns want to act bigger and more important than their competitor cities....you see lots of midsized cities advertising 30,000 residents downtown. That's complete GARBAGE without dozens of 30 story plus residential towers which no metro under 2 million has. These cities are inflating the geographic reach of their downtown to look more important than their peers. It's obvious. I'd say it would take 100 highrise condos to create that density.
It's not about this site, but its about overall perception with the talent the cities want to attract
Downtown MARKETING groups do this. But however the planning department, the police, parks, etc. divide things up, it's for their own purposes.
In fact, I find downtown marketing campaigns to be terrible for information. The nonprofit organization has a set of boundaries. But their office stats, hotel stats, retail sales, population, etc., will all be based on DIFFERENT boundaries. Residents might be based on census tracts. Office stats will be whatever the most convenient brokers tell them. And so on.
This is so silly. It's about attracting residents and promoting the area. It's marketing. That's what you're supposed to do. But it's not for bragging rights or anything silly like that. It's simply just trying to grow the ta base, etc.
Bingo, that's why cities establish SPB for their downtowns. They extend the downtown area in order to attract people and businesses as well as increasing the tax base and of course, competition. Although some mayors also do this for bragging rights as well but as an incentive to attract business "my downtown is bigger, better and thriving than other cities, come invest here".
Why...yes they do! Downtowns want to act bigger and more important than their competitor cities....you see lots of midsized cities advertising 30,000 residents downtown. That's complete GARBAGE without dozens of 30 story plus residential towers which no metro under 2 million has. These cities are inflating the geographic reach of their downtown to look more important than their peers. It's obvious. I'd say it would take 100 highrise condos to create that density.
It's not about this site, but its about overall perception with the talent the cities want to attract
What you are are describing is what everyone is saying. This is marketing.
If you are in a committee to promote new development in the neighborhood you talk up the strengths. That is not about cities trying to have a bigger downtown than others. People on here care about that. If I was competing for a corporate relocation like Amazon for example I would stretch the boundaries to include as many universities I can, I would talk up the ease of access to the area, the vibrance of the area, the growing number of amenities etc. That has less to do with bragging rights and more to do with portraying the area in the best light to get that deal.
It's silly to think that cities would spend that much money on talking up an area simply for silly bragging rights. When u do see cities trying to one up everyone else, there is usually some financial pay back to justify it.
Bingo, that's why cities establish SPB for their downtowns. They extend the downtown area in order to attract people and businesses as well as increasing the tax base and of course, competition. Although some mayors also do this for bragging rights as well but as an incentive to attract business "my downtown is bigger, better and thriving than other cities, come invest here".
This really only applies for upcoming cities that are building out their CBD's.
Big legacy cities have long had established cores and don't need to horizontally expand their cores. They'll densify and throw up skyscrapers/high-rises to accomidate office space/residents but not physically sprawl much more then the areas they already encompass
Downtown Pittsburgh: 2,879 (Seems very low). That's less than 1% of the city's population. I always thought we were more in the 5,000+ range, but maybe that would be if you expanded the idea of our "traditional" CBD to also include the North Shore, South Shore, Strip District, Uptown, and Lower Hill District areas.
Last edited by JMT; 07-11-2019 at 10:39 AM..
Reason: Removed off-topic comment
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