Top 25 downtowns in the U.S. (living, best, compared, place)

To Omshahi: Right after you posted but before I saw your post, I put Houston from 12th-15th place and put it in third tier instead of second tier. I do agree with you that they are improving downtown quickly, like Dallas.

Koolaide: I hope your post is deleted from city-data. It was absolutely useless. But maybe not. It seems like you were agreeing with me

[DANNYY]

Originally Posted by NaturalUrbanBalence

To Omshahi: Right after you posted but before I saw your post, I put Houston from 12th-15th place and put it in third tier instead of second tier. I do agree with you that they are improving downtown quickly, like Dallas.

Koolaide: I hope your post is deleted from city-data. It was absolutely useless. But maybe not. It seems like you were agreeing with me

They're doing it just like LA, this whole sprawl image is really getting to Houston and LA a lot.

[MplsTodd]

Originally Posted by NaturalUrbanBalence

"First tier" I love the downtowns of these cities
1. New York City, New York
2. San Francisco, California
3. Chicago, Illinois
4. Washington D.C.
5. Seattle, Washington (Its great how awesome the downtown is in Boston and in Seattle compared to their population being 10th-15th out of all American cities(500,000-600,000)and being this high up on the list. To give a point of reference, both of these cities have similar populations as Jacksonville, Florida and Fresno, California. Also, their downtowns are much better than cities with much bigger populations such as San Antonio Texas(1.3 million people) and Phoenix, Arizona(1.6 million). I think both of these cities are good role models for places with relatively smaller populations compared to other places.
6. Boston, Massachusetts

"Second tier" I like the downtowns of these cities
7. San Diego, California Very close to being in first tier.
8. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
9. Denver, Colorado
10. Portland, Oregon
11. Minneapolis, Minnesota
12. Los Angeles, California(Its not good that Los Angeles has the second biggest population for all American cities but downtown is this far down on this list)
12. Miami, Florida
13. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
14. Honolulu, Hawaii

"Third tier" The downtowns of these cities are ok
15. Houston, Texas
16. Austin, Texas
17. Atlanta, Georgia
18. Dallas, Texas
19. New Orleans, Louisiana
20. Saint Louis, Missouri
21. Charlotte, North Carolina

"Fourth tier" The downtowns of these cities are less than ok but still ok enough to be 22nd-25th

22. Baltimore, Maryland
23. Phoenix,Arizona(Its not good that Phoenix has 3rd-5th highest population out of all American cities and its this far down on the list. Similar to Los Angeles.
24. Las Vegas, Nevada
25. San Antonio, Texas

I only included cities with 300,000 or more people. There are plenty of cities and towns with smaller populations with great downtowns, but its not for this list.

A very good list! Though, I still can't see Phoenix or Vegas in the top 25--maybe Scottsdale or the Strip, but those aren't big city downtowns. Its been awhile since I've been to Baltimore, but I'd think they'd rank more highly than 4th tier, given the combination of Harborplace, Mt Vernon Sq, the transit lines, Little Italy and walkability to areas like fells Pt.

I also think Indianapolis deserves to be in the top 25.

[SweethomeSanAntonio]

Baltimore and San Antonio are second tier easily.

[WeSoHood]

Originally Posted by NaturalUrbanBalence

"First tier" I love the downtowns of these cities
1. New York City, New York
2. San Francisco, California
3. Chicago, Illinois
4. Washington D.C.
5. Seattle, Washington (Its great how awesome the downtown is in Boston and in Seattle compared to their population being 10th-15th out of all American cities(500,000-600,000)and being this high up on the list. To give a point of reference, both of these cities have similar populations as Jacksonville, Florida and Fresno, California. Also, their downtowns are much better than cities with much bigger populations such as San Antonio Texas(1.3 million people) and Phoenix, Arizona(1.6 million). I think both of these cities are good role models for places with relatively smaller populations compared to other places.
6. Boston, Massachusetts

"Second tier" I like the downtowns of these cities
7. San Diego, California Very close to being in first tier.
8. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
9. Denver, Colorado
10. Portland, Oregon
11. Minneapolis, Minnesota
12. Los Angeles, California(Its not good that Los Angeles has the second biggest population for all American cities but downtown is this far down on this list)
12. Miami, Florida
13. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
14. Honolulu, Hawaii

"Third tier" The downtowns of these cities are ok
15. Houston, Texas
16. Austin, Texas
17. Atlanta, Georgia
18. Dallas, Texas
19. New Orleans, Louisiana
20. Saint Louis, Missouri
21. Charlotte, North Carolina

"Fourth tier" The downtowns of these cities are less than ok but still ok enough to be 22nd-25th

22. Baltimore, Maryland
23. Phoenix,Arizona(Its not good that Phoenix has 3rd-5th highest population out of all American cities and its this far down on the list. Similar to Los Angeles.
24. Las Vegas, Nevada
25. San Antonio, Texas

I only included cities with 300,000 or more people. There are plenty of cities and towns with smaller populations with great downtowns, but its not for this list.

I really think your list is all out of whack. Detroit and Cleveland EASILY beat out a lot of these cities.





And I'm not knocking Washington DC, but we don't really have a skyline. Arlington, VA beats our skyline. Phoenix doesn't even deserve to be on any list lol.
And Atlanta is far too low, they have a great skyline. Heck, Columbus Ohio and Cincinnati beat out the last 5.

http://homepages.ipact.nl/~egram/skylines.html

[bballniket]

The most active central business districts that I've visited were in NY, Chicago, San Francisco, and DC. NY's CBD was leaps and bounds more active than the rest and was active not only on the principle avenues but also on the side streets. There was not a directional favoring to the commercial development as I've noticed in other cities (e.g. lots of retail in western Washington, DC, but little in the eastern portion of the city and lots of retail in the North Loop/River North area of Chicago, but little on the south/west sides).

[killakoolaide]

NY
*
*
*
*
SF
*
Philly
Boston
*
Chicago
DC
LA

After that its hard to distinguish.

[Golden-mind-State]

Originally Posted by killakoolaide

NY
*
*
*
*
SF
*
Philly
Boston
*
Chicago
DC
LA

After that its hard to distinguish.

Pretty much

[JJG]

Just to clear something up.


Do you mean "Downtown" as in skyline or as in the area of the central area of the city?

[ironcouger]

Originally Posted by WeSoHood

I really think your list is all out of whack. Detroit and Cleveland EASILY beat out a lot of these cities.





And I'm not knocking Washington DC, but we don't really have a skyline. Arlington, VA beats our skyline. Phoenix doesn't even deserve to be on any list lol.
And Atlanta is far too low, they have a great skyline. Heck, Columbus Ohio and Cincinnati beat out the last 5.

http://homepages.ipact.nl/~egram/skylines.html

I think the list is going by vibrancy and amenaties downtown is it ballanced. The only city I know is Seattle Ill use it as an example.

Seattle
Housing downtown 60,000 units
office space downtown 40 million square ft
retail downtown 4.3 million square ft
hotels downtown 13,000 rooms
workers downtown 225,000
restaurants and bars downtown 950

Also goes by things to draw people downtown. Like theaters stadiums tourist activities and retail.

Seattle

2 large stadiums
28 theaters in three complexes
flagship Nordstrom
flagship R.E.I
flagship BARNEYS
flagship COLUMBIA Sportswhare
300,000 square ft Macys
two downtown vertical malls
seattle aquarium
Pike Place Market
two cruise ship terminals
Sega Gameworks first entertainment center
a three story Hard Rock Cafe
several live theaters

Large museums

Science fiction hall of fame
Pacific science center
Experiance Music Project
MOHAI
Seattle Art Museum
Wing Luke Museum
Seattle Sculpture Park
Seattle Asian Art Museum
Klondike Gold Rush Museum

clasical music

Benaroya Hall
Seattle Opera House

Seattle Also has its convention center downtown and its main 13 story library. And seven grocery stores downtown most open 24hrs . Downtown encompases 3.2 square miles. This is a incomplete list but you got the idea lets here about your city what make them tick.