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.
1. Pittsburgh - bustling moreso from a dense, corporate and business perspective. It is first on this list but barely eeks it out over #2 Nashville.
2. Nashville - vibrant, happening, booming, and flooded with tourists. Increasing residential population as well as business. Not to the level of Pittsburgh--yet. But in 5 years, revisit, and yes most likely.
3. Cincinnati
4. Kansas City
5. Columbus
6. Memphis
7. Louisville
8. Knoxville
9. Wichita
10. Dayton
Last edited by mjlo; 10-14-2019 at 11:10 AM..
Reason: Off topic
1. Pittsburgh - bustling moreso from a dense, corporate and business perspective. It is first on this list but barely eeks it out over #2 Nashville.
2. Nashville - vibrant, happening, booming, and flooded with tourists. Increasing residential population as well as business. Not to the level of Pittsburgh--yet. But in 5 years, revisit, and yes most likely.
3. Cincinnati
4. Kansas City
5. Columbus
6. Memphis
7. Louisville
8. Knoxville
9. Wichita
10. Dayton
Completely disagree here. I have been to almost all these cities in the last 3 years. I was last in Wichita almost ten years ago, but it doesn't seem to be doing so hot.
As of 2020, Nashville handily wins
1) Nashville
2) Pittsburgh
huggggge drop off
3) (tie) KC and Cincinnati
small drop off
4 (tie) Columbus and Louisville
5) Memphis (a downtown that to me seems to have even lost momentum due to crime but I could see putting it right there with Columbus and Louisville)
MASSIVEEEEEE DROP off
6) Knoxville
7) Dayton
8) Wichita
The reality is, the cities in the top 4-5 in my rankings, outside Nasvhille, are MUCH closer than any of the boosters here want to admit. And no other city here has created such a massive new district like the Gulch and really the entire south of Broadway area like Nashville. Also, if you haven't been to Louisville in the last year since the ten downtown bourbon attractions and now 6,000 plus downtown hotels (and rapidly growing) have been added , you haven't been to Louisville to fairly rate it.
Knoxville is actually a pretty cool and vibrant downtown, given it's size. Depending on what our definition of "downtown" is, I would argue that Knoxville could actually challenge some larger cities of this groups Downtowns (KC and Columbus at least), even if of lesser importance, on vibrancy and walkability due to UT.
I would also say that, just talking of downtown, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati are pretty comparable honestly, though as I said, Pittsburgh does have the most active and urban core.
Nashville is also a bit of a paper tiger here, IMO, if you happen to visit and it's not an evening weekend, crowds are pretty thin and it isn't all that structurally dense, even with the recent boom. Obviously, it gets great crowds and can be vibrant in tourism due to that, but I would also say Nashville thins and suburbanizes much more quickly outside of the core than some of these other places do also. It doesn't have anything that would be the equivalent of High St. in Columbus IMO, nor does it have dense intown neighborhoods like say Over the Rhine Cincinnati-or Old Louisville.
Thanks for all of the thoughtful replies. And thanks for not beating me up for including Tennessee and Pittsburgh (which are technically not apart of the Midwest).
Last question: How does Lexington, Des Moines and Fort Wayne compare with all of the others above?
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.
