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Louisville numbers are a bit disappointing, but hopefully they can gain traction over the next few years and add residents and residential buildings/units downtown. I feel like with COVID and the impact of the Black Lives Matter protests over the last couple of years, Louisville is one of the downtowns (although there are a ton) that got hit pretty hard.
Agreed. Louisville got hit twice as hard during COVID and the civil unrest. It's downtown vibrancy is almost entirely dependent on tourism and office workers. Locals don't really go to downtown Louisville, they stay in the trendy neighborhoods. Whereas in a city like Grand Rapids downtown is the entertainment destination point for the entire region.
Louisville's coterminous borders with Jefferson county help hide it's true declines. It has definitely stopped declining, but it's core neighborhoods were hit pretty hard over the last 60 years and there's a lot of empty land to build on. 2010-2020 was very good for the city, but most of the development has been in the periphery neighborhoods like NULU. Unfortunately Louisville has been a bit oversold on here at times, and I think folks expect to find a little more live/work/play downtown. I think that's a shame because it takes away from the true charm/culture/history of the city they might otherwise enjoy. I do think there's opportunity for downtown Louisville to really grow residents. It has excellent bones and built environment. It's also a party city. Local leadership just needs to get out of their own way.
It appears that many big city cores do WORSE in residential density than many small town or suburban cores if you use similar acreages. Big downtowns often come with large areas of only employment and underused land. A small town that simply has houses near its downtown can outdo that, particularly in areas with denser vernaculars.
I'm thinking California's big two and parts of the Northeast in particular, which have a lot of areas let's say 10+ miles outside the old core that still hit five-figure densities. Some sizeable greater-downtown areas can only dream of that figure.
As of 2022, its well above 14k with all the new apartment conversions/units that have come online since but his numbers aren't far off.
I used census tract 302, 401, 2201 and 402.
That includes Camden Yards, the Convention center, National Aquarium, The Science center about a Dozen hotels at least, so there is a swath with no people
Those numbers are specifically referring to traditional CBD. There's ~43k people living within a 1 mile radius (3.14 square miles) of Pratt & Charles, which is #12th in the country.
That being said, I foresee that radius breaking +50k by next census. The city is building/converting a lot.
I think something that would shock people is about 2.5 Sq miles centered around 1st Ave in Birmingham has a density of under 3,000 ppsm. (2.5 sq miles 6,800 people)
Agreed. Louisville got hit twice as hard during COVID and the civil unrest. It's downtown vibrancy is almost entirely dependent on tourism and office workers. Locals don't really go to downtown Louisville, they stay in the trendy neighborhoods. Whereas in a city like Grand Rapids downtown is the entertainment destination point for the entire region.
Louisville's coterminous borders with Jefferson county help hide it's true declines. It has definitely stopped declining, but it's core neighborhoods were hit pretty hard over the last 60 years and there's a lot of empty land to build on. 2010-2020 was very good for the city, but most of the development has been in the periphery neighborhoods like NULU. Unfortunately Louisville has been a bit oversold on here at times, and I think folks expect to find a little more live/work/play downtown. I think that's a shame because it takes away from the true charm/culture/history of the city they might otherwise enjoy. I do think there's opportunity for downtown Louisville to really grow residents. It has excellent bones and built environment. It's also a party city. Local leadership just needs to get out of their own way.
Yeah, I've read that, and heard that from a couple of relatives who live in the Louisville area, too. They "don't go to downtown" much anymore and that "a lot has closed there." But, this is the story for many, many downtowns in the US after COVID, unfortunately.
I think the downtown area in Louisville will take a bit longer to get to pre-COVID levels, just due to the lingering and lagging effects of white collar workers "returning to office," in the age of remote working. Many cities are seeing their downtown daytime populations having shrunk since COVID hit, with a lot of office workers not commuting in any longer to city centers.
But yeah, as you mentioned, the leadership in Louisville specifically does seem to not really want the city to grow to the potential it could have. I saw that before the pandemic hit. But, I'll also say the city was doing very well with overall tourism and increased buzz and branding with bourbon-centered tourism.
It's a city to keep an eye on as things slowly progress forward. I'd like to see more residential built in downtown Louisville, in the form of high-rises in the 6 to 20 story range. Or, conversions of office buildings into residential downtown. A lot of cities are doing that currently.
Why is St. Paul never included in these listings? It's as if Minneapolis is enough to represent the entire Twin Cities metro and St. Paul is merely an afterthought.
St. Paul has 314,000 people which is much more than many other cities listed here, and has a downtown population of about 10,000 in a 1 square mile downtown area.
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