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Chose Washington. Biased a little, but the greater downtown DC area really has anything and everything. (Not just the arbitrary area referred to as downtown DC, but what any normal person would clearly see as being pretty much the downtown area). Philly and Boston too.
Everything else starts to blend even accounting for size discrepancy, so tie for the rest. A McCormick's and a few bars downtown, maybe a token Neighborhood Target, maybe a Whole Foods is generally how most US Downtown areas seem to be. You have to go to the suburbs for pretty much anything. DC, Philly and a couple others there's no point in going to suburban areas.
I'm not even sure, as big as Atlanta and Houston are, for example, if they even have legit grocery stores (places that close at 6PM don't count)in their downtowns. A grocery store.... I'm pretty sure Midtown has one, maybe. Other than that, pretty sure you have to drive to a place with a large surface parking lot or maybe one of those new urban-style retail developments with a couple big box retailers wrapped around a parking deck. I mention that because my point is, Im not sure someone in say downtown Atlanta is going to have an earth shattering different urban lifestyle than say someone in Austin. Despite the yuge size difference.
Downtown Houston has one that opened earlier this decade but it’s not surprising seeing as how the population was never large. It’s only now starting to grow. Downtown Dallas I believe has one as well.
I picked other for downtown Los Angeles since I do love living in DTLA along with San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia and Seattle.
I like Downtown LA but I dont think 2020 is its year. A few more years will make it a very good year. I hope the current efforts to house the homeless and get them mental/addiction help really does make a change for the better. Downtown would really explode if people felt safer and streets cleaner. It would attract more family types instead of the younger 20s-30s type crowd into the trendy cafes/eateries, bars/lounges.
I think more housing needs to be completed to really connect all the many neighborhoods. Projects like LA times Mirror building, Grand Ave buildings and some other buildings and that new park across the Times building would really help the transition from Chinatown and Little Tokyo to Bunker Hill to Civic Center and the Historic Core. Currently it feels dead on weekends in the civic center. I think the opening of the Regional connector with new stops at Bunker Hill and LA Times at Broadway would really help with increased pedestrian activity, but that is still a few years away from opening with all the delays.
There are lot of projects in Downtown that I feel needs to get done soon. The Broadway Trade Center despite its cleaned exterior is still closed. Oceanwide Project never seems to get done. The 6th street viaduct is slowing coming along. And as mentioned the regional connector. I also want to add the streetcar but I dont see that happening.
So I would give Downtown LA 3-5 years if things progress as a premier place to live that is clean, modern meets old, very vibrant throughout and full of pedestrians enjoying all it has to offer.
I have similar feelings about Seattle. It's come so far but I see its flaws and believe we're addressing some of them.
Every year represents significant growth. In three years all of the current work will be done, including some real game-changers like the convention center and central waterfront rebuilds. A lot of today's gaps will be filled. The number of people on the streets will be substantially higher.
Meanwhile we'll hopefully have progress on street disorder and urban campers. This year street disorder (petty theft and so on) is at least at the top of the public debate. At the state level we're pouring money into behavioral health. At the local level we're focusing on affordable housing (with a mix of smart and stupid policies). None of this will solve everything, but hopefully things will ease a bit. (I live on the Downtown fringe and don't really see either issues much in my daily life, but others do.)
I have similar feelings about Seattle. It's come so far but I see its flaws and believe we're addressing some of them.
Every year represents significant growth. In three years all of the current work will be done, including some real game-changers like the convention center and central waterfront rebuilds. A lot of today's gaps will be filled. The number of people on the streets will be substantially higher.
Meanwhile we'll hopefully have progress on street disorder and urban campers. This year street disorder (petty theft and so on) is at least at the top of the public debate. At the state level we're pouring money into behavioral health. At the local level we're focusing on affordable housing (with a mix of smart and stupid policies). None of this will solve everything, but hopefully things will ease a bit. (I live on the Downtown fringe and don't really see either issues much in my daily life, but others do.)
Nashville has experienced similar problems along with the growth. Petty crimes, pickpocketing, smash and grabs, and youth crimes have increased. The city is making an effort to improve affordable housing, but it is late in addressing the amount of homeless on the streets. The city is depending too heavily on religious institutions and volunteer groups to help with some of the issues, but has no plan to address the problems in its long-term growth plan.
I based my vote on the cities I'm familiar with, something that seems rather odd to many CD posters. Alphabetically, Denver, Minneapolis, Omaha and Pittsburgh all have nice downtowns to live in.
I based my vote on the cities I'm familiar with, something that seems rather odd to many CD posters. Alphabetically, Denver, Minneapolis, Omaha and Pittsburgh all have nice downtowns to live in.
Downtown Houston has one that opened earlier this decade but it’s not surprising seeing as how the population was never large. It’s only now starting to grow. Downtown Dallas I believe has one as well.
So does downtown Kansas City - and the development that includes it moves the city into the "downtowns worth considering" category.
KC's downtown core has one of those Cordish-developed entertainment districts. The supermarket is also part of this district. The City of Kansas City, Mo., paid dearly for the development, but it has had the desired effect, more or less. Two high-rise apartment towers adjacent to this district add residences to the mix (most of the others in the downtown core lie on its western edge).
Combine the downtown core with the River Market just to its north (where you'll find the city's public market, a smaller version of Seattle's Pike Place or Philadelphia's Reading Terminal) and the Crossroads Arts District to its south (where the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts is located along with a bunch of art galleries), and you have enough choices for entertainment, dining, nightlife and food shopping to make living there viable (and there's now a streetcar connecting all of these places).
It's not yet in the league of Philly, Boston, Seattle or DC (in that order; I voted for all of those save DC), but it's risen into the ranks of livable downtowns over the last decade or so. And you will now find Kansas Citians both living and visiting the downtown, things they didn't do in the 1980s.
Well then you didn’t really make an informed decision.
The person did say the areas he or she was familiar with personally.
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