What don't you like about your city?

[BalWash]

So, what do you people dislike about your city and what would you like changed?

[SRG]

Where to start.

[Silver Springer]

Discrimination, zoning laws, NIMBYs...Solutions: Increase allowable height in urban districts, get rid of the "developer is the devil" mentality, make developers focus on office development, unite Baltimore and Washington in an alliance, Retrocede D.C., put credit where it is due.

[cwilson758]

All you have to do is go click on the Indy Dev thread. Its all there in black and white.

[Ian604]

That really really really sucks for Indy.

[kcmetro]

The fact that we have a state line running through the middle of the fucking city! If I could change that I would. It causes too many coordination problems. I also wish there wasn't a highway loop surrounding our downtown. It cuts it off from the rest of the area. Hopefully it will be capped (turned into a tunnel) in the next decade or so. Like many cities, I wish there wasn't the level of sprawl that we have and I wish entertainment and activity nodes were more centralized instead of being dispersed throughout the metro. We also need a few more skyscrapers of over 40 stories downtown.

[FMR-STL]

The bashing hurts the worst! It's hard not to take personal some
comments where you grew up. I'll take anyones pics though! They're
always pretty cool to check out!

[prelude91]

...How Mayor Daley refuses to step in and help fund money for the CTA, which is in need of a face lift.

[Somnifor]

I wish winter was shorter.

[JivecitySTL]

Inefficient, bureaucratic, dysfunctional, corrupt and obsolete city government.

[mhays]

Seattle:

The relative lack of rail transit, even after the current and planned projects are built.

Sometimes the rainy winters get to me. Though generally I like our weather. This has been a record setting six weeks and it's not over yet.

We need more trees. Yes, really, too much of the metro was clearcut before development happened, and we don't plant as may trees as other metros.

Geology. I wish we didn't have as much earthquake risk.

Downtown has two freeways running N-S. One will probably be demolished and rebuilt even wider and uglier. I wish both were tunnels. Alternatively, I'd be fine with a bridge from West Seattle to Interbay, reducing the need for that second freeway. Of course the bridge would be insanely difficult to build and political suicide, and hasn't been seriously considered.

Too many parking lots. However quickly they're being redeveloped, it ain't quick enough. I want Seattle to become like SF or Boston in terms of density in the neighborhoods around Downtown's edges.

Lack of Downtown parks. We tried and failed to address this with the Seattle Commons. A decade later we're getting some new parks, but not enough, and mostly not in the real core areas.

[Xusein]

Segregated to the limit, racially and by income. There are literally ghettos just miles away from mansions. Very disturbing.

Too much of an independent gov streak: if Hartford was in another part of the country, we would have already merged with the county already. The Weather really sucks for half of the year, from October to April, it's just cloudy/cold/snowy/dark and it drags onnnnn....Also, the government here doesn't think big enough...NIMBYs are king.

There are more, but I don't want to bore you non-residents.

[Wu-Gambino]

See avatar. That and city leaders still ahevn't figured out mass transit and have no concept of urban design.

[SRG]

Originally Posted by Somnifor

I wish winter was shorter.

LOL. That cracks me up coming from a Minnesota guy.

[chicagogeorge]

Not to complain too much, but how about that my property taxes almost trippled in three years time. Not to mention stupid city fees that I have to pay that most suburban communities don't pay.

[KM1410]

Small minded, suburban loving morons running the city gov't. And then those same morons wondering why theres a mass exodus of young professionals and other educated people from the city and state.

[ChrisLA]

Real Estate prices, but thankfully I bought something when I could afford it. The problem is now its hard to afford anything else even if you sell the one you own presently. Traffic can be bad, so it makes it hard to just jump up at the spare of the moment and venture out into the city. I hate the fact that we don't have express trains. Although a trip to downtown LA from Long Beach (22 miles) takes 52 mins, it would be nice to have limited stops and make it there in 30-35 mins. We need more trains (subways, light rail), and I hate summers (more so August, and early September) even though its not all that bad compared to the rest of the country, especially living near the beach.

[edsg25]

Originally Posted by Silver Springer

Retrocede D.C., put credit where it is due.

some have suggested that for years. if it were to happen, what do the folks in MD/DC/VA think should occur: complete secession back to MD as the VA portion was in the 19th century, or for the federal government to retain the core (mall, white house, capitol, kennedy center, sup ct, south-of-mall offices, union station, , federal triangle, tidal basin, etc.) or have the whole place returned to Maryland?

[Unionstation13]

Yet we preserve the beautiful architecture in the downtown core, the city council is having a few shitty suburban hotels being constructed downtown,
hopefully us Indianapolisins can do something about this.
But other than that,
I hate how it has really hot summers, egh, really humid.

[Unionstation13]

Originally Posted by Naptown

Indianapolis: Buidling a world class city, neighborhood by neighborhood
Indianapolis: Building a world class suburb, development project by development project

I think thats a little dramatic, and far from the truth, just becuase theyre building a few shitty hotels doesen't mean we have suddenly lost all hope in Indy, its not like theyre taking a bulldozer and wiping out all the historical structures and putting in parking lots and Wendy's.