Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The term downtown is obsolete now since the return of investment to cities which started in the early 2000’s. What was considered the traditional downtown area for most cities has been dwarfed by developments that surround those historic borders. NYC, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, DC, and San Francisco are great examples of this.
A return to investment started in the early 2000s? It was really the 60s or 70s in my area (Seattle) depending on boundaries. Every decade since has brought pretty epic change.
A return to investment started in the early 2000s? It was really the 60s or 70s in my area (Seattle) depending on boundaries. Every decade since has brought pretty epic change.
There was a national movement back to cities after white flight and the crack epidemic of the 1980s-1990s. Most cities were losing population during that time. The population numbers for Seattle are below:
1. I'm talking about downtowns. Many had office booms in the 70s and 80s. Hotels boomed as well, as business travel increased and more people saw downtowns as tourist destinations. Urban housing started to take off. Stadiums, arenas, museums, festival marketplaces, etc., were all big. For Downtown Seattle I said the 60s because we had a world's fair on the fringe, which caused a lot of other investment, and also built our then-tallest building.
2. Population growth tends to lag re-investment. Seattle's decline from 1960 to 1986 (486,000) was despite what I believe was almost continuous growth in occupied units outside a flat period around 1970. It was smaller households. If I was talking about the whole city of Seattle I'd say the 70s saw the start of large-scale reinvestment, as old houses became desired again and neighborhoods started to ramp up.
1. I'm talking about downtowns. Many had office booms in the 70s and 80s. Hotels boomed as well, as business travel increased and more people saw downtowns as tourist destinations. Urban housing started to take off. Stadiums, arenas, museums, festival marketplaces, etc., were all big. For Downtown Seattle I said the 60s because we had a world's fair on the fringe, which caused a lot of other investment, and also built our then-tallest building.
2. Population growth tends to lag re-investment. Seattle's decline from 1960 to 1986 (486,000) was despite what I believe was almost continuous growth in occupied units outside a flat period around 1970. It was smaller households. If I was talking about the whole city of Seattle I'd say the 70s saw the start of large-scale reinvestment, as old houses became desired again and neighborhoods started to ramp up.
In Philadelphia, I'd say they ran concurrent.
Center City's skyline began to take its current form in 1987, when the city council okayed the construction of an office tower that rose above the rim of William Penn's hat atop City Hall Tower (549 feet).
During the 1980s, Philadelphia continued to lose population citywide, although the slope of the downward curve was flattening noticeably. In the 1990 Census, two parts of the city posted population gains, serving as the canaries in the coal mine for future developments: Center City and Juniata Park in the Lower Northeast. The latter neighborhood was filling with immigrants from the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, foreshadowing the Lower Northeast's transformation into the city's immigrant haven, and Center City was experiencing an influx of younger professionals. That latter influx would become a flood as the Millennial generation flocked to the city after 2000, but even in the 1990s, both trends were strong enough to finally reverse the slope of the city's population curve in the 2000 Census. The rate of growth slowed in the 2010s, and the pandemic may even have sent the curve back downward, but I strongly suspect it is turning back upwards again, and what with all the apartment construciton now underway, I suspect the city will post gains again in the 2030 Census, regardless what Census Bureau estimates say right now.
1. I'm talking about downtowns. Many had office booms in the 70s and 80s. Hotels boomed as well, as business travel increased and more people saw downtowns as tourist destinations. Urban housing started to take off. Stadiums, arenas, museums, festival marketplaces, etc., were all big. For Downtown Seattle I said the 60s because we had a world's fair on the fringe, which caused a lot of other investment, and also built our then-tallest building.
2. Population growth tends to lag re-investment. Seattle's decline from 1960 to 1986 (486,000) was despite what I believe was almost continuous growth in occupied units outside a flat period around 1970. It was smaller households. If I was talking about the whole city of Seattle I'd say the 70s saw the start of large-scale reinvestment, as old houses became desired again and neighborhoods started to ramp up.
Yeah, I wasn't talking about office buildings. I was mainly talking about urban high density residential living. For DC, that type of living exploded in the early 2000's. How about Seattle?
Some buildings were built in the 50s-70s, but the real jump started in the 80s. Then the 90s and 00s were a big jump up. Then another big jump in the 10s and 20s.
I used to think of downtown's as a city's primary/ central business district, but downtowns vary from place too place.
In some cities, such as New Orleans, the downtown doesn't even encompass the CBD. Downtown is the French Quarter and the CBD is adjacent.
In Dallas the Downtown includes the CBD and a handful of other adjacent neighborhoods, while in Houston the Downtown is strictly the CBD and nothing else.
It's really hard to compare downtowns across the board when the definitions are so inconsistent.
Edit: I would add the caveat that that parking lot site measures all parking, not just parking lots. More than half of the spots highlighted on there are garages, not lots.
Downtown Dallas is just what’s in the freeway loop.
I used to think of downtown's as a city's primary/ central business district, but downtowns vary from place too place.
In some cities, such as New Orleans, the downtown doesn't even encompass the CBD. Downtown is the French Quarter and the CBD is adjacent.
In Dallas the Downtown includes the CBD and a handful of other adjacent neighborhoods, while in Houston the Downtown is strictly the CBD and nothing else.
It's really hard to compare downtowns across the board when the definitions are so inconsistent.
Edit: I would add the caveat that that parking lot site measures all parking, not just parking lots. More than half of the spots highlighted on there are garages, not lots.
Keep in mind that in New Orleans, "downtown" is used as a compass point might be in other cities because of the unusual nature of its street grid, which bends along with the Mississippi River as it flows through the city.
Because of this, one can go "downtown" from the French Quarter as well, and the word "downtown" is not used to describe a particular part of town (IIRC) while "uptown" is.
The "compass point" terms in New Orleans are "uptown," "downtown," "river" and "lake." "Uptown" = "upriver" and "downtown" = "downriver." "Uptown" the neighborhood is also known as "Carrollton." The street leading to it from Canal Street, Carrollton Avenue, ends right next to the river at St. Charles Avenue; the streetcar line up the latter turns onto Carrollton to reach its end at Claiborne Avenue. At Canal Street, all three of these streets run parallel to each other; in Uptown, St. Charles and Claiborne, which follow the river, both intersect Carrollton, which doesn't.
Oh, and: New Orleans does also use "downtown" to refer to the CBD as well as the French Quarter (the latter being the original settlement):
You are over complicating things.
Downtown in New Orleans Speak is downriver from Canal. The rest just depends on who you asking.
Like most cities, NOLA has a Greater Downtown Area
New Orleans Greater Downtown Area consists of Downtown/French Quarter, the Medical District, The Warehouse / Convention District and the CBD. You could also add the Sports District. Some throw in Treme and Marigny.
In the end, Downtown is whatever people want to call it
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
