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A shot from a drone from Sandy Springs to Downtown:
But all those cities you mentioned are next to the ocean. Other Sunbelt cities like Phoenix, Dallas, and Atlanta are landlocked.
The Atlanta skyline is getting more and more dense, slowly, and looking very nice from afar. I think it has one of the most striking and beautiful skylines from the Perimeter Mall area to downtown.
It looks like a super bustling, vibrant and crowded city from a distance. However, on street level, it is a much different situation in many areas. There are many "dead" zones where you may see 1 or 2 people pass in an hour, many skyscrapers surrounded by large surface parking lots or garages, street level activity sparse, and almost every single portion of Atlanta favoring the car, with the exception of some small pockets in midtown Atlanta.
That's a major factor with why so many sunbelt cities (and other cities too) have such quiet and low vibrant downtowns/city centers. Because Americans love the car so much, they would rather see a super highway cutting through a downtown than a pedestrian sidewalk or bikepath.
Folks drive to downtown for work, then get the heck out of there as fast as possible at 5pm, to go "live" in the suburbs. That's the reality of most American city downtowns.
The Atlanta skyline is getting more and more dense, slowly, and looking very nice from afar. I think it has one of the most striking and beautiful skylines from the Perimeter Mall area to downtown.
It looks like a super bustling, vibrant and crowded city from a distance. However, on street level, it is a much different situation in many areas. There are many "dead" zones where you may see 1 or 2 people pass in an hour, many skyscrapers surrounded by large surface parking lots or garages, street level activity sparse, and almost every single portion of Atlanta favoring the car, with the exception of some small pockets in midtown Atlanta.
That's a major factor with why so many sunbelt cities (and other cities too) have such quiet and low vibrant downtowns/city centers. Because Americans love the car so much, they would rather see a super highway cutting through a downtown than a pedestrian sidewalk or bikepath.
Folks drive to downtown for work, then get the heck out of there as fast as possible at 5pm, to go "live" in the suburbs. That's the reality of most American city downtowns.
WALKABLE CITY: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time by Jeff Speck.
Great book and reiterates your statements but with so much more eye opening detail.
WALKABLE CITY: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time by Jeff Speck.
Great book and reiterates your statements but with so much more eye opening detail.
Love it--I'll definitely check that out.
It's just so incredibly eye opening when you visit a vibrant, dense, truly "happening" downtown in other countries (namely European countries), where the car is a secondary mode of transport.
Here in New York, that is mostly the case. Thus, one of the big reasons NYC is so vibrant and bustling almost all the time: folks live, learn, work, worship, dine/drink, entertain, mingle with family and friends and simply walk around or take the train most everywhere. And don't need a car at all.
The meatpacking district in Manhattan just eliminated cars from its main neighorhood thoroughfares. There's a huge push for Times Square to do the same. I love it, it creates such additional street level vibrancy and activity.
[Atlanta] looks like a super bustling, vibrant and crowded city from a distance. However, on street level, it is a much different situation in many areas. There are many "dead" zones where you may see 1 or 2 people pass in an hour, many skyscrapers surrounded by large surface parking lots or garages, street level activity sparse, and almost every single portion of Atlanta favoring the car, with the exception of some small pockets in midtown Atlanta.
That's a major factor with why so many sunbelt cities (and other cities too) have such quiet and low vibrant downtowns/city centers.
Like this street scene in downtown Nashville. How do such monstrosities get approved? Where are the urban designers, the design review committee, the planning board?
And Nashville is a popular, growing city. Here on Asylum Street in downtown Hartford (one of the many declining cities), owners have demolished the 4 and 5 story commercial buildings that once lined the street and replaced them with surface parking on the right and a parking garage on the left. At least the garage has ground floor retail spaces. Compare with Temple Place in Boston (in the before-times), street of similar length and scale, with all its human-scaled buildings intact; nothing torn down for parking lots, garages, or huge buildings without doors or windows at street level.
Last edited by missionhill; 08-27-2021 at 08:02 AM..
Like this street scene in downtown Nashville. How do such monstrosities get approved? Where are the urban designers, the design review committee, the planning board?
And Nashville is a popular, growing city. Here on Asylum Street in downtown Hartford (one of the many declining cities), owners have demolished the 4 and 5 story commercial buildings that once lined the street and replaced them with surface parking on the right and a parking garage on the left. At least the garage has ground floor retail spaces. Compare with Temple Place in Boston (in the before-times), street of similar length and scale, with all its human-scaled buildings intact; nothing torn down for parking lots, garages, or huge buildings without doors or windows at street level.
Yeah, unfortunately every city has those buildings and it completely erases street level activity, and discourages anyone from wanting to even walk down streets those huge buildings sit on.
I think it just boils down to money, and developers being able to make that happen because of the money and influence they have.
A good case study for this is back in the late 50s/early 60s, when famed NYC developer powerhouse Robert Moses pushed hard to build a highway across lower Manhattan, almost completely destroying Soho and parts of the West Village in the process. Community activist Jane Jacobs led the charge and got the community involved, and they were able to defeat this awful proposal, thankfully.
Had this highway been built, Manhattan would have lost a wealth of character and urban fabric and vibrant neighborhoods.
Anyway, so many downtowns just suffer today from vibrant districts from the past (40s/50s/60s) being destroyed and replaced by parking lots and huge mostly empty towers. Add in folks not wanting to live downtown, lack of retail and lack of "safe perception," and still in 2021 people prefer suburban living with probably 90% of American cities.
Money probably helps in some cities but it doesn't in others. The review boards, public agencies, and electeds take pains to be just as hard on them....billionnaires, beneficial institutions, and so on.
In Seattle's case, some examples come to mind.
Our top hotel developer wanted to build a 1,700-room convention hotel. The block had a funny L-shaped alley that he wanted to take over. He offered to build 150 affordable housing units over the event wing as a trade. Mind you the project would also contribute millions in fees due to height etc. (And of course we don't subsidize projects like this.) But the City dug in, asking for much more. So we got a 1,240-room hotel on the outer L shape, and will get another hotel on the smaller remainder...essentially the same program but no 150 extra affordable units.
Billionnaire Paul Allen wanted to develop some blocks along South Lake Union as offices and housing. The code said 160' heights but he wanted 240'. So he offered to contribute a city block that could be used for affordable housing. But this was turned down, because of the horrors of such beasts (taller buildings) near water. Two of the three blocks got built at 160' (mostly for Google offices) and we're waiting on the third.
A local billionnaire wanted to renovate our former Federal Reserve branch with a tower above a renovation, right in the Financial District. This is perhaps our most storied developer, the guy that built our tallest building 40 years ago and many since. The challenge was the Landmarks Board. The developer had ideas in the 40-story range. The board turned him down and allowed seven stories, all due to how much the massing respected the original building. This recently completed.
Amazon might be the most notable story. With dozens of new office buildings in and around Downtown Seattle and Downtown Bellevue, every one has gone to the existing height and floor-area limits and not one foot more. They haven't even tried to get more. Actually this is the same for essentially every building in Seattle.
It looks like a super bustling, vibrant and crowded city from a distance. However, on street level, it is a much different situation in many areas. There are many "dead" zones where you may see 1 or 2 people pass in an hour, many skyscrapers surrounded by large surface parking lots or garages, street level activity sparse, and almost every single portion of Atlanta favoring the car, with the exception of some small pockets in midtown Atlanta.
I remember driving in to Atlanta from Six Flags. The city skyline is so impressive. When I got off the freeway it was like being in an abandoned city. I cant wait to visit again and see some of the progress that has been made.
Having college students back in cities will certainly help with downtown vibrancy. Philly's close-in universities and colleges have the students back on campus (Penn and Temple for examples).
Now, when the office workers return to office, now postponed until sometime in 2022, things should return to, hopefully, pre-Wuhan Virus vibrancy.
I remember driving in to Atlanta from Six Flags. The city skyline is so impressive. When I got off the freeway it was like being in an abandoned city. I cant wait to visit again and see some of the progress that has been made.
Yeah, it is super impressive for its length--and it is super dynamic and awe-inspiring from many angles. I do love how it has grown.
Atlanta neighborhoods in the city are improving, and have been greatly, since the early 2000s. The west side in many areas, is unrecognizable from even 5 years ago. Some of those areas have been transformed from a seedy, mostly sparse warehouse, fast food, check cashing centers area to a live/work/play destination for young professionals. Mid rise condos and apartments with luxury amenities popping up everywhere.
Also, the west side has Microsoft coming in soon too, so that entire area of Atlanta will be transformed from under usage/borderline sketchy, to bustling corporate campus and all the commercial amenities that comes with that, over the next decade.
But, back to vibrancy and energy on the streets. Atlanta has pockets in midtown like that, and maybe Buckhead too in a few spots, but all in all, Atlanta is very spread out, very much favoring the car, and not loaded with vibrant, dense districts like a lot of northeast cities might be.
Last edited by jjbradleynyc; 08-31-2021 at 02:55 PM..
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