How often do you go to the core downtown of your MSA?
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Downtown Atlanta - I would say just short of... never. It actually bothers me to admit since I’ve always been a city person, but the core of this city is just unappealing. When I first came down pre-pandemic I spent a lot of time exploring Atlanta on foot, riding MARTA, just getting to know the area. Downtown was pretty much the least impressive of any urban neighborhood. Outside of a few touristy pockets near Coca-Cola, Centennial Olympic Park and the aquarium, the downtown area is a great example of urban blight. Vacant storefronts, check cashing places, camps of homeless, panhandlers everywhere. Safety feels iffy too. Very 9-5. Empty after dark. It’s sad because Atlanta definitely has the means to support a healthy downtown, but it has been abandoned, left for dead in favor of propping up Midtown and Buckhead.
I live in St. Louis Country (small close in suburb) of St. Louis City. I go into the core downtown area of St. Louis at least twice a month.
I love our world class zoo and visit about six times a year (I can leave my house, park, and be there in about a half hour). I go to our Science Center for most of the traveling exhibitions that come to town. Their is a new exhibition called becoming Jane about Jane Goodall that is super interactive and has gotten great reviews that I'm planning to go see on Sunday (just a 1/2 hour drive to get there for me). I like traveling Broadway style shows and concerts that come to to city. I just got tickets for the traveling show of Les Miserable. It's a favorite of DH and me. We go to some special events with the St. Louis symphony too. We're going to watch the movie Jurassic Park at the Powel Hall where the Symphony plays next month with the Symphony playing to score live at their downtown concert hall, Powell Hall. We'll also go to the Symphony Christmas concert. I went to an RV show earlier in the year at the convention center, had brunch with alumni and the president of my Alma Mater in March when the school (six hours away) was in town for a basketball tournament. I've been in the city to visit the botanical gardens twice this year too and just last month went downtown for a Greek festival just because I was in the mood to eat a really good euro.
There are great parks, theatre, and events in the county too that I love. But I do get downtown for fun and recreation a lot. My son who lives in the county 20 minutes away from me works at the Gateway Arch, so commutes to the core downtown for work. I worked downtown for several year too, but for most of my career have worked in the county. Now I am full time WFH.
I love being in a metro area of one million or more due to all the great cultural activities and definitely enjoy taking advantage of those.
I get to Midtown maybe on average once every two weeks? It's not evenly distributed though. I go there randomly for work like client meetings, more often to go eat or go out, occasionally for events or going to a museum, and sometimes to take trains whether Penn Station or Grand Central.
I live right in the heart of downtown Lynchburg, VA so everyday lol. I probably drive once a week if that. In fact my condo lies on a downtown pedestrian zone and does not have parking on-site (except for bike racks). Construction like that was made possible when the city revised its zoning code to eliminate parking minimums in the CBD in 2014. When I want to get away for a day I take the train to Charlottesville or Roanoke which is a mile away to the train station from where I live and really convenient/affordable. Otherwise I am pretty content staying in the downtown area and riding my bike around on the extend mulit-use trail network.
That sounds pretty awesome. What would you recommend for someone coming by train (maybe with a folding bike) to Lynchburg for a long weekend?
I live in Seattle and go into the urban core close to weekly. “Downtown Seattle” is a small portion of the larger urban center in Seattle. But we often take our kids to Pike Place Market, the aquarium, SLU park with the wooden boats and Seattle Center stuff like the Science Center, concerts, ballet, food festivals and IMAX. Once the waterfront renovations are complete, it will be even better. If you know the places to avoid, Seattle has a very vibrant urban core with a lot to do for a city of its size.
I think I went maybe half a dozen times in the past couple of years?
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