Best shopping cities in America - "mall cities" vs "street cities" (apartments, hotels)

[sleekphone]

I wanted to create a thread asking for your guys' opinions on which American cities have decent shopping streets, and which ones function more around shopping malls.

The way I see it, the most mall-oriented sections of the country are towards the southwestern region, largely due to climate.

Which cities have at least one good shopping street? What cities have decent luxury retail? What is the extent of cities that offer luxury retail in the US?

What main streets are a surprise? What suburban shopping streets are the best? What small town shopping streets are the best? Etc...

I'd say California appears to have quite a large array of cities and towns with well-cultivated shopping streets.

Of these cities, which has the best shopping, and what is the nature of it? I'd say the ones I know of:

New York City and surrounds (Connecticut, Long Island, New Jersey, ie) - clearly more street-oriented shopping
Los Angeles and surrounds - street-oriented
Chicago and suburbs - street-oriented
Houston/Dallas/Austin - while Austin and Dallas came across as mixed to me, Houston is definitely more mall-oriented
Philadelphia/Pittsburgh - street-oriented
Phoenix/Scottsdale/Tucson - mall-oriented
San Antonio - mixed
San Jose - street-oriented
Oakland - not sure
Washington, D.C. and surrounds - street-oriented
Seattle - street-oriented
Charleston - street-oriented
Savannah - street-oriented
San Francisco and surrounds - street-oriented
Boston and surrounds (Cambridge, for example) - street-oriented
New Orleans - street-oriented
Baltimore - not sure - probably has the most seriously decayed shopping street, for it's size, in America, but also has decent street-shopping in Fells Point and, I've heard, elsewhere
Raleigh/Asheville/Charlotte/Winston-Salem/Wilmington/Carrboro - mixed. Asheville, parts of Raleigh, and Winston-Salem and Carrboro have decent street shopping, but I've heard Charlotte is mostly malls
Detroit - surprisingly, I've heard Woodward Avenue is a decent shopping street
Columbus/Cincinnati/Cleveland - these seem kind of mixed, but in the case of Cleveland, it's because it has a cool old arcade.
Nashville - though it has malls, the street-level shopping in Nashville seems robust
Atlanta - mixed - I know people love to tout Atlanta's vibrancy, but it still seems like much of it's shopping leans more mall-oriented to me - is this true?
St. Louis - mixed, it's shopping streets don't seem to be as robust as the walkable Country Club Plaza area of KC, I could be wrong though.
Kansas City - If you count Country Club Plaza as street-oriented, street-oriented
Denver - relatively street-oriented
Salt Lake City - not sure
Honolulu - street-oriented
Portland - street-oriented
Santa Fe - street-oriented
San Diego - street-oriented
Milwaukee - hard to say - seems kind of street-oriented more than mixed or mall-oriented, though

There are probably more you could add to the list - ski towns, college towns, etc...

[KodeBlue]

Baltimore is a mixed bag. It has kinda okay shopping in Harbor East, but it has indoor/mall style shopping at Harbor Place and The Gallery which are both on/near the water. Baltimore also has one of the largest malls in the country about 10 minutes away from Downtown. Shopping in the city is getting better. There are new shopping centers popping up around town.

Overall, Baltimore is Below average

[ccm123]

Las Vegas - on the Strip and shops/malls in the hotels (Caesar’s and The Venetian)

Dallas - Galleria Dallas, Northpark, Shops at Park Lane

Orange County, CA - South Coast Plaza, Fashion Island

San Francisco - both street and mall oriented (Westfield SF Centre and Stonestown)

[btownboss4]

Is Boston street oriented? Copley Place, Prudential Center, Cambridgeside Galleria lots of big malls in the city center

[KodeBlue]

Originally Posted by btownboss4

Is Boston street oriented? Copley Place, Prudential Center, Cambridgeside Galleria lots of big malls in the city center

Newbury and Boylson Streets don't count?

[berger12345]

Salt Lake is a mall city...
city creek center, downtown
Gateway mall, 6 blocks west really close to downtown
Trolley Square, mall about 1 mile east of downtown.
The city of 200,000 has three malls within a couple of miles.

[indigorunner]

Disagree highly with Seattle being a street shopping city, most of the "serious shopping" (besides mostly small, expensive stores located in certain areas of downtown) is found in Bellevue or in malls surrounding the city proper. Seattle's urbanism is highly overrated in my opinion, and I might catch some flack for that, but I find most of the downtown of the city to be rather devoid of street level shopping, and low amount of pedestrians considering the metro population. Obviously this is changing fast with the development of apartments in the city's core but I have found Portland and Vancouver to both be more "lively" than Seattle.

[elchevere]

Miami is both—malls include Aventura, Bal Harbour, Dadeland, Dolphin, Sawgrass, Shops at Merrick Park etc....street level includes Miracle Mile, Design District (I don’t consider this a mall—more like Rodeo Drive), Lincoln Road Mall (again, open air/outdoors and street / walk path accessible) and Worth Avenue in Palm Beach.

[masssachoicetts]

New Jersey- Extremely mall-oriented.

[BigCity76]

New York metro is overwhelmingly both. NYC is obviously the king of street oriented shopping and then you have all the pretty main street towns in the suburban enclaves in NJ, LI, Hudson Valley and Fairfield. Then there's all the malls in retail havens like Paramus. The metro area spans the entire gamut.