After moving from the US to Europe there is something magical about walking around the city and town centers here. Not just the tourist traps like Rome and Paris but smaller towns and villages with tiny narrow streets lined with shops and restaurants and people walking around. So much better than the souless shells our downtowns have become in the US.
Of course they are nice to walk through, people wouldn’t have lived there for thousands of years if they weren’t.
People have lived for thousands of years in Cairo
Subtle. Very good.
I have a strong hatred for how many storefronts are taken up by “antique shops” (i.e. dusty warehouses full of junk you couldn’t give away) instead of actual businesses in the last two small towns I lived in. Makes it so you can’t really get that much shopping done downtown.
Don’t hate on the antique shops. Hate on the big box stores that everyone goes to shop and has left the only possible business for a small store to become an antique shop.
EDIT: Also fuck dollar general
I can’t afford food for myself, and every day gets worse and worse, I’m sure I’m not alone, this is what happens when you let the working class go so far down the hole all they can afford to do is work and sleep.
The 8000th “Covid killed cities” article, just shifting the goalposts and jumping around to different cities with different metrics out of context to make it seem worse than it is.
Capitalism killed cities, not COVID.
cars kill cities
They do too, but the cost of living (a problem exacerbated by capitalism treating property as an investment) has pushed workers out of cities, which kills the ability of businesses to keep employees, and thus the downtown empties of businesses like restaurants.
Urbanization has been increasing globally for hundreds of years. Nothing killed cities.
Are you saying that you don’t think cities are having issues?
I’m saying cities aren’t dying. Cities reinvent themselves when they have issues. Oh no, the textile industry is leaving NYC after WWII and the area those factories were in is considered a slum, the city is dying… and now that area is SoHo.
If this article was just trying to say “cities are still working their way back to pre-covid commercial activity levels” then sure, there is a temporary issue from a generational pandemic, agreed. But if you think people are going to stop moving to cities long term you are just wrong.
Gotta agree. I travel extensively and have seen downtrodden town centers as well as vibrant ones. There are multiple factors, not just “white flight” which has had decades to be mitigated or shift culturally. One of the truths is that people are generally moving to urban areas. That’s where the jobs are. That means leaving small towns. However, if that small town is near an urban area it stands a good chance of getting an economic boost as move in or people looking to “get away” dump money into the tourist market. Yeah, crime and poverty do a lot to keep economic improvement away, but even places like Oakland in California, a hotbed of crime in the ‘80s/‘90s, has seen an economic boost and an overall improvement as rising property values made the area more desirable. Towns will grow or shrink as economic opportunities leave or arrive.
There are going to be winners and losers, but the general trend is that urban areas are still going to be the bigger beneficiaries.
Makes sense. Downtowns are commercial districts with few, if any, residential buildings. Restaurants exist there to feed the various workers. Workers will shop after work or bring family/friends/dates to the area because it’s something they know or are familiar with.
With WFH, no one has a reason to go to downtown. Cost of living increases already make them think twice about doing so.
All in all, we’re seeing a shift from specifically zoned districts to mixed use downtowns. This means smaller stores, more walkable or mass transit focus. These cities will just need to incentivize conversion of these downtowns to include more residential structures.
we need statewide laws, preempting any local zoning laws, that allow dense residential buildings with no parking minimums in any zone that allows office uses.
Disabled parking should always be required. Not everybody can take public transit, or not without it being unreasonably burdensome and/or dangerous (think immunocompromised people for transit being dangerous).
paratransit vans have been a thing for a long time and solve this issue. the amount of traffic they cause is negligible. just follow ADA rules for disabled parking with the spaces you do end up building and don’t worry about it. disabled people are much less likely to own a car in the first place than the average person, so privileging cars does them no good
Soo it’s wealthy idiots’ fault, right? Cool. Fuck em.
Don’t forget about all the poor idiots supporting them!
“They’re a business and they need to make money!” Funny how we don’t hear this as often anymore. The people who said it before were so gung-ho about it being an absolute truth with no nuance or exceptions.
Those are usually the same people who believe that they will be rich one day if they work hard enough.
vibrant policy making there. you should run for public office.
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I use to go downtown somewhat often, but I don’t have the money to do it these days.
Poorly planned cities no surprises there.
Good. Much like malls, big cities are a thing of the past. People don’t want that anymore, cities are hell to travel around, dirty, stinky, expensive and unsustainable. Most people would have a vastly better time in a well developed small/mid town area.
How the fuck does this article define “downtown”? Can’t find an explanation in it.
I don’t think it’s something that needs to be explained.
You can look up for yourself what downtown means if you’re confused.
Good. Fuck those clusterfuck jungles.
Always hate going downtown. Way too dangerous and theres too much stuff packed in too small an area.
Totally agree.
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Yeah thats what we need now, less bikes and even more cars
No one wants to be downtown in any city. That’s where all of the trouble is, drug addicts, homeless, crime…
I avoid downtown at all costs in all of the cities near me.
There’s plenty of drugs and crime in the boonies, too
I mean, by density it seems like there just would be less unless you are claiming a much higher drugs and crime per capita in the boonies. And you can drive by at 55mph and avoid it much more IME.
Usually the drug use is kept on people’s properties.
And the people, you know, actually own their property.
As far as crime? Well, my car was never broken into until I moved in with my friends in the center of Houston.
We’ve all had our cars broken into without the guy ever getting caught. Also had a stabbing murder right down the street, so that was nice.
Ever since leaving the major city, I haven’t really experienced any crime personally. Not that it doesn’t happen, it’s just way more prevalent in major cities.
Ya, because I totally get stabbed by used needles and homeless people in the boonies…
I’d argue the types of crime happening in the boonies is vastly different than downtown, but the drug selling is probably higher. Going by the police blotters for the towns in my area:
Number one crime in the biggest city: Car theft.
Number one crime in the country: Farmers shooting their pets.
But there’s definitely hella drug dealing going on in the cuts. Ain’t no cops, less likely to be seen.
Doing drugs in the boonies is a lot less likely to attract police attention and the related Police violence due to the ‘war on drugs’. So drug use is still very high, just easily overlooked and doesn’t impact others in the same way as dense cities.
US perspective of course.
I love living downtown.
Good for you
U scared bro?
