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I like the character that a good creek, stream, or even some canals can bring to the topography of a place; rock creek park was one of my favorite parts of living in DC. Are there any more built up areas that still have a good presence of creeks, small rivers, or other small waterways?
Interesting topic. Sacramento and San Jose, CA come to mind. Jacksonville, FL (co-extensive with Duval County) has lots of creeks and small waterways, as well as larger waterways. Orlando, FL has lots of tiny lakes, but I don't know about creeks. Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN have lots of creeks, small lakes, and other waterways. Milwaukee and Chicago have lots of creeks, though many are paved over.
Metro Detroit has two major rivers; the Rouge River and the Clinton River. A lot of the tributaries are actually well preserved and snake through many subdivision out in the suburbs. The only rivers that seemingly were ever paved over were ones that flowed through Detroit proper, such as Conner Creek and a few others.
They do add a lot to the topography despite most of them being no more than a few feet wide and a hair lengths deep. Here's the Rouge River in the Bloomfield Hills section of the river.
I don't know if the Colorado Front Range has a "lot" of creeks, but what creeks we have tend to flash flood, so the flood plains tend to be undeveloped. Over the years these have become greenways and bike paths throughout the metro area.
We also have many major waterworks/irrigation canals and ditches that were typically built with a maintenance road beside them. Most of these were developed a 100 years ago before much urban development. Many or these creeks and ditches are dry or almost dry most of the year.
Colorado has both a lottery and limited casino gambling, which when they were passed by a vote of the people committed a certain percentage of the gambling taxes to outdoor recreation. So despite a poor economy, money has been available to develop these flood plains and water ditches as recreational trails.
So despite our dry climate, we have a good amount of usable waterways.
Seattle. Thornton Creek was buried underneath a parking lot near a mall. A new apartment/retail center was proposed in the same area. The plan was approved due to the daylighting of the creek. Today, it is indeed visable through this area.
I think if you are talking creeks or vs small rivers Pittsburgh and Cincinnati probably have a few, by virtue of their topography.
I know Louisville has three creeks (or three branches of one creek) running through the eastern part of the city that are still daylighted....Beargrass Creek, as well as a host of other creeks in suburbia...there was one very close to where I lived when I was in jr high/hi school...a free-flowing creek that has since been partially channelized.
Actually this is probably pretty common in places that get a lot of rainfall, I'll bet, and ones places that are fairly rainy. More in suburbia than in the city because city creeks are usually put into storm sewers if they are small enough.
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