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Location: New Albany, Indiana (Greater Louisville)
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Before 2020: maybe once a week mainly for waterfront park or sometimes to eat. Safety was minor consideration to consider.
Since 2020: almost never. Violent crime rate up more than 4X, it's truly a dangerous place to even drive through. I lived about 1 mile from downtown for 5 years in the 2Ks and never dealt with anything worse than car break ins but times have changed. I only live 5 miles from downtown but so far inner ring suburb (with its own vibrant Main Street area) has maintained pre 2020 low crime levels.
Just in the past week, my area's experienced two car break-ins and one attempted home invasion where I live downtown courtesy of the local homeless population. I definitely didn't reckon on this when I bought in the city center eager for a walkable lifestyle, but I will next time!
When I lived in Orlando, daily for work.
At least 2x per week for non-work related.
Love Downtown Orlando.
I now live in the Tampa Bay area... I'd say I'm downtown Tampa maybe once every two months, and it's only to go to hockey games.
Downtown St-Pete is nice, but it's a pain to get there from any direction. So, same, maybe once every two months.
I live on a fringe of Downtown Seattle in Belltown. I hit the Pike Place Market once every week or two. Maybe every 3-4 weeks I go through the main core to get a train, go to a meeting, shop, go to the dentist, etc. It's been more this summer with visitors in town.
The Market, Belltown, the central Waterfront, Lower Queen Anne, Capitol Hill, First Hill, the Denny Triangle, and South Lake Union feel like they're back to normal despite some being full of 1/3-used offices. The office and retail core are far less busy though. At least the tents are gone.
Yeah, I don’t really think of any neighborhoods in DC being downtown. DC’s development intensity operates more like Manhattan than any other city in America at street level. Obviously not the height of buildings or vibrancy, but high-rises versus rowhouses. It’s just really big and sprawling. Whether walking, riding a bike, or driving, it’s just really big. Even taking the train is similar when it comes to how long you’re under downtown development intensity. It doesn’t matter what metro station you get off in those areas, they feel pretty much the same. One huge area.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MDAllstar
All these areas run together in DC now so I don’t think it really matters for DC. Whether you’re in Union Market, NOMA, Navy Yard, Buzzard Point, The Wharf, Penn Quarter, Mt. Vernon Triangle, Foggy Bottom, Dupont Circle, Golden Triangle, Logan Circle, Northwest One, or H Street/Union Station, everything runs together in 2022. It’s all part of the urban core making one really large continuous area.
There are so many definition of "downtown" DC anyway...
You have some calling Penn Quarter/"Chinatown" area downtown (i.e. around Metro Center and Gallery Place station), some extend that further west and encompass basically the whole central K street corridors (i.e. Farragut Square along with McPherson Square area) up to Logan Circle and Dupont Circle area including Golden Triangle. Some of course say NOMA and Union Market further east or Foggy Bottom further west is still "downtown".
The Wharf/Buzzard Point along with Navy Yard is not really downtown, though. AFAIK even Federal Triangle or the area around Federal Center is not really "downtown" - nor is National Mall overall. This is no different than, let say, River North in Chicago or Midtown Manhattan in NYC not being "downtown" (I mean, the term downtown came from NYC...), though, as in most visitors won't care.
If anything, I'm within Baltimore MSA and if I visit let say National Aquarium or Fells Point or Federal Hill, I'm still not in "core downtown"...nor I really have any reason to go into "core downtown" other than maybe Lexington Market.
I live in the far southern reaches of the Los Angeles MSA. The last time I was in downtown Los Angeles was seven or eight years ago when I took my kids to the Japanese American Museum in Little Tokyo with some friends. It's a long way from my house, an ugly drive, and there is really very little reason for us to go there. Sometimes we need to go to LAX but that is not downtown.
There are so many definition of "downtown" DC anyway...
You have some calling Penn Quarter/"Chinatown" area downtown (i.e. around Metro Center and Gallery Place station), some extend that further west and encompass basically the whole central K street corridors (i.e. Farragut Square along with McPherson Square area) up to Logan Circle and Dupont Circle area including Golden Triangle. Some of course say NOMA and Union Market further east or Foggy Bottom further west is still "downtown".
The Wharf/Buzzard Point along with Navy Yard is not really downtown, though. AFAIK even Federal Triangle or the area around Federal Center is not really "downtown" - nor is National Mall overall. This is no different than, let say, River North in Chicago or Midtown Manhattan in NYC not being "downtown" (I mean, the term downtown came from NYC...), though, as in most visitors won't care.
If anything, I'm within Baltimore MSA and if I visit let say National Aquarium or Fells Point or Federal Hill, I'm still not in "core downtown"...nor I really have any reason to go into "core downtown" other than maybe Lexington Market.
IMO anything north of I-395 (The Southeast/Southwest Freeway), west of the Capitol, east of 20th street, and south of Massachusetts Ave. is downtown IMO. Government buildings IMO are a staple of downtown DC, since after all, it's what the media and tourist portrays as the heart of Washington. The Federal Triangle is right in between the White House area, the Mall, and on the side towards the Capitol. That's pretty much peak "downtown DC" right there, along with the next several blocks further north away from the Mall. I just consider downtown DC to have "sub neighborhoods" just like how Center City Philly, Manhattan, and downtown Boston have their own sub-neighborhoods. Metro Center is the traditional business center, Federal Triangle is the main complex of Fed buildings, Fed Center the SW quadrant's echo to NW's Federal Triangle, Penn Quarter-Chinatown is the historic heart of downtown (IMO what Baltimore's corridor around Howard St. should be near its arena), Golden Triangle sort of a "midtown" in that its not the traditional downtown which includes the southern end of the Dupont Circle district, and of course the National Mall with the Smithsonian and monuments, and is the tourist-focused heart of DC. The easternmost three blocks of Foggy Bottom have a lot of historic buildings like the Octagon, DAR, Constitution Hall, the World Bank, IMF, and a few other prominent buildings that serve as a western end to what many would assume to be "Downtown DC". Mt. Vernon Triangle, NoMA, and the emerging Northwest One are being seen as northward extensions, but the Navy Yard is still separated by several blocks of Capitol Hill residential development, so it doesn't really feel like a downtown neighborhood to me.
That said, I currently work just one day a week in Silver Spring, down from 4-5 days pre-pandemic. I often like to take a walk after work, but usually just to another suburb or an outer neighborhood, but occasionally, I walk to the edge of the downtown near Dupont Circle as well as on 15th Street near Mass Ave, but usually only about once every other month, occasionally every month if I stop by my sister's apartment in Mt. Vernon Triangle.
IMO anything north of I-395 (The Southeast/Southwest Freeway), west of the Capitol, east of 20th street, and south of Massachusetts Ave. is downtown IMO. Government buildings IMO are a staple of downtown DC, since after all, it's what the media and tourist portrays as the heart of Washington. The Federal Triangle is right in between the White House area, the Mall, and on the side towards the Capitol. That's pretty much peak "downtown DC" right there, along with the next several blocks further north away from the Mall. I just consider downtown DC to have "sub neighborhoods" just like how Center City Philly, Manhattan, and downtown Boston have their own sub-neighborhoods. Metro Center is the traditional business center, Federal Triangle is the main complex of Fed buildings, Fed Center the SW quadrant's echo to NW's Federal Triangle, Penn Quarter-Chinatown is the historic heart of downtown (IMO what Baltimore's corridor around Howard St. should be near its arena), Golden Triangle sort of a "midtown" in that its not the traditional downtown which includes the southern end of the Dupont Circle district, and of course the National Mall with the Smithsonian and monuments, and is the tourist-focused heart of DC. The easternmost three blocks of Foggy Bottom have a lot of historic buildings like the Octagon, DAR, Constitution Hall, the World Bank, IMF, and a few other prominent buildings that serve as a western end to what many would assume to be "Downtown DC". Mt. Vernon Triangle, NoMA, and the emerging Northwest One are being seen as northward extensions, but the Navy Yard is still separated by several blocks of Capitol Hill residential development, so it doesn't really feel like a downtown neighborhood to me.
That said, I currently work just one day a week in Silver Spring, down from 4-5 days pre-pandemic. I often like to take a walk after work, but usually just to another suburb or an outer neighborhood, but occasionally, I walk to the edge of the downtown near Dupont Circle as well as on 15th Street near Mass Ave, but usually only about once every other month, occasionally every month if I stop by my sister's apartment in Mt. Vernon Triangle.
I guess the only problem of not including the entire Foggy Bottom (i.e. keeping the limit at 20th St) means you left out the few buildings (i.e. Truman Building, and also Kennedy Center) between GWU and Lincoln Memorial. May just as well extend the limit west to Rock Creek/Potomac.
Navy Yard/SW Waterfront/The Wharf is definitely not "downtown", I agree with you on that. 395/695 (or just I-395 once they finish the renumbering) separates that whole area from "downtown" along with Capitol Hill neighborhood.
P.S. DTSS is already a downtown LOL...what other downtown do you need? Downtown Bethesda?
I live in NoMa and my work office is in Golden Triangle (2-3 days in person) so every day, since NoMa could be considered part of core DC.
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