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Some of the factors that make cities less boring to me:
—Walkability
—Good transit
—Outdoor gathering places or parks (that people actually use)
—Varied topography
—Inconsistent street patterns, for example having a gothic or historical quarter or prominent diagonals or beautiful boulevards vs. a simple grid pattern throughout
—Historically significant or unique architecture
—Lack of chain establishments
—A well-utilized waterfront
The inverse of this, unfortunately, along the lines of your typical newer American city, car-centric, full of chains, largely based on a grid pattern with a need to drive between isolated places of interest.
Physical setting also makes a difference. Tampa is marginally walkable outside of Ybor City, but there's palm trees and beaches nearby. Charlotte and Dallas aren't much worse in terms of walkability, but they seem far more boring because of their inland setting with few interesting geographic features.
A lot of cities focus on their downtown "fun zones" but I think what makes NYC fun is the volume of people that is needed to make a lot of activities happen
It's no fun to drive through dead suburbs and dead residential zones of a city to arrive at the downtown of a city which has one large event going on a given night which you may or may not appreciate.
In other words, I agree with your post. Note my location; yours is noted as well.
It's no fun to drive through dead suburbs and dead residential zones of a city to arrive at the downtown of a city which has one large event going on a given night which you may or may not appreciate.
In other words, I agree with your post. Note my location; yours is noted as well.
I do like buffalo. But it feels like it's missing a lot of people, which I guess it is since the city population declined a bunch.
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