As for the biggest/best US downtowns in the pre-war era, considering the fact that none of us strolled down the streets of any of them back in the day, I think that making any hard and fast claims regarding a specific ordering (beyond NYC once again being an entire tier above everyone else) is somewhat foolish. We know who the usual suspects are, but without a time machine, we'll never have access to the myriad intangibles to definitively rank them.
That said, I will throw this out there as one piece of the puzzle. In the pre-war era, there were only 4 US cities that had both intra-city rapid transit rail systems and comprehensive commuter rail lines feeding their downtowns and pumping them up with hundreds of thousands of commuters every morning: NYC, Chicago, Boston, and Philly.
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"Missing middle" housing can be a great middle ground for many middle class families.
Last edited by Steely Dan; Nov 28, 2022 at 4:09 PM.
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