10 Up and Coming Downtowns -MSN/FORBES

[westboundrambler]

Well I guess when you can't go down any more there's only one direction to go, and that is up.

[atler8]

belleisle
FYI: I have a couple of points I'd like to make regarding your comment about downtown Atlanta as compared to Detroit & it's buildings.
Yes, Detoit has some lovely, old vintage towers of considerable size that were erected during the heyday of the 1920's era downtown boom there. I've admired pix of them online for a long time & they are stunning!
In Atlanta's case, don't sell short what is left of it's old business district just because photos of downtown Atlanta typically focus only on the taller & newer buildings. Sadly many gorgeous & substantial Atlanta buildings from that vintage era are lost forever but the city has a nice inventory of structures downtown that are welcome foils to the newer, more bland buildings.
You should bear in mind that, while Deroit boomed into major city status in the 1910's & 20's, Atlanta was still a tiny city by comparison. Nevertheless it developed a small skyline that included some beauties that are still standing such as the Rhodes-Haverty Building, the Hurt Building, the Candler Building & the Ponce Apartments. All four of those buildings have undergone restorations that have returned them to their original glory.
Also, there is an area downtown called Fairlie-Poplar that is full of smaller pre-1920's era buildings that is a walker's dream. One stand out there is the Grant Building. A nearby tower built by C&S Bank now functions as part of the Georgia State University campus & is still an eyestopping treasure.
I wolud be remiss if I failed to also mention the lovingly restored & cherished Fox Theater, perhaps the gem of Atlanta's 1920's construction output.
As for your comment about the lack of old buildings in Charlotte & Raleigh, you may be correct. My visits to Charlotte have found very little left in the way of substantial & old buildings. On a Charlotte thread here at city-data, I have seen posters there note the difference between that city with the number of old buildings still preserved in downtown Atlanta.
But I would also caution that both of those 2 North Carolina cities were tiny even as compared to the size of Atlanta during the vintage era of construction & thus their original inventory of notable buildings would have bene quite small to begin with.

[belleislerunner]

I think part of it is where someone orignally comes from. There's a Fox Theatre restored in Detroit - so I think of the Atlanta version on Peachtree as the Detroit of the South version =) - but yes there are many stunning architectural buildings in Atlanta as well - I was only focusing on the height aspect (i.e. skyscrapers). The skyscrapers of Southfield and Troy would remind me of as exciting as Midtown and Buckhead - and I still think Somerset is way cooler than Lenox/Phipps -but to each their own.

[detroit's own]

Originally Posted by ColdAilment

Revitalizing downtown is a step a lot of cities are taking now. But Detroit's problems are deeper than that. One of the greatest problems in the city aside from the crime, is the city's treasury. They can't afford basic police/fire/ambulance services to the people within the city limits.

I have never heard of a private ambulance service before reading an article on Detroit. Apparently people in Detroit will call on a private ambulance to bring them to the hospital because the ones from the hospital are too slow or sometimes won't come out to their area of the city! That's ridiculous!

The city is too large in square miles to support the infrastructure. Detroit needs to shrink, not just popultaion wise, the city limits need to contract so the city can better pay its expenses. The city will likely continue to bleed from its population for at least another decade before it will begin to make a strong and full fledged recovery. One can only hope though, we've been hearing sparks of recovery like this for decades now.

Detroit has a lot of potential, but it also has a long ways to go. This story is promising however, I hope for the best.

we all know this

[atler8]

elle
Thanks for your reply.
As I said earlier, Detroit has some really cool, old skyscrapers that are "stunning". I'd love ot do a walking tour of your downtown area someday.
In height the old ones far surpass the height of the old Atlanta towers of the same era so you are correct in that fact.
My intent here was just to let you know, in case you weren't aware of it, that Atlanta does have a nice suply of old, cool buildings downtown, enough so that it is not a drab & completely new place devoid of character. Sounds as though we are on the same page with that fact.
I'm running out of timeso I'll have ot look up the comparative Fox Theater stats & pix between our cities later. I do know that our Fox seating capacity is 4,000 & pretty darned monstrous...and gorgeously restored.