Atlanta vs Houston vs Dallas, Which City will be more urban at the end of the decade? (live, best)
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Miles and miles of uniform housing doesn’t make a metro more urban, it makes it more sprawling. Having small town feels outside of Atlanta’s urban core doesn’t make Atlanta any less urban.
Hopefully Atlanta keeps to the Clifton LRT and the expansions of the Beltline streetcar. In fact the streetcar will be the first of few transit projects in the US in a long time whereas instead of building lines in the core that then extend out in the burbs, will create a “cross-hatch” of multiple smaller lines in the immediate core region of urban Atlanta. Multiple east west routes as well as north south and then the actual beltline streetcar loop itself.
Clifton running from ideally the Decatur MARTA station up to Lindbergh MARTA station by way of Emory University and CDC will be significant in improving urbanity in both Lindbergh center and the city of Decatur. Decatur has got excellent bones for a cure and lovely downtown area and easily the best Marta station right now, adding light rail for connection will only make it better.
Atlanta is the more urban city while Houston may be the most urban metro, overall. I believe that Dallas is more continuous as one posted stated but its core feels the least urban IMO. It will be interesting moving forward.
Come to think of it, these will be the country's 4th, 5th, and 6th largest metros as well by the end of the decade.
Each city have great projects going on and I'm excited to see the cities advance and grow.
Houston has areas in the core that have ditches instead of sidewalks. The pedestrian experience is very limited. A lot more shopping center type development, versus traditional storefronts. Houston's core is pretty built up, but at a street level, it's not as urban in design as Dallas. Atlanta's core is older, so it will have more of that infrastructure, but it's limited to a smaller area.
Houston has areas in the core that have ditches instead of sidewalks. The pedestrian experience is very limited. A lot more shopping center type development, versus traditional storefronts. Houston's core is pretty built up, but at a street level, it's not as urban in design as Dallas. Atlanta's core is older, so it will have more of that infrastructure, but it's limited to a smaller area.
Ditches? In the core? Where are those located?
There is not much difference between the built style of Houston and Dallas.
The only difference between the two is that Dallas is less uniformly dense because the flood plains make the development look more choppy.
Hopefully Atlanta keeps to the Clifton LRT and the expansions of the Beltline streetcar. In fact the streetcar will be the first of few transit projects in the US in a long time whereas instead of building lines in the core that then extend out in the burbs, will create a “cross-hatch” of multiple smaller lines in the immediate core region of urban Atlanta. Multiple east west routes as well as north south and then the actual beltline streetcar loop itself.
Clifton running from ideally the Decatur MARTA station up to Lindbergh MARTA station by way of Emory University and CDC will be significant in improving urbanity in both Lindbergh center and the city of Decatur. Decatur has got excellent bones for a cure and lovely downtown area and easily the best Marta station right now, adding light rail for connection will only make it better.
That’s interesting. I’ve never heard of a plan like that. We have streetcars in Dallas too. They’re planning the central streetcar link to connect the Dallas Streetcar in Oak Cliff with the McKinney Ave Trolley in Uptown.
We also have a pedestrian/bike trail loop around the city U/C. It’s gonna connect existing trails (like the Katy Trail) together to form a loop. It’s called “The Loop”. The Katy Trail has sparked development around it in Uptown, Turtle Creek, and Knox-Henderson — including a new high-rise development in Knox area that has just started construction. About 6 or 7 new high-rises are planned or U/C in that area. With Weir’s Plaza being the first office high-rise to kick of vertical construction on Knox St (Weir’s link shows how far the area has improved in terms of urbanity).
Houston easily is the most built-up IMO, but also the least vibrant of the three for pedestrians. Atlanta peaks higher than Houston or Dallas in Midtown, but it is a small area, and Downtown Atlanta seems to be the worst of the downtowns. Dallas is kind of the middle ground I guess, it has some nice areas but nothing that stands out to me as far as "urban".
Overall they seem kind of evenly matched I suppose. If you really want to live an urban lifestyle in one of these three cities I feel like Atlanta is the best bet simply because Midtown is the most dense and walkable neighborhood available here. That said, none of these cities are great; I think Miami is the only southern big city that really looks impressive on this front (New Orleans is very urban of course, but not a big city).
As far as "end of the decade" that is hard for me to predict. I suspect the three will remain fairly close to each other.
Houston easily is the most built-up IMO, but also the least vibrant of the three for pedestrians. Atlanta peaks higher than Houston or Dallas in Midtown, but it is a small area, and Downtown Atlanta seems to be the worst of the downtowns. Dallas is kind of the middle ground I guess, it has some nice areas but nothing that stands out to me as far as "urban".
Overall they seem kind of evenly matched I suppose. If you really want to live an urban lifestyle in one of these three cities I feel like Atlanta is the best bet simply because Midtown is the most dense and walkable neighborhood available here. That said, none of these cities are great; I think Miami is the only southern big city that really looks impressive on this front (New Orleans is very urban of course, but not a big city).
As far as "end of the decade" that is hard for me to predict. I suspect the three will remain fairly close to each other.
I’m not particularly sure what other cities have planned. But if everything gets built, the Downtown Dallas area will be very different by 2030. There’s a plan to completely rebuild the convention center over I-30. The new convention center is reoriented in a way that opens up the area for additional development, creating a convention center district. Even a deck park is planned to connect it with the Cedars neighborhood in South Dallas. Next to that is the planned NewPark development and the North End Development (Goldman Sachs campus) in Uptown. Just to name a few off top.
New Convention Center/District which was approved by voters in Nov 2022
The Central — it’s across Central Exwy (US 75) from the northern most portion of Uptown and adjacent to the CityPlace/Uptown Station, Texas’ only subway. The development will surround a 4 acre park with restaurants/patios. At 1:11 — aerial view with CityPlace Tower (tallest building at 560 ft), north Uptown, and the other high-rises in southern part of Uptown.
Houston easily is the most built-up IMO, but also the least vibrant of the three for pedestrians. Atlanta peaks higher than Houston or Dallas in Midtown, but it is a small area, and Downtown Atlanta seems to be the worst of the downtowns. Dallas is kind of the middle ground I guess, it has some nice areas but nothing that stands out to me as far as "urban".
Overall they seem kind of evenly matched I suppose. If you really want to live an urban lifestyle in one of these three cities I feel like Atlanta is the best bet simply because Midtown is the most dense and walkable neighborhood available here. That said, none of these cities are great
This is pretty much how I feel as well. If I had to rank them I would say Atlanta is slightly ahead of the other two due to Midtown being more built up than any non downtown neighborhood in the other two and also having a heavy rail spine with MARTA. That being said I also think Atlanta is the worst of the three downtowns as well. Dallas vs Houston is too close for me to call tbh, as Dallas has a more connected and cohesive core but Houston has a larger and denser core with better transit when it comes to mobility around the core.
Ranking:
Atlanta
Dallas/Houston
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