Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Remote work has killed downtowns more than anything. Anyone with a business oriented towards the office crowd has taken a huge hit. Foot traffic from M-F workers is way down.
Wife and I no longer have any desire to visit any downtown area in the larger cities. Even some of the smaller ones have a vibe that just turns us off. We visited a few couple ago the area of Lancaster, PA. The countryside and visiting the Amish communities were nice and we enjoyed that. I love getting pics of older historical buildings such as churches and so on so we did an excursion into downtown. Found a spot to park only because of my Disabled placard and we set out for a short walk. Within 30 minutes I told my wife "let's get out of here." Having had spent 10 years in law enforcement before moving to a different field I still noticed the people eyeing us or our vehicle or who appeared to just be up to no good. My wife isn't quite as observant and she knows this and even she said she agreed. The downtown area was just an unpleasant place and the entire population of Lancaster is only around 60K. Nowhere in the size of something like San Fran yet it was not a place we would come back to.
Suburbia has a covid bump, but it's still dying. Suburbia is nothing without cars and cheap energy. Big cities may briefly gain as suburbs depopulate, then lose population to smaller communities and farms. Locally available food and water will determine the locations and limit the sizes of communities. Downtown mixed use land, with ground floor businesses and apartments above is a proven solution in many nations over centuries.
Cannot say what it is like where you are from but it is exact opposite on Long Island and I suspect other New York area suburbs. Suburbs are not dying. If anything it is the city that is dying, people are leaving and flocking to the suburbs.
Prior to the 'Summer Of Love' I would likely visit downtown Cleveland a dozen times a year. Browns games, Indians games and concerts. The last time I was in Cleveland was in February 2020 at the Agora for a concert. I have NO intention of ever returning. There is no safety or enjoyment to be found in a Democrat stronghold.
That's weird...I have gone down several evenings this summer and had a great time...the restaurants in the Flats East Bank have been fairly packed...I've gone to a few Guardians games...went to a show in Playhouse Square and before hand had some beers at Hofbrau Haus...did a kayaking trip on the Cuyahoga River downtown...went to Pride back in June.
I've never felt unsafe in downtown Cleveland or any other major downtown when I've visited.
Big American cities with vibrant CBDs have always fascinated me. As a younger person, I wanted to live a short walk from skyscrapers. Since I started having children of my own, I have been more partial to "streetcar suburbs." You get all the amenities of a big city plus more enjoyable outdoor activities/parks and easier-to-navigate school options. Anytime I contemplate moving to a big city, I always first consider the nicer inner-ring suburbs. Cleveland=Shaker Heights/Rocky River, St. Louis=Webster Groves/University City, Chicago= Oak Park/Evanston, Portland=Beaverton/Lake Oswego, Boston=Brookline/Newton, Milwaukee=Whitefish Bay, etc etc.
I hope the CBDs rebound, but I guess I am a dyed in the wool suburbanite. Where I live in KC isn't even inner-ring. I can't really think of anything like Clayton in St. Louis or Rocky River in Cleveland, here in the KC area.
I live in Shaker Hts and it's the most enjoyable place I've ever lived...agreed, when I was younger I too was fascinated by high rises and big downtowns.
Wasn't Columbus Ohio declared dead years ago --so a big comeback means they might be at 10% of where they were at their best....right?
This 'came back' 115% means nothing if you don't know how far they fell....lol.
Columbus has never been a dead or even dying city...it's been one of the fastest growing cities in the midwest for some time now.
In all 3 of the big cities of Ohio, Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati, downtown activity maybe down from precovid but all actually have several big projects going on...this narrative of downtowns dying is totally false.
I’ve mentioned this in several posts. Downtowns, which were once the heart of big city life, have not returned to pre-pandemic levels. The biggest reason is that hybrid/remote work are here to stay. That results in an abundance of vacant office buildings downtown. It has a trickle down effect because all the little mom and pop stores, restaurants, and shops that survived for decades on the large daytime work crowds pre-2020, no longer have the same daytime business they once had. Many have been forced to shutdown. They were the heart and soul of downtowns. Downtowns, city life, and life in general will never be the same again.
Rural areas are shrinking too. I frequent cities, inner ring suburbs and rural areas. Many cities are rapidly losing people in the commercial high rises. This puts pressure on the building owner, the tax structure and the restaurants and retail that supported these buildings formerly occupied with workers. It also reduces the draw for people to live downtown since they either no longer work in the office or there is not enough activity/things to do when many of the former businesses close.
In the rural areas there is a huge shortage of workers and many businesses have significantly reduced hours and/or are closed one or more days per week. Even in the inner ring suburbs many businesses close much earlier post-Covid than they did pre-Covid. I have experienced this in many areas of the northeast. However, I travel to south Florida regularly and post-Covid things are just like they used to be up north pre-Covid with areas teeming with people.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
