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May be splitting hairs. The word "feel" in thread title means that it's open to interpretation based on each poster. There isn't really a right or wrong here even though general consensus may disagree.
Yea sure. To me DC had a lot of people living downtown and there were certainly party areas. But, downtown Nashville feels like a place people commute to or drive to to party on the weekends.
Quote:
Originally Posted by masssachoicetts
It depends how you define Metric.
to me, Nashville>Philly>DC ... but I could totally see any combination.
Can you explain how Nashville is above those two?
Quote:
Originally Posted by JMatl
DC is simply not the place you have elevated it to.
Yes, one day DC could have the vibrancy of Nashville.
Yea sure. To me DC had a lot of people living downtown and there were certainly party areas. But, downtown Nashville feels like a place people commute to or drive to to party on the weekends.
Can you explain how Nashville is above those two?
Yes, one day DC could have the vibrancy of Nashville.
Nashville has like 5 linear blocks of vibrancy on two streets
It’s really insane to put it above even Pittsburgh.
If you are measuring at a 10pm on a Friday or 2am on Saturday, it would look wayyy different than a 2pm on a Monday. Frankly, I dont even go into cities until Fridays or Saturday nights, so vibrant has a much different definition to me. Also, vibrant means fun and full of energy and enthusiasm. I wouldn't call DC on a 2pm exactly 'fun'. I think we are misinterpreting urban vs vibrant here.
Lower Manhattan on a Tuesday afternoon is bustling. Is it vibrant? Absolutely not. Its urban, busy and full of 9-5 sheep. But what is so enthusiastic or fun about that? Downtown Boston too.. thats not vibrant..
I think I get your argument now. Yes, I mean I guess a place like Austin would be more vibrant than NYC or DC as well as it gets packed on the weekends. You're a young guy, so I'm guessing kind of a partier? So different perspective for me. Vibrant to me, is more of the east coast density and walkability. I guess that's actually bustling.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MDAllstar
Is this a joke? Nashville? Have any of these people been to downtown DC at 12 noon on a Tuesday or Thursday etc.? Very few cities come close to downtown DC. There are over 300,000 people who work in downtown DC. This has to be a joke.
It's kind of amazing how much some cities get the benefit while others consistently get knocked down a peg or three. This is sunbelt-data.com
Nashville has like 5 linear blocks of vibrancy on two streets
It’s really insane to put it above even Pittsburgh.
Yep. This was literally the second post in this thread:
Tier 1
New York City
Chicago
San Francisco (I dont know where downtown ends, but it feels this way...)
Miami
Nashville
Nothing against Nashville, but more vibrant than Philly, Boston, Seattle, Dallas, Denver, Houston, DC, Atlanta? Are you sure? Boston to me feels almost too busy on a Wednesday afternoon. If we're talkign party destinations where everyone heads to downtown, yeah, Austin and Nashville do well.
Yep. This was literally the second post in this thread:
Tier 1
New York City
Chicago
San Francisco (I dont know where downtown ends, but it feels this way...)
Miami
Nashville
Nothing against Nashville, but more vibrant than Philly, Boston, Seattle, Dallas, Denver, Houston, DC, Atlanta? Are you sure? Boston to me feels almost too busy on a Wednesday afternoon. If we're talkign party destinations where everyone heads to downtown, yeah, Austin and Nashville do well.
Ok, I was rolling. I don't have any data to back it up, but you can certainly live an urban life. I guess we need a definition of vibrancy vs bustling I guess? To me, the east coast cities, along with a few west coast ones are both, but obviously some prefer the sunbelt cities.
DC is simply not the place you have elevated it to.
Nashville is not the place that some of this forum have elevated it to. Seems we are measuring vibrancy now by bars and the amount of drunk activity. And that's just a few streets of high activity neighborhoods versus miles of vibrant neighborhoods in DC. I agree Nashville and Austin have more CONCENTRATED nightlife in a smaller area than D.C does if that's what we are defining as vibrant.
We can debate Nashville and Dallas, Dallas is well known to have a reputation of a less than stellar less vibrant downtown area, so maybe Nashville is more vibrant than it, but I don't think Nashville should be ahead of places like DC or Philly which are bustling and busy during most of the day. Their downtowns may not be as concentrated on clubbing and partying as Nashville's is, but they are also much larger so that shouldn't be the singular focus.
How American cities and culture really use the downtown area as a work place and after 5pm it dies out.
We’re curious… what US cities besides NYC / Chicago have a downtown core that is still lively where everyone still goes out to eat, clubs, etc…
For example, in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver
Everything happens downtown.
In LA, nobody wants to go there.
So different and strange to us.
I'm not sure I understand why it's important for the core of a city to have vibrancy at night. Even in Chicago, it can get quite quiet in the loop. Ditto much of downtown Toronto (where the nightlife in general falls quite short of many American cities). As for Vancouver, I'd challenge the idea that it ever reaches a real level of vibrancy compared to Toronto or it's American counterparts. Montreal is vibrant day and night, no doubt.
But most American cities, traditionally, have a separation of church and state.. Financial districts and business hubs have a lot of lunch and takeout options, some bars for the work spillover, and maybe some grandiose options like like clubs or venues or high end steakhouses etc. And they're often home to the upscale shopping districts.
The real nighttime/weekend vibrancy that your post alludes to is in the neighborhoods where a majority of people live. Cores have daytime vibrancy on weekends, especially in cities where high end dining/shopping is nearby.
As an example, on the weekends/nighttime, Wells St. in Old Town is infinitely more busy than anything downtown Chicago proper minus maybe Hubbard St. Ditto Randolph in the West Loop, or the crossroads of Wicker Park.
But back to the original question at hand- I'd say only DT San Francisco and Center City Philadelphia really fit this description outside of DT Chicago and Manhattan. Most any other American city I can think of, including some of the buzziest like DC, Boston, Seattle, are uniformly neighborhoodcentric when it comes to nighttime vibrancy and things to do in off hours.
EDIT: For those that want to call Nashville a vibrant city, because it has a substantial 2x2 bar district, that is questionable at best. But to call Nashville more vibrant, day or night, than cities like Philadelphia? That's criminal. Nobody, and I mean not a single person who has spent time in Philly or DC, would call Nashville more vibrant.
Location: That star on your map in the middle of the East Coast, DMV
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mwj119
I'm not sure I understand why it's important for the core of a city to have vibrancy at night. Even in Chicago, it can get quite quiet in the loop. Ditto much of downtown Toronto (where the nightlife in general falls quite short of many American cities). As for Vancouver, I'd challenge the idea that it ever reaches a real level of vibrancy compared to Toronto or it's American counterparts. Montreal is vibrant day and night, no doubt.
But most American cities, traditionally, have a separation of church and state.. Financial districts and business hubs have a lot of lunch and takeout options, some bars for the work spillover, and maybe some grandiose options like like clubs or venues or high end steakhouses etc. And they're often home to the upscale shopping districts.
The real nighttime/weekend vibrancy that your post alludes to is in the neighborhoods where a majority of people live. Cores have daytime vibrancy on weekends, especially in cities where high end dining/shopping is nearby.
As an example, on the weekends/nighttime, Wells St. in Old Town is infinitely more busy than anything downtown Chicago proper minus maybe Hubbard St. Ditto Randolph in the West Loop, or the crossroads of Wicker Park.
But back to the original question at hand- I'd say only DT San Francisco and Center City Philadelphia really fit this description outside of DT Chicago and Manhattan. Most any other American city I can think of, including some of the buzziest like DC, Boston, Seattle, are uniformly neighborhoodcentric when it comes to nighttime vibrancy and things to do in off hours.
EDIT: For those that want to call Nashville a vibrant city, because it has a substantial 2x2 bar district, that is questionable at best. But to call Nashville more vibrant, day or night, than cities like Philadelphia? That's criminal. Nobody, and I mean not a single person who has spent time in Philly or DC, would call Nashville more vibrant.
Totally.
Nashville has activity around it's downtown, good for comparing to much of the Southern/ Sunbelt cities. But to call it a "vibrant" downtown day or night by comparison coming from a city bigger than it with more contiguity is a huge stretch...I've seen Tampa mentioned here and Orlando, give me a break people. All of these cities are making strides in adding bars/ vibrancy overall, but there's levels to this. I'd argue that downtown Baltimore has as much downtown "vibrancy" as any of those cities aforementioned cities, let alone Philly, DC, Seattle etc.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gaylord_Focker
It's kind of amazing how much some cities get the benefit while others consistently get knocked down a peg or three. This is sunbelt-data.com
Haha, exactly!
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