How Strong Is Your Downtown?

[Thinner6]

*Image from emediawire.com

I think this picture speaks for itself.

[Top Of The Park]

To me a strong downtown is represented by many factors, certainly not just tall skyscrapers. It is the integration of pedestrians, workers, residents, mass transit users, students, conventioners, culture minded individuals, business travelers, sports fans and tourists who come to a downtown for varied reasons. Some of the factors/facilities are colleges and career schools, convention centers, sports facilities, art galleries, museums, churches, nightclubs, restaurants, pedestrian malls, specific shopping stores, hotels, residences, employement centers and government offices, courtrooms, markets and anything promoting a "24 hour lifestyle".... and so on. The more of these factors your city has downtown, the more diversified and stronger it is.

Denver is strong in most of the catagories, but lacks department stores and public markets. Most cities lack for a few things. There are only a few cities that seem to have all the factors in place. Seattle is one.

[peanut gallery]

The Bluebird! A friend of mine used to book acts there and was a good friend of the owner. We stopped in for a show when we were in town years ago. It was a cool venue. Sorry to go off topic, but I had to comment on Top of the Park's new avatar.

[illmatic774]

Detroit's is somewhat imposing due to the RenCen at the river, but collectively I wouldn't call it strong or peaking, with peaking skylines being the Minneapolises or Seattles.

There are the grand individual towers that are great on their own, but I wouldn't call Detroits skyline great at all. Too many holes, and with the layout of the street-grid the towers in the back are covered up by the ones in the front (river view).

[mhays]

I agree with a lot of the points above. A great downtown is a place you want to be in, not just a collection of occupied buildings, so the quality of the public realm is important. The best downtowns are the ones that have a large mix of uses -- tourists, residents, students, shoppers, event-goers, etc., avoiding dominance by office workers and ensuring activity all day and evening at least. The residents should be a mix of income levels and ages. Transit is important because it allows high density without dominance by cars.

I appreciate the praise for Seattle Top of the Park. At the same time, I see a lot of flaws here, and I admire Vancouver as a place that's doing much better in some important ways. Like a good SSPer, I have great faith in our current and proposed projects solving many of our shortcomings. Most important is the addition of a large volume of housing in key districts, and a reduction in parking lots on the Downtown fringes. Current projects will make a big difference but I'm counting on 2008/2009 starts to take us to another level.

[metrogrkid]

[Austin55]

Dallas's is pretty recognizabale(SP) i Guess...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imageallas_Downtown.jpg

[Jobohimself]

Despite its stunted, outdated nature, I believe San Diego's to be relatively recognizable:


(photo by me)


(photo by me)


(photo by me)


(public domain, wikipedia.org)

[cwilson]

The historic downtown of Fayetteville is great...we have many family owned and operated businesses on hte "square" as we call it...the town is very beautiful but our downtown tops it off