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Something crazy like 8 out of 10 office towers in Houston have defaulted on their loans. I read an article about it once but can't find it right now. Most of them occurred in the late 1980s when I guess there was a super massive boom and bust in banking there. Still, it's Texas and banks have been willing to continue to write loans
My lifetime began in 1995, so my answer is going to be different from others in here.
TBH, Philadelphia has grown in influence as I've grown older. When I was growing up in West Philly during the 2000s, Philly truly felt like a place to get away from. At the time, the school system was in much worse shape than its in today, there was a LOT more abandonment, University City had more parking lots than tall buildings, and Center City was significantly more dead. Nowadays, Philly has the tallest building outside of NYC and Chicago, its skyline has expanded in all directions, entire neighborhoods that would have been avoided in the past have been restored and revitalized, Philadelphia receives more venture capital funding than many of its peers not named Boston or San Francisco, we're on the precipice of being a leader in the life sciences space, and there are more upscale offerings than I remember as a kid. I also feel like the relationship between the city and the suburbs has gotten better, at least pre-pandemic. Philly still has a lot to do before it can be as relevant as it was in the past, but we can get there given the amount of innovation occurring within city limits.
A city that has declined in influence in my lifetime is Oakland, given that it has effectively lost all of its sports teams. Memphis has also declined in influence, especially when comparing it to Nashville. In fact, I can't think of any other state where the gap between the largest and second largest cities is growing so quickly.
^While I agree that Philadelphia County's 5.1% growth rate isn't as strong as other parts of the country, it was only outpaced by a few counties in PA--including only Chester and Montgomery Counties in the MSA. This is a strong reversal of the population decline I saw as a kid, which only turned around in 2006. Philly is absolutely more influential than it was when I was growing up, but I will readily say that the city has a while to go before it regains the influence it once had.
That’s an interesting take. From afar, perhaps I’m skewed by Philly sports. The early 2000s was the age of the Answer and McNabb. Also I wonder how much of the growth you are seeing is simply natural cleanup and gentrifying that has continued most everywhere this side of places like Detroit. So that Philly may be better than Philly was then, but still being surpassed by the Texas cities or Atlanta. But thanks for the perspective.
The 80s were a time of easy money and booming multinationals who wanted to make a name for themselves and elevate their cities. It was a construction bonanza which overbuilt office space in most cities. The course correction came next as companies began to build office parks in the suburbs to be closer to their employees, and was especially acute in the Sun Belt where land was cheaper. Now the infill has begun in earnest the last decade as downtowns have begun filling up again with residents looking for an alternative to suburbia. Land prices still make building skyscrapers more feasible up in high-cost cities.
All that said, Atlanta is still booming.
I was going to say something was happening in the late 80s. I wasn't born but if you look at a list of tallest buildings in respective cities, you will see a lot of late 80s/early 90s. Especially in Atlanta and my city Philadelphia, where all of our skyscrapers, save the two built in the last 20 years, were from that era.
The skyscrapers in Dallas, Houston, and Atlanta are mostly office buildings. At some point there is only so much office you can put downtown in a sprawling car-oriented city before it's a traffic nightmare for everyone working there. All of those cities started to build out alternative business nodes outside of downtown.
Austin and Miami are still building tall because they have really strong markets for residential skyscrapers. Austin has built a few new office skyscrapers but given what happened with Covid they probably overbuilt.
Atlanta has this, but its in Midtown....the downtown, having the bones and transit access and decent public squares/parks, could be a great American downtown if they want it. Looking at zillow they have lots of cool and decent residential downtown but it has the potential to be the absolute best in the South.
Philadelphia. I wouldn't say it faded but born in the mid 80's grew up in the 90's. Remember learning about Philadelphia in 8th Grade, My entire Life Philadelphia was Always A Top 5 City. Until A few years ago When Phoenix passed Philly in City Population and DC passed Philly in Metro Population was the First time in my life Philly was no Longer A Top 5 City. I Wouldn't say Philly is fading but Cities are Passing. And now Atlanta is knocking on its door
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