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I think San Antonio is top 10 material. The downtown area is always full of energy.
Yeah around the Riverwalk and Rivercity towards the Alamo. But it's small, lacks in streetfront retail, greenspace, and mass transit. San Antonio maybe top 15 though. But it doesn't beat those 10.
Yeah around the Riverwalk and Rivercity towards the Alamo. But it's small, lacks in streetfront retail, greenspace, and mass transit. San Antonio maybe top 15 though. But it doesn't beat those 10.
Downtown S.A. has a lot of street retail, green space all over the place other than the Riverwalk. Downtown has a lot of plazas and Parks, just as many as those cities or more. It does lack mass transit though, but not for too much longer..
San Antonio should be a top 10 downtown. It's downtown is quite large in area with great infill.
It's not that large compared to the cities I just mentioned. Not to mention the downtown is not as virbant outside of the riverwalk compared to those 10cities. The greenspace is limited from what I have observed in DTSA and it's mostly in and around the Rivercenter. Most most of the retail is inside the Rivercenter which it is pretty nice area and I should give credit to SA for that.
Downtown is already urban by definition. At least in big cities. Anyway, plenty of big cities have ample available parking for cars, both regular worker traffic as well as tourists. And in my experience, the places I have visited which have ample parking didn't set the downtown back at all and didn't kill the fun and available amenities I was able to find there. The general idea for me is that I enjoy a downtown that I can get to fairly easily and without a lot of hassle, park fairly easily and without a lot of hassle, get out and have lots of great amenities in walking or maybe trolley/shuttle distance, and be able to leave downtown fairly easily and without a lot of hassle. The whole experience is ruined for me if I have to drive around for 20 minutes hoping somebody in an on-street spot just HAPPENS to pull out just as I'm about to drive by. I like downtowns to be made convenient for me to enjoy them. And even if dowtowns in big cities have a good deal of parking lot space, they are still urban by definition, and if they have plenty of amenities, then they have plenty of amenities.
What's pretty lame is a downtown with a lot of parking lot space but little amenities. I mean if there's not much to see and do there, it's not going to really matter if there's a lot of places to park. Pack in the amenities, and having parking lot space downtown isn't that big a detractor, at least for me, from the downtown or the urban feel. For me urban feel = many amenities placed in a relatively small footprint. Whether a particular given block is taken up by a parking lot which I might use or by an office building that I'm not even going to go into nor use for anything while I'm visiting downtown, if the number of amenities I WILL use within 20 square blocks or however big the downtown is are ample, the urban feel is not lost. Having the office building there instead of the parking lot makes no difference to my experience there, no difference to the availability of bakeries, restaurants, coffee shops, retail stores, convention centers, performing arts centers, sports stadiums, etc. in the area. Those things either exist or do not exist on their own.
Well OUR downtown isn't that much urban, since the city seems to have a "one step forward, two steps back" mentality.
Downtown Fort Worth has enough surface lots and (UGLY) garages as it is. It's fine to have parking, but not everywhere.
Fort Worth is a sunbelt city and there will be plenty of parking spaces since we have a car culture down here.
You may see this as great, and that's fine. But for me, I'd much rather park outside the general area and walk or ride my bike around the center of downtown. I'm just so sick of seeing TOO many surface lots.
According to U.S. Census and Brookings, 25,000 as of 2000. Since then there has been lots of new residential. I would say closing on 30,000 residents. San Antonio's downtown has retail all over downtown outside the Riverwalk, I think you need to take another look. As far as greenspace, there is Hemisfair Park, Milam park, Travis park, Crocket park, Alamo plaza, La Vilita, Main plaza, Musuem reach, the Pearl, Chris Park, King William, all have greenspace.
Thanks for all the pics of San Antonio! I has been a few years since I visited there, but all the pics confirmed for me its placement on my list at #3. Thanks for jogging my memory!
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