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I consider Tier I Midsize cities to be every city between 1 million and 2 million persons (Tier II Major cities to me are 2-4m; Tier II Midsize cities to me are 500k-1m)...
Years on this site have taught me that the following Tier I Midsize cities are championed for their urbanity, I'm listing here in alphabetical order, not order of urbanity:
Birmingham, Buffalo, Grand Rapids, Hartford, Louisville, Milwaukee, New Orleans, Norfolk, Providence, Richmond, Rochester, Salt Lake
The motivation of this thread is two things:
1, define the urban core/inner city/heart of each of these cities;
2, and rank these cities based on scale of urbanity within said cores...
I've been to 8 of these dozen cities, but I've lived in both Richmond and Norfolk and I'm most familiar with them, so I'll begin with them in the interest of my idea of the thread. I haven't yet used the '22 estimates to update my numbers, so right now all of my numbers are based on '21 ACS estimates...
Anyone familiar with these other cities, any of them, please feel free to chart them out!
Norfolk
Norfolk's urban core is essentially the entirety of the West Side, which is defined as Tidewater Dr west to the Elizabeth River, and the Lafayette River south to the Elizabeth River...
This defined region of Norfolk in 2021 had a population of 50,506 in 7 square miles of land, for a population density of 7215 ppsm...
This is Norfolk's core region based on the following...
Norfolk is a suburban-style city in general, as you'll see when I link street views of what Core Norfolk looks like. But it gets significantly more suburban, pretty quickly, once you cross the boundaries defined...
Within these 7mi² you have everything great about Norfolk: the ferry, Virginia Zoo, elite museums from Nauticus to The Chrysler; Waterside; EVMS; ODU; and just so many beautiful neighborhoods...
One thing I'll say about Norfolk, it's a truly lush, beautiful city. It really is, and it has an abundance of just gorgeous neighborhoods. Here's a plug on what Norfolk's core neighborhoods look like:
Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
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I've been to handful of these cities and one takeaway I noticed was that many of the downtown cores in midsize metros had a lot of damage done during mid 20th century urban renewal and the highway building era. Especially Hartford. Given the size of some of the cities, the highway networks were overbuilt at the time. Richmond has some awesome old historic neighborhoods but I wish I-95 didn't cut right through the middle of it and same for the downtown expressway by the James River. Norfolk has some lovely old core neighborhoods, but the downtown waterfront area left me wondering what it must have looked like prior to WWII.
All cities large and small have this element to some degree. But from the selection, I like the cities that have most of their old bones intact and near seamless connections to adjacent neighborhoods. New Orleans is on top here, the streetcar lines stitch the city together pretty well. Providence performs well here, it's a great city to explore on the ground and walking through its core neighborhoods (Downtown/College Hill/Federal Hill).
I haven't been, but I have the impression that Milwaukee has a fairly vibrant downtown and adjacent neighborhoods. Richmond also does well, it would just be nice if they buried and capped the downtown highways. In Salt Lake City I-15 & I-80 are far enough away from downtown. The city is very clean and has very good transit options. It also has massively wide streets.
Last edited by Champ le monstre du lac; 10-14-2023 at 06:10 AM..
Birmingham, Buffalo, Grand Rapids, Hartford, Louisville, Milwaukee, New Orleans, Norfolk, Providence, Richmond, Rochester, Salt Lake
Of these cities the ones I have experience with are Birmingham, Milwaukee, New Orleans, Norfolk, Richmond, Louisville, and Grand Rapids. For some reason I've developed a fascination of cities in this population bracket. I think due in part to my proximity and travels to Milwaukee, Grand Rapids, and Louisville.
This is always hard for me since I don't know the concrete criteria what is or is not urban. Though I don't know that one truly exists. Typically the cities that peaked before suburbanization tend to be the most dense/urban. I usually can rank their cores urbanity based on where they were in population rankings around 1950.
Of these I think Milwaukee is the most urban. Milwaukee is a unique city on here in that most folks that contribute on City-Data have not been there. It's location in Chicago's shadow, and the upper Midwest means that most folks on here don't even have a regional awareness of it(given that this forum is largely dominated by posters from the Northeast, and South). It has a surprising expansive, dense, and tall core. Even it's periphery neighborhoods have both height and density for this weight class. In lieu of actual on the ground experience a lot of folks "urbanity impressions" come from skyline photos. The signature skyline shot of Milwaukee comes from the lake front looking west. That is the most anemic view of the city and gives a misleading impression of it's skyline. Viewed from almost any other angle it is far more impressive.
That said I don't think the separation between Milwaukee and the others is that great. I would rank them as follows:
Very Close:
Milwaukee
Buffalo
New Orleans
Louisville -tie
Providence -tie
Richmond - tie
Salt Lake City
Hartford Small gap
Norfolk
Birmingham
Rochester Small gap
Grand Rapids
Grand Rapids is at a disadvantage in this grouping IMO. 15 years ago it was still considered part of the tier below these cities. It has only really come into peoples awareness over the last 10 years. In the 1950's when the built environment of most of these cities was peaking, urban Grand Rapids was less than half the size it is now. Like Milwaukee it suffers from being in an out of the way location in the upper Midwest that most folks aren't likely to know much about. Like Milwaukee it has a similar skyline issue, in that it's signature skyline shot show's a few high rises on the riverfront, but completely hides the 3 sq mi of density behind them(not to mention the two tallest buildings in the city are actually on the other side of the river). It's a statisticians nightmare in that it has the smallest urbanized footprint of the cities in the grouping, but it anchors the 3rd largest media market. A commuter shift of 2-3 points could add another 2 counties to it's MSA putting it closer to 1.3-1.4 million people. Creating an even more confusing impression for folks who have not been there.
That said Grand Rapids is surprisingly urban when put in context to the size of it's urban area. The NIMBY nature of it's outer ring suburbs has put an unofficial urban growth boundary around GR and is forcing it to getting denser much faster. It's also seeing a consolidation of regional corporations moving their headquarters downtown which is also contributing to the proliferation of its urban health. I say all of this to say that I think GR still really belongs toward the top of the tier II midsized cities. I think Omaha is still ahead of it, certainly in perceived urbanity. I think in another 10 years GR will have definitively moved to the next tier.
I’d say New Orleans, Milwaukee and Buffalo are pretty clear of competition in this range.
Then you got Providence, Richmond and Grand Rapids .
Rochester and Hartford are both very torn up. But I’d give the lead to Rochester cause at least one quadrant if the city is very nice but is mostly outside east I would. Consider the core other than the east/Alexander area. Also the Rochester Public market draws people into the city for a reason other than a minor league/college sports game
Everyone else falls between Grand Rapids and Rochester
I’d say New Orleans, Milwaukee and Buffalo are pretty clear of competition in this range.
Then you got Providence, Richmond and Grand Rapids .
Rochester and Hartford are both very torn up. But I’d give the lead to Rochester cause at least one quadrant if the city is very nice but is mostly outside east I would. Consider the core other than the east/Alexander area. Also the Rochester Public market draws people into the city for a reason other than a minor league/college sports game
Everyone else falls between Grand Rapids and Rochester
Rochester is actually removing its Inner Loop and has always had housing development built in the portion that has already been removed. There is more slated in that right of way, once the loop is removed.
I’d say New Orleans, Milwaukee and Buffalo are pretty clear of competition in this range.
Then you got Providence, Richmond and Grand Rapids .
Rochester and Hartford are both very torn up. But I’d give the lead to Rochester cause at least one quadrant if the city is very nice but is mostly outside east I would. Consider the core other than the east/Alexander area. Also the Rochester Public market draws people into the city for a reason other than a minor league/college sports game
Everyone else falls between Grand Rapids and Rochester
Rochester deserves some recognition for successfully pulling off an ambitious project to restore part of the urban core. Of course I’m referring to filling in the Inner Loop. The eastern infill is now complete and it’s incredible.
The northern stretch is currently being filled in which will finally reconnect the High Falls and Public Market areas with downtown. Not sure if any similar infill has occurred in Hartford.
Edit: ckhthankgod beat me to it! But I'll leave this post since it shows a different side of the development not visible in their links. Just goes to show how large the project was.
Rochester deserves some recognition for successfully pulling off an ambitious project to restore part of the urban core. Of course I’m referring to filling in the Inner Loop. The eastern infill is now complete and it’s incredible.
The northern stretch is currently being filled in which will finally reconnect the High Falls and Public Market areas with downtown. Not sure if any similar infill has occurred in Hartford.
No Hartford is by far the worst big the actual core Downtowns are most similar in that they are ful of hostile 1960-1980 high rises
Rochester is better because it’s connection to much better connecting neighborhoods
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