Build Your Favorite Downtown (best, Atlanta, Los Angeles, life)

[MantaRay]

Using US cities' downtowns, how would you build YOUR favorite downtown using one of each in these categories:

1)Waterfront
2)Street
3)Topography
4)Backdrop
5)Foot Traffic
6)Weather
7)Wildcard-Choose Your Category

For example, my favorite downtown would take Chicago's downtown waterfront, Denver's downtown 16th Street (Mall), Nashville's hilly downtown topography, Colorado Spring's downtown backdrop, Miami Beach's foot traffic, San Diego's weather, and my wildcard is music scene and I pick Austin's music scene. That would build my favorite downtown. How about yours?

[DC's Finest]

I'll bite!

Waterfront: Chicago (One of the best in the world hands down)
Street: Manhattan Street Grid (Easiest grid to navigate)
Topography: SF (The Hills)
Backdrop: LA (Mountains behind DT)
Foot Traffic: NYC ( No other city can match it)
Weather: DC (It get's really cold in Jan/Feb with not much snow and really hot in July/August. The rest of the year is pure fall & spring.
Wildcard: DC's National Mall. (A two mile park filled with museums, festivals, protest, iconic monuments and 25 million tourist year round)

[nature's message]

Waterfront: Chicago (Agree with others as having one of the best waterfronts in the world)
Street: New York City
Topography: Atlanta (rolling hills and lots of vegetation)
Backdrop: Vancouver
Foot Traffic: Tokyo
Weather: hybrid of Seattle and Toronto
Wildcard: Hybrid of all architectures, from old to new.

[bradly]

Waterfront - Chicago
Street - New York
Topography - San Fransico
Backdrop - Albuquerque/Denver
Foot Traffic - Santa Fe
Weather - Albuquerque
Wildcard - Albuquerque/Santa Fe spanish cultures

[MantaRay]

For the "street" category, please try to include what street it is that you would put into your downtown. The idea is one street that is so lively or has so much of X or Y that you like that you'd HAVE to include that street in your downtown. (Not as much how the streets are laid out, as most downtowns have grid layouts or grids with diagonals)

Really interesting answers so far!

[sav858]

1)Waterfront - Honolulu/Waikiki
2)Street - St Charles Ave except with more density and height along it. I like how its narrow, has a streetcar running in the middle, and lots of trees.
3)Topography - San Diego (I like all the canyons, mesa's, and water)
4)Backdrop - Los Angeles
5)Foot Traffic - SF
6)Weather - San Diego (I prefer Honolulu's climate overall but for an urban setting/concrete jungle like it milder)
7)Wildcard- LA or NYC's ethnic neighborhoods

[StampedeCity]

Weather: Seattle
Downtown: Omaha
Traffic: Miami
Nightlife: Des Moines
Sports: Jacksonville
Gas Prices: Buffalo

[grapico]

can you just move paris to san diego?

[LittleMathYou]

Cool thread.

1)Waterfront - Minneapolis (Mississippi River)
2)Street -Lombard Street (San Francisco)
3)Topography - Minneapolis (Lakes and Parks)
4)Backdrop - NYC (High-rises virtually everywhere you look)
5)Foot Traffic - Chicago ( A lot, but not as much as NYC)
6)Weather - Minneapolis (Hot summers, cold Winters)
7) Accent - Minnesotan + New York (You knoooow, how ya doing?)

[backdrifter]

Waterfront - Portland (specifically the Waterfront Park green strip that attracts all sorts of people to hang out or use it to cycle, run, rally for liberal politicians, protest things, have Pride festivals, etc.)
Street - Bourbon Street in New Orleans (easy-going, lively and fun... maybe a little crazy sometimes)
Topography - Seattle (very hilly)
Backdrop - Seattle (Olympic Mountains, Mount Rainier, TREES everywhere, Maritime feel with the islands, peninsulas, and Salish Sea)
Foot Traffic - New York City or San Francisco
Weather - San Francisco (mild and comfortable most of the year [if chilly sometimes], low humidity, some foggy mornings)
Wildcard - Vancouver's dense and modern, glassy and elegant, high-rise architecture.