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I spent a long time walking around many parts of downtown, here in Brooklyn yesterday.
First off, there are so many newly developing high rise and skyscraper projects going up, and a lot of redevelopment too.
Also, there's just many new high rise condos and apartments with the "luxury" branding have popped up.
As-a-result, many more wine shops, boutiques, chain stores, speciality stores and restaurants have opened up. It could use a few more cool, go-to bars, it seems, but all in all, it's become a better livable neighborhood in Brooklyn.
The foot traffic in downtown is pretty strong, and of course the density of Brooklyn and New York in general adds to this volume of people.
There's still a few dicey, not so attractive streets that feel gritty and stuck in the 70s. But mostly, downtown is a much better area than it was in the 1990s/early 2000s.
I started thinking, what downtowns in the US are most similar to downtown Brooklyn?
I've added some city options on the poll, based on--
size,
overall new and older re-development,
mix of residential,
shopping,
grocery,
entertainment,
bars/restaurants,
and overall downtown vibrancy and attractiveness.
I haven’t been to downtown Brooklyn since 2005 so I can’t comment on how it is today. A lot has changed since then. And even then, a lot had changed since I was there in ‘98. At the time, it wasn’t very impressive, but it was a short walk to some great neighborhoods. Atlantic Ave. was pretty neat too with the Muslim community and their shops and businesses.
Location: Miami (prev. NY, Atlanta, SF, OC and San Diego)
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Fairly certain you are not including Williamsburg as part of DT, or are you?….looking forward to this thread as I’m spending a week at The William Vale in June and looking to explore various parts of Brooklyn—which can be accessed by ferry not too far from where I’m staying.
Looking forward to a change of pace from Manhattan.
Had you asked about Battery Park (Manhattan) I would have said Brickell, but will see what others have to say on this thread.
Well, since I'm the first person to have voted in the poll, my choices are clear, at least for now.
Philadelphia has a similar level of foot traffic, and there have been a slew of high-rise multifamily buildings completed in the past five years, with more on the way.
Miami has even more of those, but I'm not sure that the foot traffic matches.
Chicago outdoes all of these on scale, and its northern portion mixes residences, great shopping and several good restaurants, all of which generate lots of foot traffic.
Location: Miami (prev. NY, Atlanta, SF, OC and San Diego)
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On second thought and lacking the scale of greater Brooklyn but as far as downtowns that include old and new while incorporating existing infrastructure without having created a generic, cookie cutter appearance, bridges like Brooklyn and meeting all the criteria described above (other than possibly size), I could see downtown Portland, OR being in the mix—pre Covid, anyways.
Last edited by elchevere; 02-27-2022 at 11:38 AM..
Downtown Brooklyn always seemed more like downtown Newark or Jamaica, Queens - the grimy remains of downtown shopping after all the theaters closed and the nice stores and middle class shoppers had gone elsewhere. In the 50s they removed the elevated train, tore down many blocks and created the lifeless “Cadman Plaza” — dullsville. They did one of those Kalamazoo style pedestrian malls on Fulton St in the 80s— still grim. They made over some especially gnarly streets into the bland MetroTech office complex— not great but ok. They put in one of the uglier, no frills malls ever seen in the US— Atlantic Center or whatever it’s called. Still grim. But since 2000 some real improvements— an apple store, some nice architecture including the Barclays center, a couple shake shacks… i.e., it’s gone upscale (a bit.) Yes, lots of bland high rise residential stuff now on the fringes so it’s changing a lot. Seems hard to compare to your other downtowns since they’re all cities in their own right, not adjuncts to a huge city center just across the river.
I voted for downtown Jersey City, Center City Philadelphia, and downtown Los Angeles for various reasons.
Downtown Jersey City, as in historic downtown and the new mostly residential waterfront high-rises that sprung up next to it, is part of the metropolitan area and so quite similar in many ways as is the kind of mix of new mostly residential skyscrapers with more traditional rowhomes. Where it differs is that there's significantly less street level activity in the downtown Jersey City and the modern high-rise construction is a lot more separated out as its own clean, separate neighborhood rather than interspersed with older construction.
Center City Philadelphia is similar in the street level vibrancy as well as the the mix of new construction and old. Where it differs is that Center City is a much more prominent center for employment and entertainment in a lot of ways, sort of landing on the other side of downtown Brooklyn from downtown Jersey City. On top of that, Center City also has better preservation of historic homes within that downtown whereas downtown Brooklyn has it in various states though very close to neighborhoods with better preservation.
Downtown LA has that mix of old and new construction, a mix of employment and residences, and a major stadium that hosts a lot of events so that's a good similarity. Where it differs is that it has a lot of grit and social issues and much more so than downtown Brooklyn or any of the ones mentioned. It also seems to be much more uneven in how busy parts of it.
Those new high-rise buildings and NYU greatly expanding its presence in downtown Brooklyn has made for some pretty massive changes to downtown Brooklyn. I don't think it's hip or anything like that, but it is varied and busy. The east-west streets between Boerum Place and Flatbush Avenue (these streets lead to the Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan Bridge, respectively) from Tillary down to Atlantic Ave probably have some of the most divergent design and use cases from each other of any area in the city.
Last edited by OyCrumbler; 02-27-2022 at 04:01 PM..
Looking at some street-level and skyline pics, my immediate first thought is it reminds me of downtown Oakland.
Surely you jest.
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