Empty Downtowns

17045 Views 25 Replies 23 Participants Last post by sekluth, 9 mo ago

TVN

Discussion Starter · Oct 8, 2017

Why do we see empty Downtowns on some of the "Driving Downtowns videos" in the large cities on Youtube?

Big cities over a million citizens....

1 - 20 of 26 Posts

xerxesjc28

· #2 · Oct 8, 2017

Many downtown's in the USA are made up mostly of office buildings. If you do not show up during work hours of 9-5 Monday- Friday then they will be empty. There are exceptions of course and some downtown's are starting to have more residential built into them, but still, they are mostly dead during non-work hours.

As for the reasons, they are many, white flight of the 60's and 70's which emptied many city centers, also, new zoning laws which made mix used development hard to built, the explosion of suburbs, and the list goes on.

Also, those million plus people cities are spread over an enormous area in almost all US cities, mostly in low density suburbs. This is why even a city with millions will have downtown centers that can be completely empty at night.

Reactions: 3

obadno

· #3 · Oct 11, 2017

TVN said:
Why do we see empty Downtowns on some of the "Driving Downtowns videos" in the large cities on Youtube?

Big cities over a million citizens....

Because other than some of the large east coast cities most American cities didn't boom until post-car development. AKA suburban.

Downtowns became 9-5 office parks or abandoned for suburbs only really existing for novelty and government offices.

You have seen a recent change in tastes and many Americans are actively moving back to urban lifestyles. However there is like 60 years of deficit to overcome in the urban sphere.

TVN

Discussion Starter · #4 · Oct 15, 2017

Wow, I see what you mean:

http://iqc.ou.edu/urbanchange

Dale

· #5 · Oct 15, 2017

I suspect the substantial majority of US downtowns are livelier than they were twenty years ago.

Reactions: 1

TampaMike

· #6 · Oct 16, 2017

Downtown Tampa was like this about 14 years ago. No real residential buildings besides a few loft structures, two or one stories. Downtown was majority office buildings, with employees driving back to the suburbs after 5. Glad things have changed since then.

GarfieldPark

· #7 · Oct 18, 2017

^^ I lived there from 06 - 08. It was starting to see some downtown life in the after work hours, but not much. I hope it has continued to improve over the last 8 or 9 years. The riverwalk and baywalk(s) hopefully have helped bring more people downtown. It was a pretty downtown with all of the water and the nice central square park - but it did lack a good amount of evening and weekend liveliness.

Joakim3

· #8 · Oct 30, 2017

Baring the "Big 5" east coast cities, the only other big cities that have 24/7 downtown activities either have a massive entertainment draws (Vegas/Miami) or having substantial downtown residents (Chicago/Seattle)

Most US downtowns are strictly office, so if there's no work, not a lot of people will be there

Joakim3

· #9 · Oct 30, 2017

It's almost impossible to go to the CBD of DC, Baltimore, Philly, NYC or Boston's at any time of day and just find it "empty"

Avian001

· #10 · Oct 30, 2017 (Edited)

BS

Most downtown American cities have great nightlife experiences.

For example: Minneapolis-St.Paul are a pair of fun party cities.

Some videos from the Warehouse District in downtown Minneapolis, and other neighborhoods:

Reactions: 1

snot

· #11 · May 15, 2018

xerxesjc28 said:
Many downtown's in the USA are made up mostly of office buildings. If you do not show up during work hours of 9-5 Monday- Friday then they will be empty. There are exceptions of course and some downtown's are starting to have more residential built into them, but still, they are mostly dead during non-work hours.

As for the reasons, they are many, white flight of the 60's and 70's which emptied many city centers, also, new zoning laws which made mix used development hard to built, the explosion of suburbs, and the list goes on.

Also, those million plus people cities are spread over an enormous area in almost all US cities, mostly in low density suburbs. This is why even a city with millions will have downtown centers that can be completely empty at night.

So many lost opportunities an such a waste of land! I was bored at work and google mapped Dallas and Houston. There is some residential developpement in the inner cities area's surronded with empty lots of parking space. In many of those area's there are even quite some historical buildings it seems. Could become nice and urban neighbourhoods on walking or biking distance from offices and other infrastructure.
US sprawl is so over the top in many metro area's with constant developpement of empty space while huge area's of prime land in central area's are just discarded.

mwm991

· #12 · May 19, 2018

I went to Minneapolis last year and it was dead on Saturday night. Boring as hell. To be honest for me, that is very similar for many non coastal cities in the US I've visited and even around where I've lived, like Baton Rouge.

I live in the UK and most city centres here thrive. Universities/Colleges often have large downtown campuses which attracts thousands of young people to the area. Public transport is significantly better across the board.

Many downtowns in America are not at the geographical centre of the area either because of shifts or trends over time. Theres several cities like St. Louis with "two downtowns" so to speak because the population has shifted away from the traditional centre.

Reactions: 1

MikeVegas

· #13 · May 21, 2018

mwm991 said:
I went to Minneapolis last year and it was dead on Saturday night. Boring as hell. To be honest for me, that is very similar for many non coastal cities in the US I've visited and even around where I've lived, like Baton Rouge.

I live in the UK and most city centres here thrive. Universities/Colleges often have large downtown campuses which attracts thousands of young people to the area. Public transport is significantly better across the board.

Many downtowns in America are not at the geographical centre of the area either because of shifts or trends over time. Theres several cities like St. Louis with "two downtowns" so to speak because the population has shifted away from the traditional centre.

You must have been in a coma or your just showing your arrogance with stating that only the coasts and the UK thrive. Please.

Reactions: 2

mwm991

· #14 · May 21, 2018

Mplsuptown said:
You must have been in a coma or your just showing your arrogance with stating that only the coasts and the UK thrive. Please.

Of course you're not biased at all coming from Minneapolis.

Reactions: 2

Architectbyday

· #15 · May 22, 2018

mwm991 said:
I went to Minneapolis last year and it was dead on Saturday night. Boring as hell. To be honest for me, that is very similar for many non coastal cities in the US I've visited and even around where I've lived, like Baton Rouge.

I live in the UK and most city centres here thrive. Universities/Colleges often have large downtown campuses which attracts thousands of young people to the area. Public transport is significantly better across the board.

Many downtowns in America are not at the geographical centre of the area either because of shifts or trends over time. Theres several cities like St. Louis with "two downtowns" so to speak because the population has shifted away from the traditional centre.

mwm991 said:
Of course you're not biased at all coming from Minneapolis.

That sounds a bit harsh. So the UK city centres that thrive over there; would they be the likes of Sheffield, Leeds, Cardiff, Glasgow, Sunderland, Dundee, Bradford, Middlesborough etc.

London is the only city in the UK I found to be lively 7 days a week but London is the capital city as well as a global city therefore it would have to be expected.

The UK has a booze culture where teenagers and 20 somethings get rat assed drunk on a Saturday night drinking as much during happy hour. Evaluating a city by how lively it is on one Saturday night is hardly a good measure.

hno:

Village Idiot

· #16 · May 26, 2018

Architectbyday said:
That sounds a bit harsh. So the UK city centres that thrive over there; would they be the likes of Sheffield, Leeds, Cardiff, Glasgow, Sunderland, Dundee, Bradford, Middlesborough etc.

London is the only city in the UK I found to be lively 7 days a week but London is the capital city as well as a global city therefore it would have to be expected.

The UK has a booze culture where teenagers and 20 somethings get rat assed drunk on a Saturday night drinking as much during happy hour. Evaluating a city by how lively it is on one Saturday night is hardly a good measure.hno:

I would have to agree with you. I live in Europe and have been to Manchester many times. For the 2nd largest city in the UK I would say it's city center and night-life are actually pretty similar to many cities of the same size in the US. It's better than some but certainly not a lot better than many.

UK (and Ireland..my fjrst Friday in Dublin was a shock, masses of shitfaced people at 9pm) binge alcoholism is frankly pretty shocking. I guess it has become more visible outside of the British Isles thanks to Ryanair and EasyJet.

CB31

· #17 · Oct 17, 2018

DShoost88

· #18 · Oct 17, 2018

You want to see a thriving downtown in America? Come check out Boston. What's happening here at the street level is commendable.

Reactions: 2

Humzah

· #19 · Feb 14, 2020

Most US cities had more thriving downtowns before the 60s, the birth of the suburbs and urban sprawls really weakened most cities downtown areas; though the youth are finally sick of long commutes, traffic and lack of a sense of community/liveliness. The good news is there’s a lot of re-urbanization and are people moving back into downtowns all over the country

mhays

· #20 · Feb 17, 2020

Residents mean there are always people around, but outside the extreme densities they don't really make a place busy.

Hotel guests, pound for pound, have more effect. Many spend their days shopping, visiting museums, eating out, drinking, and generally populating the sidewalks. That includes many of the business travelers.

At the same time that greater downtown areas have added tons of residents, they've also generally been adding tons of hotel rooms....a much smaller number in most cases, but with an outsized effect.

As for the UK poster, I agree with him in part. The average city of 50,000 in the UK will have a more active downtown than many huge US cities on a weekend afternoon or early evening. But the 50k town might be quiet late at night.

Reactions: 1

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