The problem is that there are about 25 cities tied for #11 on this list. Everyone thinks that their downtown is one of the best or one of the worst. Nobody thinks thinks their downtown is "pretty average".
This is true, but Baltimore and DC shouldn't be on this list. DC is a very interesting city to explore with no shortage of attractions. Even the rough areas are far from boring. Baltimore may have crime issues/poverty, but it has a lot of history, and it has a lot more going on than most US downtowns
I was thinking that too. Especially because of the Five Points/Peachtree St.area. But maybe he thinks the Centennial Park area makes up for that, since all the attractions are there.
Strong disagree about using Rosslyn as the proxy downtown for DC. DC has its own downtown, and it's not the national mall. There's the Foggy Bottom area, Farrgut Square area, McPherson Square area, Mt. Vernon Square/Convention Center area, and Gallery Place/Chinatown area that could all be considered a part of DC's downtown. It's very walkable and has a lot going on. No one from DC would consider the national mall to be downtown.
as someone from the jacksonville metro, it’s genuinely shocking just how little there is to do in downtown jax you’re only ever over there to go to a doctor’s appointment or to watch the jaguars score 3 points
“One more lane bro,” had me smirk and chuckle out loud. lol Man i absolutely love the content on this channel, u do such an incredible job. I really appreciate the wide range of geographic and demographic topics. I’m always looking forward to the next video to come. Just wanted to say I wish u nothing but success, the passion and hard work absolutely shows!
Housing is the key to having a vibrant downtown. People have to live there so they can step out of their building or townhome and be within walking distance of restaurants and entertainment. Having people living downtown creates demand for shops, restaurants, bars, theater, and entertainment & sports venues. If people have to get in their car and drive downtown, find a parking space and then worry about having to drive back home after a night on the town, most will just stay home.
The other more essential key is a center of employment specialty in any downtown. Otherwise, a large population downtown with a horrible work environment spells out miserably high poverty and often high crime.
I'm glad Vegas made this list. As a local, people don't realize how boring Las Vegas can be because it lacks things like a functioning exciting downtown.
So you've never been to The Fremont Street Experience or First Fridays? Or the Arts District or Fremont East? Or any of the Festivals? If you're bored in downtown Las Vegas then you're simply a dull person or you've never actually been to downtown Las Vegas.
@@TeksonikAudio Haha you’re so BUTTHURT!! His comment had nothing to do with the party scene with Fremont St. DTLV does severely lack simple functional essentials like grocery stores. Probably the only downtown without a train station as well. Yep, certainly the worst downtown in America!
But for someone who likes the outdoors and traveling, Las Vegas is a tremendous location. You can get almost anywhere from McCarran. For parks and natural wonders, within a few hours drive it's an embarrassment of riches; Valley of Fire, Red Rock Canyon, Great Basin, all the Southern Utah parks, Virgin River AZ, Grand Canyon, Death Valley, Southern Sierra and Mohave, and on and on.
@@qikstarLas Vegas used to have a train station for the Amtrak Desert Wind train, before this train was eliminated in the late 1990s. It was behind where The Plaza Casino is. There still is an Amtrak mural, inside this building to this day. The old indoor waiting room for trains, now has am exercise room in it btw. Union Pacific passenger trains used to stop there, pre-Amtrak. There is talk Brightline West may eventually start Rancho Cucamonga(where LA Metrolink commuter rail trains go to) to Las Vegas train service, but I guess we'll see if this starts service one day.
@@AlCatSplatswap New Orleans for Pittsburgh or Austin (since New Orleans isn’t in the top 50 metro areas which was the cutoff in this video) and you’ve got basically a perfect list
Really excited for the "Best Downtowns" video! I'd also be interested to hear your opinion on which downtowns are doing the best to improve, like an "up and coming downtowns" sort of video
After watching dozens of your videos, it has become increasingly clear that you have an incredible depth and breadth of knowledge of the United States. Thanks again for the wonderful, informative videos.
Downtown LA is also in a weird location, it's not on the LA River and it's not in the middle of LA, it's in LA's extreme east, so the gravitas of LA is split between Hollywood, Mid-Wilshire, and West LA. Even it's beautiful train station is off to the side, alone and across the freeway; disconnected from downtown. I lived in LA for half of my life in the 80s and 90s and I'm as big a LA booster as anyone but the reality is that while downtown LA "could" become a cool and lively place, the city just doesn't know how to do that organically and tries to force places to exist instead of letting downtown be what people want it to be. Right now it's just a place of little disjointed districts with nothing to bring them together, no cohesion, with pockets of character amid blocks of no-man's land. Am I talking about the LA of 1984 or 2024? Yes. People will say it's gotten better and so much has changed, which may be so but it's basically still the same. It's stunning to me that the 2nd largest city in the US with a very lively and diverse entertainment and social scene has such a drab downtown. It's shocking. But then again, that is what LA is all about, isn't it? Stage sets with nothing behind them. The universally hated Pershing Sq is a perfect example of a staged plaza that has had the soul programmed out of it and instead of creating something people want there, a shaded human scale plaza like what used to be there (before it was ripped out for the underground parking lot, which precludes any trees, in an attempt to imitate SF's Union Sq without the amenities around it, and refusing to take the parking out), the city is intending on another over-designed and lifeless plaza, a "forced" place. I live in Chicago now with one of the best downtowns in the world, and as much as it pains me, something LA will never likely come close to having.
Tourists can take a dozen trips to L.A. and never see downtown. I walked around downtown when I visited L.A. in the ‘80s and liked the fact that it was quiet and unpretentious, particularly compared to the big pop culture oriented sites.
@@brianarbenz1329 Agreed. No reason to visit downtown LA. I went there a couple of times in the early 'aughts when living in LV, then lived in SoCal for 8 years from 2015-2023 and never found a reason to visit DT. All the cool stuff is everywhere else.
I can understand your point. What’s funny is downtown Houston if you look at a map looks like “the center” but it isn’t lol. It’s actually more to our east side as well because of how the city limits are laid. The highways fool people, the east side actually ends way before the beltway. Thanks for teaching me something new
Kinda surprised San Jose, CA didn't make the list -- the downtown is very small and is majorly height-restricted due to the nearby airport. It's very empty outside of a few bars by the university, and there's not a lot of jobs in Downtown specifically -- most of the jobs are in sprawling tech campuses way out in the suburbs (Cupertino, Mountain View, Los Gatos, etc.) I think your inclusion of DTLA is very fair, it is quite dirty and dilapidated. There are some areas of improvement -- the area by Staples Center has notably improved -- but a lot of Downtown is very underdeveloped and nasty. Century City and the Westside are the largest job centers in the city, and while city leadership has been trying to increase tourism in DTLA, it's not somewhere I'd recommend tourists to spend a lot of time in.
+1 to everything you said about San Jose. Surprised my hometown wasn't mentioned, which robs us of an opportunity for Kyle to feature the Quetzalcoatl statue in his slideshow. City of almost a million within its limits but a very small downtown. The Shark Tank and San Pedro Square along with (possibly) light rail and train connections probably keep it out of the Top 10. Hardly any shopping exists downtown; everything is out at the malls, particularly Santana Row (of which Bill Burr once said "this has to be one of the most soulless places I've ever been to in my life... why is it so bad?"). Amid the sprawl there are more interesting main-street style destinations like Willow Glen, Los Gatos, and Mountain View (Castro).
DC actually has the 3rd biggest downtown in the US after Midtown Manhattan and Chicago. It's larger and more amenity filled than every downtown on this list many of them put together, and has more people walking around downtown than all of them. DC has a clean world class level downtown, with world class museums, activities, and public transit. It should be top 5/10 BEST downtowns tbh. Using Rosslyn, VA as your barometer for downtown of course messes up this synopsis. I'd actually argue that Baltimore is not top 10 worst either. It's bottomed out by now, and back on the upswing IMO.
Yeah I think you giving Downtown DC too much credit. When I think of major downtown, I do think of sky scrapers and I never ever think of DC. However, everything you said is true and it is quite vibrant, clean, and walkable / accessible without a car. If Toronto was 🇺🇸, I would put it as the 3rd best and biggest downtown after Chicago and NYC
@@qikstar thats the proverbial thinking of most people, but in actuality it’s a bit different. Paris and Madrid don’t have skyscrapers downtown, but they are more bustling than 98% of N. American downtowns. On average building height DC builds taller than most American cities downtown and it’s completely built out for miles. It’s just capped at about 13 stories.
@@qikstar I agree with @derekbyrd49, you're understanding of a downtown is limited by your perception that "tall building = city." Obviously, as his video points out, tall buildings are often just offices that clear out at 5pm. The density of paris is actually higher than new york city and it's buildings are rarely above 8-9 stories.
I’m from Baltimore born & raised & you are definitely correct Baltimore downtown is nice & growing & getting better, this guy doesn’t know what he talking about
I'm a resident of downtown Atlanta. I'm a little surprised we didn't make the Top 10. We definitely have our issues. BUT we do have football/soccer/basketball and major concerts here. Maybe that kept us off the list. On the downside, It's pretty rough here.
Downtown Atlanta is pretty much the most impressive Downtown in the entire south as far as the skyline goes. It may not be the best Downtown, but it certainly ain't the worst.
Major Sports venues, Concerts, Parks, restaurants, College football hall of fame, Georgia State Area, Marta access, Museums, Walkable areas (not everywhere), plenty of places to shop, and thats not even including midtown. Downtown Atl isnt chicago or anything, and it has many places it needs to improve in, but i dont think its anywhere near the worst.
Washington, D.C.’s downtown is fine, and it is not across in Virginia. There are museums, historic homes and churches to tour, and lots of cafes and restaurants.
Yeah, Geoff flubbed his assessement of DC. DC's downtown CBD in not in Rosslyn VA. The DC CBD is the centered around Penn Quarter/Chinatown area. And extends west along K Street to about Connecticut Ave where the Farragut North and Farragut West metro stations are. This area doesn't have high rise skyscrapers but it is at the center of the subway system and is entirely built out with almost all parking underground. The pandemic that triggered so much remote work hit the area hard as reduced foot traffic made it harder for storefronts to survive given the CBD's enormous rents. But if there can be a market correction to commercial rents then it should thrive again. At its peak the sidewalks would be busier than pretty anywhere in the US outside of Manhattan or the Chicago loop. More recently its not quite to that level, and even the Chicago Loop isn't what it once was, but doesn't warrant being lumped onto this sad list.
@brianarbenz1329 May make since using the criteria in this video, but in general, I would assess Washington as one of the best, if not the best, designed urban areas in the US and ranking very high globally. Though not necessarily for reasons "urbanists" might consider most important. The motto of Chicago is "Urbs in horto" or City in a Garden. Washington is, in one sense, a city built around a park - a true central park.
@@joetrey215 Washington's biggest problem is the micro-management of it by Congress, whose members don't care about its residents. Federal law requires that every felony charge within D.C. goes before a federal grand jury before prosecution can be done. The backlog makes it so much easier to get away with armed robberies inside D.C. than just a block away in Maryland or across the Potomac in Virginia. And if a bill is introduced to change this preposterous law, Representatives from Idaho and Mississippi get to vote on it, but the D.C. delegate doesn't have a vote. Same for the law restricting buildings to the height of the Capitol Dome's top.
@@brianarbenz1329 The entire point of a federal district is that ultimately it is managed in the national interest and not in the purely local interest. Otherwise, it might as well be in Maryland. Where the district does exercise home rule, it has been a demonstration of incompetence and stupidity more than any other traits. The crime problem is primarily due to who lives there and not the courts they are processed through.
Very informative video. When we travel outside the US, we always search out the “Old Town” neighborhood, usually the most interesting and historic part of the city.
Shameless plug: Milwaukee and Chicago both have great downtowns. Chicago is an architectural world class gem. And both are literally built right up to the coastline of that freshwater inland sea; the Great Lakes, and Lake Michigan specifically. You can't even see the other side of the lake. So it's like living on an ocean, only no sharks or hurricanes! Breathtaking views. Even in winter. One just has to embrace the change of seasons. Both are very walkable, drivable and have rail transit. Milwaukee in particular is very bike friendly. Very diverse people, buildings, great mix of office, residential, entertainment. Diverse, high quality, and great value food scene is awesome too. Milwaukee also has festivals going on all summer long downtown on the lakefront. They don't call it the city of festivals for nothing.
Chicagos commercial vacancy rate is almost at 36% (just behind San Fran at about 40%). I was just in chicago a month ago and will be there again next week. it SHOULD be amazing because it WAS amazing, but the leaders have fucked it HARD. its nearing a death spiral....in reality, its probably entered one.
I’m a HUGE fan of both downtowns especially Chicago. I’d live in downtown Chicago if I could. One of my best friends bought a high rise condo near Wrigley and really turned it into a gem in the sky! ❤
Agreed. I know many “work from home” people that permanently moved to cabins or vacation homes. Without the need to work in an office, they happily traded away the urban lifestyle for lakes, forests, and rural areas. Who needs a hip restaurant scene when you can watch the sun set over Lake Michigan instead?
Downtown DC is a thing that’s not the national mall. And it’s probably one of the best in the country. The height restrictions just make it so you can’t see it super obviously
I lived in the suburbs and used to go into DC when there was lots of stuff to see and do. The Mall is probably my favorite area, then the zoon, then the food court underneath Union Station. But I have not been back recently. Heard it went to hell during COVID.
I'd not even consider Vegas a city, it's a giant casino resort loosely connected by rival casinos trying to keep them from walking across the street. It's an urban planning nightmare.
As someone who has lived in dc many years, I can confirm it has a pretty substantial downtown spanning several areas, such as Foggy Bottom, Farragut and McPherson squares, Penn Quarter, Gallery Place, Chinatown, etc. It is very lively and always has something going on. And Rosslyn I would consider the downtown of Arlington, which is a suburb, not part of DC. It’s a whole different vibe in Rosslyn compared to downtown.
The fact that Dallas is not on here but DC/Rosslyn are really surprised me, as somebody who lives in the former and used to travel a LOT to the latter.
The thing that blew my mind as an English dude (who works for the railway) is that Phoenix has 5m people and no railway station! You gotta go out to Maricopa to catch the one train a day to LA or Tucson, which itself is down the scariest highway in history. Mad place.
@@georgehenan853 through choice or lack of alternatives? Also you wouldn’t fly to Tucson - I would hope - that’s a clear example of a passenger flow in the sweet spot of journey time.
Baltimore has some of the best architecture and walkabikity in the country, but it really hurts how few safe areas there are and how many businesses fled the city. Growing up nearby, I have a fondness for it and see the potential, but it just can never activate it without bringing back jobs
I lived in the otterbein/federal hill neighborhood and it was a great place to live. There was plenty going on and a lot of good restaurants and bars. But yeah, outside of fed hill, the harbor, and fells there really aren’t many places anyone should go
Regarding Kansas City, I do understand your points, but I would also say we have slowly been changing our mentality and improving upon this over the last 20 years. Until about the 2000 this metro had a mindset of “build this one big thing over here and the growth will just follow”. That’s how you’ve got our airport 15 miles away from downtown, Truman sports complex in Central Jackson County instead of downtown, the old Kemper Arena in the West Bottoms next to downtown but unconnected to anything, 18th & Vine being an island unconnected to the rest of downtown, and a whole lot of spread out suburbs that don’t seem connected to anything. Much like Sunbelt cities, Kansas City went hard on the freeways, and then we became very sprawled. Until the 2000s the last major downtown investment was a couple of tall skyscrapers in the 1980s. There is riverfront development happening now with the stadium for the professional women’s soccer team, and redevelopment along Berkeley Riverfront Park; KC’s downtown used to be along the river but Major floods in the teens, 20s, and 1951 appears to have caused leaders and citizens to turn their backs on the river and move up the Bluffs. Crime caused a lot of white flight to the suburbs back in the 60s and 70s, and our crime rates continue to reinforce the perception to suburbanites that downtown is a dangerous place. Honestly, the Central business district’s biggest challenge Isn’t KCK (our local answer to Newark or Gary, IN), it’s Johnson County, KS. When Sprint picked metro Kansas City to build their headquarters back in the late 80s/early 90s some real estate developers built a ton of class a office space in Overland Park and Leawood. Johnson County is where many of the upper and upper middle-class moved in the 80s and 90s, the crime rates are much lower and the standard of living is generally higher. So much office, retail and entertainment has been built in Johnson County that there are plenty of well heeled residents that won’t even cross the state line into Missouri anymore…because that’s where they believe all the crime & poverty are. At the moment, the state of Kansas just passed a bill to try and draw the Chiefs and the Royals over into Western Wyandotte County (just north of Johnson County) with more suburban stadiums out in the middle of sprawl. We are putting in a lot of effort in Kansas City with the street car system and other downtown investment, but it will take continued efforts over a longer period of time (and a ceasing of beggar-thy-neighbor “economic development” by Kansas) to reverse the trends and really make downtown the vibrate place it can be.
In my opinion you are dead wrong about DC. The downtown is not the national mall, or rosslyn. Just because tall buildings exist does not mean it is a central point at all. Think european cities which tend to shy away from height in the first place. I am from Arlington, Virginia, and if anything I would call Ballston/virginia square the downtown of ARLINGTON, and rosslyn just another business center like Bethesda or Tysons. DC does in fact have a downtown, which encompasses much of foggy bottom, dupont circle, and extends to chinatown. This area is very walkable, has great nightlife, includes GW university, and many restaurants/points of interest.
I agree I like visiting DC. Granted it has so much going for it (history, museums, government) so it’s kind of had to mess up, but it’s still great. My biggest problem with it is the crime.
90 clash of the Titans, Hart, Michigan Alice In Chains open for Megadeth anthrax and slayer and it was the rust in peace album, and it was fucking awesome
It has no skyscrapers and it’s waaaay more ghetto and run down than most would expect. It’s honestly not bad but I think people maybe expect a little more form The capital. It feels like a small town just cuz it has no skyscrapers and that’s hard to mentally get over if ur from say NYC or Chicago.
@@jaywizz7008 having skyscrapers should have very little basis on if a downtown is good. And no, downtown DC is not ghetto. DC in the 80s? Yeah that was ghetto
@@Johnny-hn9ts “the only thing it has going for it is all the culture other cities wish they had”…. Got it. Plus restaurants and a super international population with people from all over the globe
You completely missed on DC. Rossyln/Nat Mall are not downtown. DC has a dense, walkable, diverse downtown that remains busy long after business hours and on weekends. It has a major arena, university, and transit. Its honestly one of the best cities in US from an urbanist perspective.
@@letitiajeavons6333 George Washington University is downtown. Howard is just outside. Georgetown's law school is downtown. There are lots of extensions of universities such as Johns Hopkins.
Otherwise good video, but like many comments are saying, DC has a specific downtown area that is specifically concentrated by the transport hubs of Metro Center and Gallery Place. There are miles of gigantic office buildings just north of the mall, which is also included in downtown. This makes downtown DC not only one of the largest job centers in America but also one of the largest tourist destinations. I personally don’t like it as a DC native because the height restrictions, wide streets, and lack of corner stores/ restaurants downtown really make it feel less lively than NYC or Chicago even when the streets are packed with office workers, and the mall is far too spread out and frankly unbearable in the summer months. Objectively though you didn’t analyze downtown DC, you picked one of DC’s many satellite downtowns. We have almost too many of those to count. Roslyn, Arlington, Alexandria, Tyson’s, Bethesda, North Bethesda, Rockville, Wheaton, Silver Spring…and I’m sure I failed to mention a couple of them.
This is one of my favorite videos on your channel. You're not trying to blame anybody but you're just being honest about how the critical parts of major cities are lacking in an important way. I especially like your take on Virginia Beach. It's just chain stores like an outdoor shopping mall. There are not unique businesses and family-owned shops. It's sterile and boring. Cities can't come into existence by large developers and be lively places. They need to start humble and increment their way up as many participants invest in the city. That's how places have always came to be but the US has forgot that. That's not to say there can't be large developers. Large developers are great sometimes but large developers can't manifest a downtown.
"There was this kid I grew up with; he was younger than me. Sorta looked up to me, you know. We did our first work together, worked our way out of the street. Things were good, we made the most of it. During Prohibition, we ran molasses into Canada... made a fortune, your father, too. As much as anyone, I loved him and trusted him. Later on he had an idea to build a city out of a desert stop-over for GI's on the way to the West Coast. That kid's name was Moe Greene, and the city he invented was Las Vegas. This was a great man, a man of vision and guts".
I haven't watched you in a while and in that time your narration has improved 1000%! Much tighter, much more to the point, and very enjoyable to listen to. Good analysis of these downtowns. Can't argue with any of these but I could sure add a few!
The biggest problem with Kansas City MO is that, if you're not familiar with the area, you'll have trouble finding fun places to go. Also, everything is really spread out so you have to do your homework and figure out where everything is in relation to each other. However, if you take the time and do your research, KCMO (in my humble opinion) is one of the best cities in America. I've been all over the US but KCMO is one of my favorite cities. There are great restaurants (including some famous BBQ spots), excellent music venues (big and small), and most of the population is friendly.
@@jimferris9447 St. Louis has made some improvements downtown with the additions of Ballpark Village and the aquarium/Ferris wheel at Union Station. The big problem it continues to have is crime. A general lack of police presence makes it feel unsafe especially at night. I personally have never had any issues there but can definitely see how it would make some people nervous.
That Jacksonville section made me more interested in what cities you think have interesting projects in works/planning stages more than cities with good downtowns. For example, Birmingham has that amphitheater project aiming to make its uptown area more of it's own separate area from the CBD, plus the Red Mountain Cut project aims to make a more walkable connection from Southside to downtown Homewood and a couple of the Mountain Brook villages. So it'd basically go from almost Village Creek to almost Shades Creek for that low level connected feeling instead of just north of 459 to Red Mountain.
Just listen to the music of the traffic in the city. Linger on the sidewalk where the neon signs are pretty. How can you lose? The lights are much brighter there. You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares. So go downtown.
Totally surprised downtown Houston wasn't on this list. For the 4th largest city, the downtown is so unbelievably boring. People go down for sports or a concert and immediately leave. I was so disappointed when I went for the first time lol.
That's because most of the entertainment is not centered around downtown. There's Midtown, rice village and numerous city centres throughout the city. You missed out
I was just at the George R Brown Convention Center and was surprised with how “dead” it seemed in that whole area around downtown Houston. I guess the action is in the surrounding burbs! Lol
@@jacobrodriguez4832 museums and food, just like any other big city. Houston has no character, such a vanilla city that loses power about 1 month out of the year lol. Windows broken from winds, flooding, hurricane damage, trees falling, no power when it is too hot or cold....lovely place.
Great list! As a Chicagoan who lives in the best downtown of America - I totally agree with this list, except Atlanta should probably replace DC. But Las Vegas is the worst downtown of any major city! How the hell you have ZERO grocery stores? The Art District is cool and and the only part of the city that gives you a dense walkable feel, but it still got a long way to go.
As soon as I heard your criteria I knew Phoenix would be on the list, and rightly so. They have done some updating to the area in the last 30 years such as restaurants and the baseball stadium, but it's pretty flat boring other than those areas. As far as the large suburbs of Tempe, Scottsdale and Mesa, the bedroom communities of Chandler and Gilbert are each over a 1/4 million in population. As far as Kansas City goes, one negative is that the airport is so ungodly far from downtown.
Gilbert used to be where kids from Mesa went to drag race, back when they only had one cop per shift, and he was usually hanging out at the Tastie Freeze 😄
I think Chicago has a great downtown with Millennium Park, concerts, museums, theaters, the ballet, shopping, Lake Michigan and the heart of the govt and business district. COVID took its toll, as it did for most downtowns, as more people work from home nowadays, but it’s still vibrant with culture and frequent fun activities.
Thanks Kyle. I work for Jax and I hope you are right in that those 3 projects will boost the viability of downtown Jax. There is also LaVilla revitalization, The Ford on Bay, and the revitalization of Brooklyn that is really making the Urban Core attractive. The 'Stadium of the Future' as they are calling it, will definitely put a spotlight on that part of downtown and make it a better place to live.
Just about every major Florida city has had a boom in their downtowns since 2000 and all the leaders in Jacksonville did was watch through their Binoculars! 😂🤣😋
Your right about Town Center in Virginia Beach. The true downtown for the area is Downtown Norfolk, and its actually a very nice and upscale downtown with alot of shops, restaurants, parks, festivals, and entertainment districts, and with current development, it is about to triple in significance when you factor in the St Pauls Quadrent, the Neon District, Harbor Park, and the Fort Norfolk area. The two big make or break situations are the casino, and whatever they choose to do with the massive 3 story shopping mall in the middle of the city that has been slowly declining for reasons. Town Center on the other hand is a joke, and despite the fact that it is about to absorb Pembroke mall, it is basically just a few blocks of urban that is plopped in the middle of the suburbs, so while its great for the surrounding suburbs, it basically landlocks the area because the only way for it to expand is to demolish and rezone entire subdivisions. The funny thing is that town Center could be better if the city had some foresight, but they let nimbyism control their planning. There is a light rail line that runs from Downtown Norfolk to the Norfolk/Virginia beach border. That light rail line was supposed to continue down an abandoned freight rail line that runs through Town Center, and all the way to the Oceanfront. It would have connected Town Center to Downtown Norfolk and The oceanfront. Virginia Beach purchased the freight rail line with the intention of developing the light rail line, but there was a grassroots effort led by the city treasurer that ran a massive negative ad campaign to stop the line from being developed and they were successful(via referendum), so now they dont have light rail in the future. They have been talking about converting the freight line into a liniar park, (and thats way better than nothing)but it has been a long time, and not a single shovel touched dirt yet. Hampton roads has the potential to have a massive linier urban district running from Chesapeake, through Norfolk, and all the way to the oceanfront, but NIMBY, a lack of cooperation, and bad urban planning from Virginia Beach and Chesapeake (to an extent) hold the area back.
I was thinking exactly this. Virginia Beach is just the largest, Norfolk seems like the true primary city. The other thing I was thinking is if one was to claim a legitimate area in Virginia Beach as downtown, the reality is it has to be the beach, right? It's not really a traditional central business district but it certainly seems more like the economic center and most built up district in the city. Certainly more so than the town center.
Agreed, Norfolk is the true classic anchor city for that region, as Virginia Beach mostly grew as suburban sprawl spurred by white flight leaving Norfolk. If Virginia Beach were to have a true “downtown” it would be the Oceanfront, which is by the far most walkable/dense part of the city proper.
@street_ruffian I agree, and the oceanfront is the small beach town that annexed the surrounding land to call themselves a city, so its technically the historic center of the city. They are trying to develop the oceanfront more inland with things like the Vibe District, but until they move the city offices to either the oceanfront or town Center, Virginia Beach doesn't have a Downtown IMO.
Washington is amazing to live and its downtown is absolutely not Rosslyn. The business is government, and it has great restaurants, has great transportation options, is beautiful, and safe. I suggest a visit. A lot of the downtown’s vibrancy has been lost to the pandemic but other than New York, Boston, and San Francisco, and Chicago, there are few real cities that feel like cities in the US.
Downtown DC is actually great. Anywhere on K St and 14th is downtown and alive. Rosslyn not even the downtown for Arlington. It’s A downtown in Arlington. But it’s still a suburb technically. It just has big buildings but def not DC’s downtown. Basically like saying Jersey City is NYC’s downtown.
I'm not American and haven't been to too many of these but I agree with the comments that think you were hard on DC (you even suggested that you weren't sureyourself). I also agree that Atlanta downtown hasn't much going for it. I've been to Vagas, Orlando, and LA but never got to the "downtown" district in any of them, guess I didn't miss much.😊 Love the channel Keep 'em coming.
Madison, WI is similar to Columbus, OH in that it is a state capital and home to a Big Ten University - but in Madison, those two institutions are connected by State Street and many people who work for the University and the State and the City live within walking distance, and both have many activities on the weekends as well as good bars and restaurants in the area.
Having everything squeezed into an isthmus helps a lot. Little Amery in the same state boasts four isthmuses (isthmi? isthmous?), but hasn't taken advantage of that.
Yeah, KC's geography is very strange. Also, the KC Metro is way too big to not have any inner city rail, especially considering all the miles of tracks throughout the city. A crying shame.
@@StLouis-yu9iz from someone who has lived in KC and lives in the south, I would say the most overrated city is Dallas. Especially in the south, people act like Dallas is the most amazing city they have ever seen. Don’t get me wrong, it’s got its draws and it’s a beautiful skyline but it’s very over crowded and over priced.
@@wmbrent123Dallas is a “yuppie” city. It’s for the “country boys” who drive lifted F-350s from their $400k+ single family suburban home to their Lawyer office. Not even Home Depot. They’ll hire a guy with a King Ranch F-150 to do that. Us real country folks laugh at that shit all the time. Hell, most big cities in the U.S. at minimum have a neighborhood that captivates African American culture, and Dalls has its gentrified by white people Deep Ellum District, but most of the representation of Black culture in Dallas is of the… “thug” variety (and Dallas really ain’t even all that violent or anything so Dallas doesn’t even do a good job at representing that…) There’s better representation of Black culture in San Antonio, a Hispanic city, and that Black cultural representation in SA was an afterthought. Fort Worth has the stock yards, but that’s not even southern culture really, that’s western culture, and friggin’ Lubbock does a better job at representing western culture. The best part of Dallas is the Six Flags… yet I-30 is the most wild ride in the city.
I think KC is less a city and more of a gathering place for the surrounding rural areas and small towns. They come in from far away maybe once a month maybe, to do stuff they need a city for, or go to a the3atre, or attend a football or baseball game, and then go home. Urbanism doesn't work for such a population base.
Resident of Florida here. You are spot on regarding Orlando and Jax. Orlando attempted to improve DT years ago but it failed due to traffic issues and inability to compete with theme parks. Jax has always been a horror show.
Downtown LA is definitely underwhelming, but there's no way it's the second worst downtown in the US. There's plenty of great places to shop and eat (chain and local alike), the Lakers, Kings, Sparks and (basically) Dodgers play there, it has a lot of historic districts including Chinatown and Little Tokyo, and it has several "monuments" including the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the US Bank building, the Broad, the Grammy museum, and the new tallest building in California. Yes, the other areas of LA are much more popular than downtown LA, but that doesn't mean downtown LA is worse than downtown Norfolk or Jacksonville.
I know! I thought the analysis of LA's downtown was harsh. Although it is possibly the dirtiest DT I've been to in the US, it still has so much interesting stuff that it can't be number 2. Plenty of skyscrapers, offices, art walks, chic cafes, food trucks, parks, transit, sports stuff, ethnic areas, LA Live, bike infrastructure, fashion district, Old LA/Olvera, jewelry district, and Santee Alley. To me, DT is one of my favorite spots! A solid mix of grimey, upscale, historic, and entertainment that the city is known for. With that said, Grand C. Market is very underwhelming.
The "tallest building" is a joke. It's only tallest because it has a giant broomstick on top. Otherwise, I agree that there are parts of downtown LA that are pretty cool.
Part of the way he makes his lists is to compare the size of the city to what the CBD has to offer. LA‘s downtown, even if it there are some interesting things there, is really underwhelming for the second largest city in the country.
You did DC dirty. Dupont, Georgetown, and Adams Morgan are all cool places within walking distance from the mall. A lot of the listed cities aren't walkable
13:38 The Jaguars are not getting a new stadium, the existing stadium will be getting massive renovations to modernize it. Also, for Jacksonville you forgot to mention that things like the Duval Count Detention Center sit on prime river front property, the convention center is not easily accessible from downtown, the 'skyway' people mover was not well planned and rarely used, and the abundance of empty plots just west of downtown.
Watch, it might be last on the list with the other big cities in Florida(Miami, Tampa and Orlando) but it's in the eye of developers with its prime real estate plots and it soon will experience a building boom, bet
@@casanovafrankenstein8538 I'm looking forward to it. Hopefully it's more than 'luxury' apartments (affordable housing and apartments always faces harsh feedback from the NIMBY crowd), self storage units, car washes and vape shops.
Love your videos! One of my favorite geography channels. I will say, coming from a Phoenix resident, Downtown is definitely not the best it could be but I think you overlooked some amenities. Downtown Phoenix is home to the Diamondbacks and the Phx Suns, which are within walking distance from each other and entertainment. You also didn't mention Roosevelt Row or other areas that have quite a bit of revitalization in the last decade. Thanks for the great video and I still believe it belongs on this list.
@@UserName-ts3sp Yes it does - been there a few years ago, The downtown is small but has a lot of attractions in its core within walking distance including the Circle Center Mall. Also nearby are the Fountain Square district and the Mass Avenue Arts District.
So many more cities could have been on this list. San Jose, Atlanta, Houston, Portland, Miami. Seems like Having a good downtown is the exception in this country
No, SJ is much more dynamic to even being close to be on this list. It got housing, university, nightlife, entertainment, diversity, culture and all the trappings of a great urban environment it should have.
Orlando is a fun place to visit and a terrible place to live. I was stationed there after I left boot camp. Its nice being able to see the major attractions but really not a good reason to buy a home and stay. You can live in a nicer suburb and just drive in whenever you like.
As a Jacksonville resident, I was not at all shocked to see my city at #4. Jacksonville downtown is like a run down shopping mall, where 80% of the storefronts are abandoned, and it’s now primarily occupied by crack heads.
I went to KC back in 99 from STL and I liked it. But I think I was in the Plaza district which was pretty lively. But I remember coming back in 02 on a Saturday and actually going downtown. Main thing I remember was all the businesses that were closed but to be honest I think STL is similar. Alot of cities turn their downtowns into a place where people with office jobs go to work and nothing else. This is a recipe for a bad downtown and I think most US cities are working from the same cookbook.
The strip isnt in las vegas. The city stops around the strat. Paradise and winchester and green valley and summerlin and of course henderson is where most of people are, all non city limits.
JACKSONVILLE just has never figured out what it is. Industrial city❓. Tourism❓. Port❓. Retirement center❓. …… As a result, it’s a “Crossroads “ people passing through. Great potential, but about nothing. I’ve been here 17+ years.
@@trainsandmore2319Bro, it's been overshadowed by Miami for at least the past 50 years, do you live under a rock, oh and speaking of under, Miami will be under water in 30 years or so...
As a life-long Jacksonville resident, I can confirm that both Jacksonville and Orlando deserve to be on the list. Hopefully, Shad Khan’s (owner of the Jags) plan for the stadium revitalization will be a big hit. Downtown Jacksonville has much potential. However, much of the downtown real estate and socio-economic decision making has been heavily influenced by a major Baptist Church with several blocks of prime real estate right in the heart of the city. It seems they their influence is finally relenting, a bit.
Can’t wait to see the best downtowns video! I’ve seen it mentioned already but I’d also love to see a video showcasing what you think are the “up and coming” downtowns! I may be biased, but I’d say downtown Minneapolis would fit in the latter category.
I'm sure I'm not going to be the first to say this, but you're not really being fair to DC's downtown. First and foremost, there is excellent access to the major points of interest via Metrorail. Second, one of those points of interest is the world's finest collection of FREE museums clustered around the National Mall. Third, Union Station is not merely a transportation hub for intercity rail, commuter rail, buses, and Metrorail, serving as a grand gateway to the city, but it is also a destination in itself with numerous shops and restaurants, easy access to the Capitol, nearby neighborhoods of charming character, and a plan to develop more adjacent mixed uses. Fourth, there is a reasonably dense business district along K Street and numerous other activity centers throughout the city (often centered around DC's ubiquitous traffic circles and/or Metro stations). Fifth, if you're going to complain about the height restriction then you need to mercilessly roast Paris, which is much shorter than DC but seems to be doing all right in spite of that. Sixth, Rosslyn is not the only compact place where DC exports its skyscrapers to; Crystal City is also home to many government offices in skyscrapers centered around a Metrorail station with a lot of residential units and a vast, mostly underground mall full of shopping and dining options. The density is linear (focused on Metrorail corridors) rather than centralized in order to preserve the monumental character of the city. All of that being said, you're absolutely right about Las Vegas! Yuck. EDIT: I forgot to mention the downtown sportsball arena, which I will stubbornly call the MCI Center no matter what they're calling it this week.
Not sure I agree that LA's downtown is bad. It's gritty and rough around the edges, but those old districts are really cool in my opinion, and are actually quite lively.
Entire Phoenix metro looks and feels like Mars. It’s like a plain over-toasted bagel with zero seasoning. The people don’t have any unique accents, there’s not a lot of music, or culture that is unique to the area either. It’s like the sun fries people’s brains there.
Downtown DC is the downtown for the metro area, not Rosalyn. The transportation connectivity in DT DC, the fact that the highest concentration of jobs in the metro area are still in downtown, and all of the famous tourist attractions are located there as well. As someone who lives in the DMV, we refer to “downtown” as the area by the mall. On the other hand, we refer to Rosslyn, Bethesda, Alexandria, and Silver Spring as their own places. Yes, DC has a height restriction, but downtown DC is centralized enough to a point that it is 100% the main downtown in the DMV.
The Port of Los Angeles is “colonial incorporation”- where the municipality gerrymandered a bizarre protrusion to wrap itself around a high-revenue area so they could deny that money to people in Inglewood, Compton and others more affected by the port’s negative environmental impact. Chicago did the same thing with O’Hare airport.
I am surprised to NOT find the Vietnam (and adjacent Corea) Memorial sites mentioned. When I visited DC way back I found those highly impressive. Over all I believe your Survey is informative and as usual well balanced! Well done!
The problem is that there are about 25 cities tied for #11 on this list.
Everyone thinks that their downtown is one of the best or one of the worst. Nobody thinks thinks their downtown is "pretty average".
No, I think El Paso's downtown is average
@@MichaelSweet-nn5bg Pittsburgh has an okay downtown
Nah. /
Yeah I thought Dallas would be #5 easily
This is true, but Baltimore and DC shouldn't be on this list.
DC is a very interesting city to explore with no shortage of attractions. Even the rough areas are far from boring.
Baltimore may have crime issues/poverty, but it has a lot of history, and it has a lot more going on than most US downtowns
How is Atlanta not on the list? Mostly empty offices and a 14 lane highway going right through the center.
@@cubersanonymous5180 I didn’t think Fairlie Popular and Midtown were concerning
I know right. Atlanta is one of the worst
I was thinking that too. Especially because of the Five Points/Peachtree St.area. But maybe he thinks the Centennial Park area makes up for that, since all the attractions are there.
J@@CLE2ATL66 It may be Covid is the reason for the decrease in workers downtown.
@@CLE2ATL66I haven’t been to Atlanta in 10 years or so but last time I was there 5 points was nice. What’s wrong with the area?
Jacksonville has one of the most depressing downtowns in any city in the US.
Lerp
Borderline dead
Maybe one of the most depressing top-25 cities.
Which Jacksonville?
Totally!
Strong disagree about using Rosslyn as the proxy downtown for DC. DC has its own downtown, and it's not the national mall. There's the Foggy Bottom area, Farrgut Square area, McPherson Square area, Mt. Vernon Square/Convention Center area, and Gallery Place/Chinatown area that could all be considered a part of DC's downtown. It's very walkable and has a lot going on. No one from DC would consider the national mall to be downtown.
Agreed
I just posted about that, but you have much more detail in yours. Thanks.
Yep, I lived in VA and MD for a little while and went there a few times.
As someone who works downtown (literally next door to the monstrosity known as the FBI building), I can confirm there is a downtown
Hard to imagine the evil you work next to everyday
It is refreshing - and hopeful - to see that Detroit is not on this list.
Detroit has a great downtown
@@shawnmcnamara6032It's the rest of the D that sucks!
Detroit's downtown is so good it gets criticized for being too much of the focus on investment at the expense of the outer neighborhoods.
Usually Detroit and Cleveland make these lists to the point it becomes almost cliche. Both have worked hard and it’s good to see neither.
@PhantasyStarved we know that's right!
as someone from the jacksonville metro, it’s genuinely shocking just how little there is to do in downtown jax
you’re only ever over there to go to a doctor’s appointment or to watch the jaguars score 3 points
There’s a few good live music joints but yeah there’s not much to do.
Ya'll are lame
Lol 😂
Duuuval
“One more lane bro,” had me smirk and chuckle out loud. lol
Man i absolutely love the content on this channel, u do such an incredible job. I really appreciate the wide range of geographic and demographic topics. I’m always looking forward to the next video to come. Just wanted to say I wish u nothing but success, the passion and hard work absolutely shows!
Thank you! "One more lane bro" was coined by someone else, but certainly appropriate for some of these cities.
Housing is the key to having a vibrant downtown. People have to live there so they can step out of their building or townhome and be within walking distance of restaurants and entertainment. Having people living downtown creates demand for shops, restaurants, bars, theater, and entertainment & sports venues. If people have to get in their car and drive downtown, find a parking space and then worry about having to drive back home after a night on the town, most will just stay home.
❤
The other more essential key is a center of employment specialty in any downtown. Otherwise, a large population downtown with a horrible work environment spells out miserably high poverty and often high crime.
I really don't know enough to rank those cities but believe Houston should at least get an honorable mention.
I was amazed it wasn’t on this list.
Me too @@75aces97
Houston and Dallas are two of the worst, least livable cities in the country. Maybe not LA bad, but not too far off.
@@balboa0621 There's far worse.
Too much incredible food in downtown Houston to have it on this list
I'm glad Vegas made this list. As a local, people don't realize how boring Las Vegas can be because it lacks things like a functioning exciting downtown.
So you've never been to The Fremont Street Experience or First Fridays? Or the Arts District or Fremont East? Or any of the Festivals? If you're bored in downtown Las Vegas then you're simply a dull person or you've never actually been to downtown Las Vegas.
@@TeksonikAudio Haha you’re so BUTTHURT!! His comment had nothing to do with the party scene with Fremont St. DTLV does severely lack simple functional essentials like grocery stores. Probably the only downtown without a train station as well. Yep, certainly the worst downtown in America!
@@TeksonikAudio Freemont Street is so dirty and cheap stick to the strip
But for someone who likes the outdoors and traveling, Las Vegas is a tremendous location. You can get almost anywhere from McCarran. For parks and natural wonders, within a few hours drive it's an embarrassment of riches; Valley of Fire, Red Rock Canyon, Great Basin, all the Southern Utah parks, Virgin River AZ, Grand Canyon, Death Valley, Southern Sierra and Mohave, and on and on.
@@qikstarLas Vegas used to have a train station for the Amtrak Desert Wind train, before this train was eliminated in the late 1990s. It was behind where The Plaza Casino is. There still is an Amtrak mural, inside this building to this day. The old indoor waiting room for trains, now has am exercise room in it btw. Union Pacific passenger trains used to stop there, pre-Amtrak.
There is talk Brightline West may eventually start Rancho Cucamonga(where LA Metrolink commuter rail trains go to) to Las Vegas train service, but I guess we'll see if this starts service one day.
I liked this video but would definitely like to see a “best 10 downtown” version
It'll be the "best for bar hopping."
1. Manhattan
2. Chicago
3. Boston
4. San Francisco
5. Philadelphia
6. Washington, DC
8. Seattle
9. Miami
10. New Orleans
I think he already did.
@@AlCatSplatswap New Orleans for Pittsburgh or Austin (since New Orleans isn’t in the top 50 metro areas which was the cutoff in this video) and you’ve got basically a perfect list
I want to see that too
Hey Kyle, I have a video idea.
How about the top largest cities not located on/near a body of water (lake, river, bay, ocean)?
boosting, i like this
Great idea!
I like this too.
Does the river have to be navigable? Asking because our river here in Dallas is pretty useless by river standards.
I like this idea!
That Rust in Peace album in the background shows you in a whole new light.
Really excited for the "Best Downtowns" video! I'd also be interested to hear your opinion on which downtowns are doing the best to improve, like an "up and coming downtowns" sort of video
After watching dozens of your videos, it has become increasingly clear that you have an incredible depth and breadth of knowledge of the United States. Thanks again for the wonderful, informative videos.
Downtown LA is also in a weird location, it's not on the LA River and it's not in the middle of LA, it's in LA's extreme east, so the gravitas of LA is split between Hollywood, Mid-Wilshire, and West LA. Even it's beautiful train station is off to the side, alone and across the freeway; disconnected from downtown. I lived in LA for half of my life in the 80s and 90s and I'm as big a LA booster as anyone but the reality is that while downtown LA "could" become a cool and lively place, the city just doesn't know how to do that organically and tries to force places to exist instead of letting downtown be what people want it to be. Right now it's just a place of little disjointed districts with nothing to bring them together, no cohesion, with pockets of character amid blocks of no-man's land. Am I talking about the LA of 1984 or 2024? Yes. People will say it's gotten better and so much has changed, which may be so but it's basically still the same.
It's stunning to me that the 2nd largest city in the US with a very lively and diverse entertainment and social scene has such a drab downtown. It's shocking.
But then again, that is what LA is all about, isn't it? Stage sets with nothing behind them. The universally hated Pershing Sq is a perfect example of a staged plaza that has had the soul programmed out of it and instead of creating something people want there, a shaded human scale plaza like what used to be there (before it was ripped out for the underground parking lot, which precludes any trees, in an attempt to imitate SF's Union Sq without the amenities around it, and refusing to take the parking out), the city is intending on another over-designed and lifeless plaza, a "forced" place. I live in Chicago now with one of the best downtowns in the world, and as much as it pains me, something LA will never likely come close to having.
Tourists can take a dozen trips to L.A. and never see downtown. I walked around downtown when I visited L.A. in the ‘80s and liked the fact that it was quiet and unpretentious, particularly compared to the big pop culture oriented sites.
@@brianarbenz1329 Agreed. No reason to visit downtown LA. I went there a couple of times in the early 'aughts when living in LV, then lived in SoCal for 8 years from 2015-2023 and never found a reason to visit DT. All the cool stuff is everywhere else.
I can understand your point. What’s funny is downtown Houston if you look at a map looks like “the center” but it isn’t lol. It’s actually more to our east side as well because of how the city limits are laid. The highways fool people, the east side actually ends way before the beltway. Thanks for teaching me something new
Los Angeles Metropolitician area is just a bunch of cities that have their own mini downtowns
Downtown Boise is better than downtown LA
Been a fan for years, love the new intro lol
Kinda surprised San Jose, CA didn't make the list -- the downtown is very small and is majorly height-restricted due to the nearby airport. It's very empty outside of a few bars by the university, and there's not a lot of jobs in Downtown specifically -- most of the jobs are in sprawling tech campuses way out in the suburbs (Cupertino, Mountain View, Los Gatos, etc.)
I think your inclusion of DTLA is very fair, it is quite dirty and dilapidated. There are some areas of improvement -- the area by Staples Center has notably improved -- but a lot of Downtown is very underdeveloped and nasty. Century City and the Westside are the largest job centers in the city, and while city leadership has been trying to increase tourism in DTLA, it's not somewhere I'd recommend tourists to spend a lot of time in.
Kyle has a bit of a California bias since he's from the Central Valley I think
Haha same! King Kyle knows his audience. I bet a lot of people were biting their nails waiting for SJ downtown to win.
+1 to everything you said about San Jose. Surprised my hometown wasn't mentioned, which robs us of an opportunity for Kyle to feature the Quetzalcoatl statue in his slideshow. City of almost a million within its limits but a very small downtown. The Shark Tank and San Pedro Square along with (possibly) light rail and train connections probably keep it out of the Top 10. Hardly any shopping exists downtown; everything is out at the malls, particularly Santana Row (of which Bill Burr once said "this has to be one of the most soulless places I've ever been to in my life... why is it so bad?"). Amid the sprawl there are more interesting main-street style destinations like Willow Glen, Los Gatos, and Mountain View (Castro).
San jose is part of the SF metro right? Since this video only showcases the largest city of its metro I didn’t think it’d qualify
@@Tipen San Jose actually has a higher population than San Francisco
Love all the new bumpers and new view of your office but my favorite addition is the Megadeth album getting a background role. Big fan, Kyle!
DC actually has the 3rd biggest downtown in the US after Midtown Manhattan and Chicago. It's larger and more amenity filled than every downtown on this list many of them put together, and has more people walking around downtown than all of them. DC has a clean world class level downtown, with world class museums, activities, and public transit. It should be top 5/10 BEST downtowns tbh. Using Rosslyn, VA as your barometer for downtown of course messes up this synopsis. I'd actually argue that Baltimore is not top 10 worst either. It's bottomed out by now, and back on the upswing IMO.
As a DC native, you pinned it on the head.
Yeah I think you giving Downtown DC too much credit. When I think of major downtown, I do think of sky scrapers and I never ever think of DC. However, everything you said is true and it is quite vibrant, clean, and walkable / accessible without a car. If Toronto was 🇺🇸, I would put it as the 3rd best and biggest downtown after Chicago and NYC
@@qikstar thats the proverbial thinking of most people, but in actuality it’s a bit different. Paris and Madrid don’t have skyscrapers downtown, but they are more bustling than 98% of N. American downtowns. On average building height DC builds taller than most American cities downtown and it’s completely built out for miles. It’s just capped at about 13 stories.
@@qikstar I agree with @derekbyrd49, you're understanding of a downtown is limited by your perception that "tall building = city." Obviously, as his video points out, tall buildings are often just offices that clear out at 5pm. The density of paris is actually higher than new york city and it's buildings are rarely above 8-9 stories.
I’m from Baltimore born & raised & you are definitely correct Baltimore downtown is nice & growing & getting better, this guy doesn’t know what he talking about
I'm a resident of downtown Atlanta. I'm a little surprised we didn't make the Top 10. We definitely have our issues. BUT we do have football/soccer/basketball and major concerts here. Maybe that kept us off the list.
On the downside, It's pretty rough here.
GSU definitely kept us off the list.
Downtown Atlanta is pretty much the most impressive Downtown in the entire south as far as the skyline goes. It may not be the best Downtown, but it certainly ain't the worst.
Major Sports venues, Concerts, Parks, restaurants, College football hall of fame, Georgia State Area, Marta access, Museums, Walkable areas (not everywhere), plenty of places to shop, and thats not even including midtown.
Downtown Atl isnt chicago or anything, and it has many places it needs to improve in, but i dont think its anywhere near the worst.
I think downtown Atlanta is ok, but it won't exactly be on the Top 10 downtowns list.
@@kazeryu17 The most impressive downtown in the south would definitely be Miami.
Washington, D.C.’s downtown is fine, and it is not across in Virginia. There are museums, historic homes and churches to tour, and lots of cafes and restaurants.
Yeah, Geoff flubbed his assessement of DC. DC's downtown CBD in not in Rosslyn VA. The DC CBD is the centered around Penn Quarter/Chinatown area. And extends west along K Street to about Connecticut Ave where the Farragut North and Farragut West metro stations are. This area doesn't have high rise skyscrapers but it is at the center of the subway system and is entirely built out with almost all parking underground.
The pandemic that triggered so much remote work hit the area hard as reduced foot traffic made it harder for storefronts to survive given the CBD's enormous rents. But if there can be a market correction to commercial rents then it should thrive again. At its peak the sidewalks would be busier than pretty anywhere in the US outside of Manhattan or the Chicago loop. More recently its not quite to that level, and even the Chicago Loop isn't what it once was, but doesn't warrant being lumped onto this sad list.
@@pauljarski7977 Who is Geoff?
@brianarbenz1329 May make since using the criteria in this video, but in general, I would assess Washington as one of the best, if not the best, designed urban areas in the US and ranking very high globally. Though not necessarily for reasons "urbanists" might consider most important.
The motto of Chicago is "Urbs in horto" or City in a Garden. Washington is, in one sense, a city built around a park - a true central park.
@@joetrey215 Washington's biggest problem is the micro-management of it by Congress, whose members don't care about its residents. Federal law requires that every felony charge within D.C. goes before a federal grand jury before prosecution can be done. The backlog makes it so much easier to get away with armed robberies inside D.C. than just a block away in Maryland or across the Potomac in Virginia.
And if a bill is introduced to change this preposterous law, Representatives from Idaho and Mississippi get to vote on it, but the D.C. delegate doesn't have a vote.
Same for the law restricting buildings to the height of the Capitol Dome's top.
@@brianarbenz1329 The entire point of a federal district is that ultimately it is managed in the national interest and not in the purely local interest. Otherwise, it might as well be in Maryland. Where the district does exercise home rule, it has been a demonstration of incompetence and stupidity more than any other traits. The crime problem is primarily due to who lives there and not the courts they are processed through.
Hey Kyle! Love that Megadeth Album in your background! Rust in Peace is my fav album 😁
Very informative video. When we travel outside the US, we always search out the “Old Town” neighborhood, usually the most interesting and historic part of the city.
Shameless plug: Milwaukee and Chicago both have great downtowns. Chicago is an architectural world class gem. And both are literally built right up to the coastline of that freshwater inland sea; the Great Lakes, and Lake Michigan specifically. You can't even see the other side of the lake. So it's like living on an ocean, only no sharks or hurricanes! Breathtaking views. Even in winter. One just has to embrace the change of seasons. Both are very walkable, drivable and have rail transit. Milwaukee in particular is very bike friendly. Very diverse people, buildings, great mix of office, residential, entertainment. Diverse, high quality, and great value food scene is awesome too. Milwaukee also has festivals going on all summer long downtown on the lakefront. They don't call it the city of festivals for nothing.
Milwaukee is a very UNDERrated city! That’s a great thing!
Absolutely!
Chicagos commercial vacancy rate is almost at 36% (just behind San Fran at about 40%). I was just in chicago a month ago and will be there again next week. it SHOULD be amazing because it WAS amazing, but the leaders have fucked it HARD. its nearing a death spiral....in reality, its probably entered one.
You must be drinking that Chicago water. Lol.
I’m a HUGE fan of both downtowns especially Chicago. I’d live in downtown Chicago if I could. One of my best friends bought a high rise condo near Wrigley and really turned it into a gem in the sky! ❤
Best Geography channel on TH-cam!
Covid really hit downtowns hard. Many of them are going to need to reinvent themselves.
What is the purpose of a "downtown"? I've always lived semi rural-ly on the edge of big cities and they've always felt restrictive
@@sdrc92126They’re more of less in the middle of everything, so they serve as the natural hubs for commerce and entertainment.
@@sdrc92126 To be a gathering place for business and culture. They aren't a really a purpose or means as much as an end result of civilization.
Agreed. I know many “work from home” people that permanently moved to cabins or vacation homes. Without the need to work in an office, they happily traded away the urban lifestyle for lakes, forests, and rural areas. Who needs a hip restaurant scene when you can watch the sun set over Lake Michigan instead?
@@sdrc92126 A convenient place to eat, shop, work, sightsee, etc.
Downtown DC is a thing that’s not the national mall. And it’s probably one of the best in the country. The height restrictions just make it so you can’t see it super obviously
K Street would probably be the CBD.
I lived in the suburbs and used to go into DC when there was lots of stuff to see and do. The Mall is probably my favorite area, then the zoon, then the food court underneath Union Station. But I have not been back recently. Heard it went to hell during COVID.
I'd not even consider Vegas a city, it's a giant casino resort loosely connected by rival casinos trying to keep them from walking across the street. It's an urban planning nightmare.
As someone who has lived in dc many years, I can confirm it has a pretty substantial downtown spanning several areas, such as Foggy Bottom, Farragut and McPherson squares, Penn Quarter, Gallery Place, Chinatown, etc. It is very lively and always has something going on. And Rosslyn I would consider the downtown of Arlington, which is a suburb, not part of DC. It’s a whole different vibe in Rosslyn compared to downtown.
The fact that Dallas is not on here but DC/Rosslyn are really surprised me, as somebody who lives in the former and used to travel a LOT to the latter.
The thing that blew my mind as an English dude (who works for the railway) is that Phoenix has 5m people and no railway station! You gotta go out to Maricopa to catch the one train a day to LA or Tucson, which itself is down the scariest highway in history. Mad place.
Most people fly
Well we (Americans) don't have many issues with public transportation, because there is very little public transportation to take issue with.
The John Wayne Parkway? What's scary about it? The creepy desert landscape or the huge holes in the road itself?
@@leaaugusta9924 the holes, the trucks, the mad driving and yeah… the desert! Loved Tucson tho. Underrated town.
@@georgehenan853 through choice or lack of alternatives? Also you wouldn’t fly to Tucson - I would hope - that’s a clear example of a passenger flow in the sweet spot of journey time.
Baltimore has some of the best architecture and walkabikity in the country, but it really hurts how few safe areas there are and how many businesses fled the city. Growing up nearby, I have a fondness for it and see the potential, but it just can never activate it without bringing back jobs
That's about the most unsafe city to walk.
Yes unsafe cause of the usual.
I lived in the otterbein/federal hill neighborhood and it was a great place to live. There was plenty going on and a lot of good restaurants and bars. But yeah, outside of fed hill, the harbor, and fells there really aren’t many places anyone should go
Can we have a "Best Downtowns" video as well please? Thank you for the fun and the information!
downtown slc better be on there
Regarding Kansas City, I do understand your points, but I would also say we have slowly been changing our mentality and improving upon this over the last 20 years. Until about the 2000 this metro had a mindset of “build this one big thing over here and the growth will just follow”. That’s how you’ve got our airport 15 miles away from downtown, Truman sports complex in Central Jackson County instead of downtown, the old Kemper Arena in the West Bottoms next to downtown but unconnected to anything, 18th & Vine being an island unconnected to the rest of downtown, and a whole lot of spread out suburbs that don’t seem connected to anything. Much like Sunbelt cities, Kansas City went hard on the freeways, and then we became very sprawled. Until the 2000s the last major downtown investment was a couple of tall skyscrapers in the 1980s. There is riverfront development happening now with the stadium for the professional women’s soccer team, and redevelopment along Berkeley Riverfront Park; KC’s downtown used to be along the river but Major floods in the teens, 20s, and 1951 appears to have caused leaders and citizens to turn their backs on the river and move up the Bluffs. Crime caused a lot of white flight to the suburbs back in the 60s and 70s, and our crime rates continue to reinforce the perception to suburbanites that downtown is a dangerous place. Honestly, the Central business district’s biggest challenge Isn’t KCK (our local answer to Newark or Gary, IN), it’s Johnson County, KS. When Sprint picked metro Kansas City to build their headquarters back in the late 80s/early 90s some real estate developers built a ton of class a office space in Overland Park and Leawood. Johnson County is where many of the upper and upper middle-class moved in the 80s and 90s, the crime rates are much lower and the standard of living is generally higher. So much office, retail and entertainment has been built in Johnson County that there are plenty of well heeled residents that won’t even cross the state line into Missouri anymore…because that’s where they believe all the crime & poverty are. At the moment, the state of Kansas just passed a bill to try and draw the Chiefs and the Royals over into Western Wyandotte County (just north of Johnson County) with more suburban stadiums out in the middle of sprawl. We are putting in a lot of effort in Kansas City with the street car system and other downtown investment, but it will take continued efforts over a longer period of time (and a ceasing of beggar-thy-neighbor “economic development” by Kansas) to reverse the trends and really make downtown the vibrate place it can be.
In my opinion you are dead wrong about DC. The downtown is not the national mall, or rosslyn. Just because tall buildings exist does not mean it is a central point at all. Think european cities which tend to shy away from height in the first place. I am from Arlington, Virginia, and if anything I would call Ballston/virginia square the downtown of ARLINGTON, and rosslyn just another business center like Bethesda or Tysons. DC does in fact have a downtown, which encompasses much of foggy bottom, dupont circle, and extends to chinatown. This area is very walkable, has great nightlife, includes GW university, and many restaurants/points of interest.
Just left a very similar comment. Although respectfully disagree about DuPont being downtown - that's its own neighborhood.
I agree I like visiting DC. Granted it has so much going for it (history, museums, government) so it’s kind of had to mess up, but it’s still great.
My biggest problem with it is the crime.
Fuckin loved living in Rosslyn / DC. Actually wonderful city
He’s not talking about neighborhoods that offer the things a good downtown should offer. He’s talking about the actual CBD.
He made the same mistake with Virginia Beach too. The historical downtown is the area on the beach, not the place with the skyscrapers.
OMG, Megadeth Rust in Peace is the greatest album of all time!! I love your channel even more now!!! 😁
90 clash of the Titans, Hart, Michigan Alice In Chains open for Megadeth anthrax and slayer and it was the rust in peace album, and it was fucking awesome
The vinyl reissue sounds great.
anyone who calls a metal record as GOAT has outed themselves as having zero fucking taste
Couldn't disagree more with the DC placement. Like... I just don't get the logic whatsoever.
Dc is lame, the only the thing it's got going are the monuments and museums...
@@Johnny-hn9ts ???? Are you retarded?
It has no skyscrapers and it’s waaaay more ghetto and run down than most would expect. It’s honestly not bad but I think people maybe expect a little more form
The capital. It feels like a small town just cuz it has no skyscrapers and that’s hard to mentally get over if ur from say NYC or Chicago.
@@jaywizz7008 having skyscrapers should have very little basis on if a downtown is good. And no, downtown DC is not ghetto. DC in the 80s? Yeah that was ghetto
@@Johnny-hn9ts “the only thing it has going for it is all the culture other cities wish they had”…. Got it. Plus restaurants and a super international population with people from all over the globe
You completely missed on DC. Rossyln/Nat Mall are not downtown. DC has a dense, walkable, diverse downtown that remains busy long after business hours and on weekends. It has a major arena, university, and transit. Its honestly one of the best cities in US from an urbanist perspective.
Which university? Galludette? Howard? American U? Catholic University of America?
@@letitiajeavons6333 George Washington University is downtown. Howard is just outside. Georgetown's law school is downtown. There are lots of extensions of universities such as Johns Hopkins.
Not for tourists.
Otherwise good video, but like many comments are saying, DC has a specific downtown area that is specifically concentrated by the transport hubs of Metro Center and Gallery Place. There are miles of gigantic office buildings just north of the mall, which is also included in downtown. This makes downtown DC not only one of the largest job centers in America but also one of the largest tourist destinations. I personally don’t like it as a DC native because the height restrictions, wide streets, and lack of corner stores/ restaurants downtown really make it feel less lively than NYC or Chicago even when the streets are packed with office workers, and the mall is far too spread out and frankly unbearable in the summer months. Objectively though you didn’t analyze downtown DC, you picked one of DC’s many satellite downtowns. We have almost too many of those to count. Roslyn, Arlington, Alexandria, Tyson’s, Bethesda, North Bethesda, Rockville, Wheaton, Silver Spring…and I’m sure I failed to mention a couple of them.
I like the new intro of your videos! It looks so cool
Hey Kyle, fun video 😊 i was glad to see neither Denver or Albuquerque were on there!
Putting DC on a list of worst US downtowns is absolutely unhinged.
Agreed it's got no high rises but the national mall, downtown, and chinatown are so beautiful with no super highways going through them.
DC's CBD stretches from the National Mall to Massachusetts Avenue and out to Dupont Circle. Sorry Kyle, but this is pretty big L of a take
The beauty of subjective lists. 🎉
Dc is lame..
@@abhinavpotluri9654Chinatown? With so many businesses having closed down and the owner of the Wizards/Caps wanting to move out? Lol
Interesting take on urban struggles! It’s a stark reminder of how city planning can make or break a downtown area.
This is one of my favorite videos on your channel. You're not trying to blame anybody but you're just being honest about how the critical parts of major cities are lacking in an important way. I especially like your take on Virginia Beach. It's just chain stores like an outdoor shopping mall. There are not unique businesses and family-owned shops. It's sterile and boring. Cities can't come into existence by large developers and be lively places. They need to start humble and increment their way up as many participants invest in the city. That's how places have always came to be but the US has forgot that. That's not to say there can't be large developers. Large developers are great sometimes but large developers can't manifest a downtown.
10.Kansas City
9.Baltimore
8.Columbus
7.Phoenix
6.Orlando
5.Washington DC
4.Jacksonville
3.Virginia Beach
2.Los Angeles
1.Las Vegas
Well thank goodness Toledo didn't show up this time.
San Francrapo joins the chat
@@ChristopherSobieniak too small. it would rte with albany or hartford ct
@@Job0121 I bet.
@@jamesrecknor6752too small
Are you also going to make a top 10 best downtowns video? Would love to see it! Hopefully Chicago ends up on there as well.
"There was this kid I grew up with; he was younger than me. Sorta looked up to me, you know. We did our first work together, worked our way out of the street. Things were good, we made the most of it. During Prohibition, we ran molasses into Canada... made a fortune, your father, too. As much as anyone, I loved him and trusted him. Later on he had an idea to build a city out of a desert stop-over for GI's on the way to the West Coast. That kid's name was Moe Greene, and the city he invented was Las Vegas. This was a great man, a man of vision and guts".
I haven't watched you in a while and in that time your narration has improved 1000%! Much tighter, much more to the point, and very enjoyable to listen to. Good analysis of these downtowns. Can't argue with any of these but I could sure add a few!
Thank you!
The biggest problem with Kansas City MO is that, if you're not familiar with the area, you'll have trouble finding fun places to go. Also, everything is really spread out so you have to do your homework and figure out where everything is in relation to each other. However, if you take the time and do your research, KCMO (in my humble opinion) is one of the best cities in America. I've been all over the US but KCMO is one of my favorite cities. There are great restaurants (including some famous BBQ spots), excellent music venues (big and small), and most of the population is friendly.
All true. Just not concentrated in downtown. Much like Saint Louis in that regard.
@@jimferris9447 St. Louis has made some improvements downtown with the additions of Ballpark Village and the aquarium/Ferris wheel at Union Station. The big problem it continues to have is crime. A general lack of police presence makes it feel unsafe especially at night. I personally have never had any issues there but can definitely see how it would make some people nervous.
You are spot on about the Town Center at Virginia Beach it was a developer same thing with the Town Center in Newport News and Hampton
Yeah, but putting VA Beach right behind LA?
@@roryfitzpatrick5273 I agree that’s extreme considering LA is a 💩 hole
That Jacksonville section made me more interested in what cities you think have interesting projects in works/planning stages more than cities with good downtowns. For example, Birmingham has that amphitheater project aiming to make its uptown area more of it's own separate area from the CBD, plus the Red Mountain Cut project aims to make a more walkable connection from Southside to downtown Homewood and a couple of the Mountain Brook villages. So it'd basically go from almost Village Creek to almost Shades Creek for that low level connected feeling instead of just north of 459 to Red Mountain.
I've got some topics coming up where I'll discuss some of these major projects going on right now.
Duuuval
Just listen to the music of the traffic in the city. Linger on the sidewalk where the neon signs are pretty. How can you lose? The lights are much brighter there. You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares. So go downtown.
When you alone
and life is making you lonely,
you can always go
Downtown. 👍🏽
Gentle bossa nova…
Where all the lights are bright!
That was written and sung in the mid-1960s when downtowns generally still the center of activity of all sorts. I know I remember it.
Leslie Gore???
Totally surprised downtown Houston wasn't on this list. For the 4th largest city, the downtown is so unbelievably boring. People go down for sports or a concert and immediately leave. I was so disappointed when I went for the first time lol.
That's because most of the entertainment is not centered around downtown. There's Midtown, rice village and numerous city centres throughout the city. You missed out
@@rufusgoldstein2655 "entertainment" there is food and some museums, not much else. Nothing that any other city doesn't have.
I was just at the George R Brown Convention Center and was surprised with how “dead” it seemed in that whole area around downtown Houston. I guess the action is in the surrounding burbs! Lol
@@dylanc6856world class museums. Multiple! And world class food as well
@@jacobrodriguez4832 museums and food, just like any other big city. Houston has no character, such a vanilla city that loses power about 1 month out of the year lol. Windows broken from winds, flooding, hurricane damage, trees falling, no power when it is too hot or cold....lovely place.
Great list! As a Chicagoan who lives in the best downtown of America - I totally agree with this list, except Atlanta should probably replace DC. But Las Vegas is the worst downtown of any major city! How the hell you have ZERO grocery stores? The Art District is cool and and the only part of the city that gives you a dense walkable feel, but it still got a long way to go.
As soon as I heard your criteria I knew Phoenix would be on the list, and rightly so. They have done some updating to the area in the last 30 years such as restaurants and the baseball stadium, but it's pretty flat boring other than those areas. As far as the large suburbs of Tempe, Scottsdale and Mesa, the bedroom communities of Chandler and Gilbert are each over a 1/4 million in population.
As far as Kansas City goes, one negative is that the airport is so ungodly far from downtown.
A good city has a close-in airport.
Gilbert used to be where kids from Mesa went to drag race, back when they only had one cop per shift, and he was usually hanging out at the Tastie Freeze 😄
I see you’re displaying the greatest metal album of all time 👍
I think Chicago has a great downtown with Millennium Park, concerts, museums, theaters, the ballet, shopping, Lake Michigan and the heart of the govt and business district.
COVID took its toll, as it did for most downtowns, as more people work from home nowadays, but it’s still vibrant with culture and frequent fun activities.
Thanks Kyle. I work for Jax and I hope you are right in that those 3 projects will boost the viability of downtown Jax. There is also LaVilla revitalization, The Ford on Bay, and the revitalization of Brooklyn that is really making the Urban Core attractive. The 'Stadium of the Future' as they are calling it, will definitely put a spotlight on that part of downtown and make it a better place to live.
Downtown Jacksonville has been on the brink of a Renaissance for about 30 years now. Don't expect anything to change soon.
Just about every major Florida city has had a boom in their downtowns since 2000 and all the leaders in Jacksonville did was watch through their Binoculars! 😂🤣😋
Basically
Bold City
Get DC off this list… 😂 In my opinion it’s one of the best downtowns in the country.
Your right about Town Center in Virginia Beach. The true downtown for the area is Downtown Norfolk, and its actually a very nice and upscale downtown with alot of shops, restaurants, parks, festivals, and entertainment districts, and with current development, it is about to triple in significance when you factor in the St Pauls Quadrent, the Neon District, Harbor Park, and the Fort Norfolk area. The two big make or break situations are the casino, and whatever they choose to do with the massive 3 story shopping mall in the middle of the city that has been slowly declining for reasons. Town Center on the other hand is a joke, and despite the fact that it is about to absorb Pembroke mall, it is basically just a few blocks of urban that is plopped in the middle of the suburbs, so while its great for the surrounding suburbs, it basically landlocks the area because the only way for it to expand is to demolish and rezone entire subdivisions. The funny thing is that town Center could be better if the city had some foresight, but they let nimbyism control their planning. There is a light rail line that runs from Downtown Norfolk to the Norfolk/Virginia beach border. That light rail line was supposed to continue down an abandoned freight rail line that runs through Town Center, and all the way to the Oceanfront. It would have connected Town Center to Downtown Norfolk and The oceanfront. Virginia Beach purchased the freight rail line with the intention of developing the light rail line, but there was a grassroots effort led by the city treasurer that ran a massive negative ad campaign to stop the line from being developed and they were successful(via referendum), so now they dont have light rail in the future. They have been talking about converting the freight line into a liniar park, (and thats way better than nothing)but it has been a long time, and not a single shovel touched dirt yet. Hampton roads has the potential to have a massive linier urban district running from Chesapeake, through Norfolk, and all the way to the oceanfront, but NIMBY, a lack of cooperation, and bad urban planning from Virginia Beach and Chesapeake (to an extent) hold the area back.
I was thinking exactly this. Virginia Beach is just the largest, Norfolk seems like the true primary city. The other thing I was thinking is if one was to claim a legitimate area in Virginia Beach as downtown, the reality is it has to be the beach, right? It's not really a traditional central business district but it certainly seems more like the economic center and most built up district in the city. Certainly more so than the town center.
Agreed, Norfolk is the true classic anchor city for that region, as Virginia Beach mostly grew as suburban sprawl spurred by white flight leaving Norfolk. If Virginia Beach were to have a true “downtown” it would be the Oceanfront, which is by the far most walkable/dense part of the city proper.
@street_ruffian I agree, and the oceanfront is the small beach town that annexed the surrounding land to call themselves a city, so its technically the historic center of the city. They are trying to develop the oceanfront more inland with things like the Vibe District, but until they move the city offices to either the oceanfront or town Center, Virginia Beach doesn't have a Downtown IMO.
Washington is amazing to live and its downtown is absolutely not Rosslyn. The business is government, and it has great restaurants, has great transportation options, is beautiful, and safe. I suggest a visit.
A lot of the downtown’s vibrancy has been lost to the pandemic but other than New York, Boston, and San Francisco, and Chicago, there are few real cities that feel like cities in the US.
It’s also the belly of the beast and full of insufferable people so there’s that
Downtown DC is actually great. Anywhere on K St and 14th is downtown and alive. Rosslyn not even the downtown for Arlington. It’s A downtown in Arlington. But it’s still a suburb technically. It just has big buildings but def not DC’s downtown. Basically like saying Jersey City is NYC’s downtown.
I'm not American and haven't been to too many of these but I agree with the comments that think you were hard on DC (you even suggested that you weren't sureyourself). I also agree that Atlanta downtown hasn't much going for it. I've been to Vagas, Orlando, and LA but never got to the "downtown" district in any of them, guess I didn't miss much.😊
Love the channel Keep 'em coming.
Love your stuff. DC has an amazing downtown though, this is so confusing you included them
Madison, WI is similar to Columbus, OH in that it is a state capital and home to a Big Ten University - but in Madison, those two institutions are connected by State Street and many people who work for the University and the State and the City live within walking distance, and both have many activities on the weekends as well as good bars and restaurants in the area.
Having everything squeezed into an isthmus helps a lot. Little Amery in the same state boasts four isthmuses (isthmi? isthmous?), but hasn't taken advantage of that.
Oh, and Madison *has* a capitol, but *is* a capital. "Capitol" is short for "capitolium", which is an easy way to keep the spellings straight.
@@kenaikuskokwim9694 thank you
The layout of Madison is very cool, with the capitol building in a parklike square and avenues radiating out from there.
Yes indeed. Madison is very, very nice.
Kansas city is just crazy. So much highway. Its unbelievable
Yeah, KC's geography is very strange. Also, the KC Metro is way too big to not have any inner city rail, especially considering all the miles of tracks throughout the city. A crying shame.
@@liamtahaney713 most overrated city in the country…
@@StLouis-yu9iz from someone who has lived in KC and lives in the south, I would say the most overrated city is Dallas. Especially in the south, people act like Dallas is the most amazing city they have ever seen. Don’t get me wrong, it’s got its draws and it’s a beautiful skyline but it’s very over crowded and over priced.
@@wmbrent123Dallas is a “yuppie” city. It’s for the “country boys” who drive lifted F-350s from their $400k+ single family suburban home to their Lawyer office. Not even Home Depot. They’ll hire a guy with a King Ranch F-150 to do that. Us real country folks laugh at that shit all the time.
Hell, most big cities in the U.S. at minimum have a neighborhood that captivates African American culture, and Dalls has its gentrified by white people Deep Ellum District, but most of the representation of Black culture in Dallas is of the… “thug” variety (and Dallas really ain’t even all that violent or anything so Dallas doesn’t even do a good job at representing that…)
There’s better representation of Black culture in San Antonio, a Hispanic city, and that Black cultural representation in SA was an afterthought.
Fort Worth has the stock yards, but that’s not even southern culture really, that’s western culture, and friggin’ Lubbock does a better job at representing western culture.
The best part of Dallas is the Six Flags… yet I-30 is the most wild ride in the city.
I think KC is less a city and more of a gathering place for the surrounding rural areas and small towns. They come in from far away maybe once a month maybe, to do stuff they need a city for, or go to a the3atre, or attend a football or baseball game, and then go home. Urbanism doesn't work for such a population base.
Resident of Florida here. You are spot on regarding Orlando and Jax. Orlando attempted to improve DT years ago but it failed due to traffic issues and inability to compete with theme parks. Jax has always been a horror show.
Downtown LA is definitely underwhelming, but there's no way it's the second worst downtown in the US. There's plenty of great places to shop and eat (chain and local alike), the Lakers, Kings, Sparks and (basically) Dodgers play there, it has a lot of historic districts including Chinatown and Little Tokyo, and it has several "monuments" including the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the US Bank building, the Broad, the Grammy museum, and the new tallest building in California. Yes, the other areas of LA are much more popular than downtown LA, but that doesn't mean downtown LA is worse than downtown Norfolk or Jacksonville.
I know! I thought the analysis of LA's downtown was harsh. Although it is possibly the dirtiest DT I've been to in the US, it still has so much interesting stuff that it can't be number 2. Plenty of skyscrapers, offices, art walks, chic cafes, food trucks, parks, transit, sports stuff, ethnic areas, LA Live, bike infrastructure, fashion district, Old LA/Olvera, jewelry district, and Santee Alley. To me, DT is one of my favorite spots! A solid mix of grimey, upscale, historic, and entertainment that the city is known for. With that said, Grand C. Market is very underwhelming.
You cannot spell “lame” without L.A.
Agree, the Cathedral, museums and ethnic enclaves make downtown LA quite interesting.
The "tallest building" is a joke. It's only tallest because it has a giant broomstick on top. Otherwise, I agree that there are parts of downtown LA that are pretty cool.
Part of the way he makes his lists is to compare the size of the city to what the CBD has to offer. LA‘s downtown, even if it there are some interesting things there, is really underwhelming for the second largest city in the country.
You did DC dirty. Dupont, Georgetown, and Adams Morgan are all cool places within walking distance from the mall. A lot of the listed cities aren't walkable
Rust in peace, tasty. Another great vid, thanks!
13:38 The Jaguars are not getting a new stadium, the existing stadium will be getting massive renovations to modernize it. Also, for Jacksonville you forgot to mention that things like the Duval Count Detention Center sit on prime river front property, the convention center is not easily accessible from downtown, the 'skyway' people mover was not well planned and rarely used, and the abundance of empty plots just west of downtown.
Thank you for all of the additional info.
Watch, it might be last on the list with the other big cities in Florida(Miami, Tampa and Orlando) but it's in the eye of developers with its prime real estate plots and it soon will experience a building boom, bet
@@casanovafrankenstein8538 I'm looking forward to it. Hopefully it's more than 'luxury' apartments (affordable housing and apartments always faces harsh feedback from the NIMBY crowd), self storage units, car washes and vape shops.
Nice analysis. Well done.
Love your videos! One of my favorite geography channels. I will say, coming from a Phoenix resident, Downtown is definitely not the best it could be but I think you overlooked some amenities. Downtown Phoenix is home to the Diamondbacks and the Phx Suns, which are within walking distance from each other and entertainment. You also didn't mention Roosevelt Row or other areas that have quite a bit of revitalization in the last decade. Thanks for the great video and I still believe it belongs on this list.
How did Indianapolis avoid the list?
i think indy has a pretty nice downtown tbh
Indianapolis has a great downtown. It's the rest of the city that sucks
When they started to revitalize downtown Indy in the late 80's/early 90's it became the model of redevelopment for many 2nd tier cities.
Fort Worth too
@@UserName-ts3sp Yes it does - been there a few years ago, The downtown is small but has a lot of attractions in its core within walking distance including the Circle Center Mall. Also nearby are the Fountain Square district and the Mass Avenue Arts District.
So many more cities could have been on this list. San Jose, Atlanta, Houston, Portland, Miami. Seems like Having a good downtown is the exception in this country
I assume DT San Jose was forgotten about, which is about right.
Portland Oregon has a really nice downtown, especially compared to the other cities you listed. What’s your reasoning to include it?
No, SJ is much more dynamic to even being close to be on this list. It got housing, university, nightlife, entertainment, diversity, culture and all the trappings of a great urban environment it should have.
Miami? You're tripping bro.
@@alexEMP1 Yeah most everything there is boarded up and it's a homeless community.
Orlando is a fun place to visit and a terrible place to live. I was stationed there after I left boot camp. Its nice being able to see the major attractions but really not a good reason to buy a home and stay. You can live in a nicer suburb and just drive in whenever you like.
As a Jacksonville resident, I was not at all shocked to see my city at #4. Jacksonville downtown is like a run down shopping mall, where 80% of the storefronts are abandoned, and it’s now primarily occupied by crack heads.
I live downtown on the Southbank and it is terrible.
Ha I was getting ready to argue with you before I even listened to you, BUT your reasons are solid. I could not argue , great video.
This comment section could get spicy
and it did.
Downtown Orlando does look pitiful for it's size. However, i think that KC's downtown is pretty grand and appropriate for it's size.
I went to KC back in 99 from STL and I liked it. But I think I was in the Plaza district which was pretty lively.
But I remember coming back in 02 on a Saturday and actually going downtown. Main thing I remember was all the businesses that were closed but to be honest I think STL is similar.
Alot of cities turn their downtowns into a place where people with office jobs go to work and nothing else. This is a recipe for a bad downtown and I think most US cities are working from the same cookbook.
The strip isnt in las vegas. The city stops around the strat. Paradise and winchester and green valley and summerlin and of course henderson is where most of people are, all non city limits.
Paradise. And Boulder Strip. Must-sees.
Summerlin is in Las Vegas city limits. Summerlin South/Spring Valley is not.
Some of the aerial shots were pretty sweet! Good vid.
One of my favorite videos you’ve done! you the best 🙏🏼🫶🏼
All of these cities deserve much better. Hopefully their continued growth means a bright future for them and the people who live there.
JACKSONVILLE just has never figured out what it is. Industrial city❓. Tourism❓. Port❓. Retirement center❓. ……
As a result, it’s a “Crossroads “ people passing through.
Great potential, but about nothing.
I’ve been here 17+ years.
And it will be overshadowed by Miami soon enough…
It already is.
You don't understand anything about Jax
@@trainsandmore2319Bro, it's been overshadowed by Miami for at least the past 50 years, do you live under a rock, oh and speaking of under, Miami will be under water in 30 years or so...
Duuuval> Dade
10 years ago, the inner harbor was hopping. Just 3 years later, things really began to hollow out and I hear the Inner Harbor is basically dead now
As a life-long Jacksonville resident, I can confirm that both Jacksonville and Orlando deserve to be on the list. Hopefully, Shad Khan’s (owner of the Jags) plan for the stadium revitalization will be a big hit. Downtown Jacksonville has much potential. However, much of the downtown real estate and socio-economic decision making has been heavily influenced by a major Baptist Church with several blocks of prime real estate right in the heart of the city. It seems they their influence is finally relenting, a bit.
Can’t wait to see the best downtowns video! I’ve seen it mentioned already but I’d also love to see a video showcasing what you think are the “up and coming” downtowns! I may be biased, but I’d say downtown Minneapolis would fit in the latter category.
One of the worst downtown after 10th.
I'm sure I'm not going to be the first to say this, but you're not really being fair to DC's downtown. First and foremost, there is excellent access to the major points of interest via Metrorail. Second, one of those points of interest is the world's finest collection of FREE museums clustered around the National Mall. Third, Union Station is not merely a transportation hub for intercity rail, commuter rail, buses, and Metrorail, serving as a grand gateway to the city, but it is also a destination in itself with numerous shops and restaurants, easy access to the Capitol, nearby neighborhoods of charming character, and a plan to develop more adjacent mixed uses. Fourth, there is a reasonably dense business district along K Street and numerous other activity centers throughout the city (often centered around DC's ubiquitous traffic circles and/or Metro stations). Fifth, if you're going to complain about the height restriction then you need to mercilessly roast Paris, which is much shorter than DC but seems to be doing all right in spite of that. Sixth, Rosslyn is not the only compact place where DC exports its skyscrapers to; Crystal City is also home to many government offices in skyscrapers centered around a Metrorail station with a lot of residential units and a vast, mostly underground mall full of shopping and dining options. The density is linear (focused on Metrorail corridors) rather than centralized in order to preserve the monumental character of the city. All of that being said, you're absolutely right about Las Vegas! Yuck. EDIT: I forgot to mention the downtown sportsball arena, which I will stubbornly call the MCI Center no matter what they're calling it this week.
Not sure I agree that LA's downtown is bad. It's gritty and rough around the edges, but those old districts are really cool in my opinion, and are actually quite lively.
San Jose should be a contender
Also Sacramento which is better than San Jose but feels pretty sleepy and run down
I went there last week and it’s DEAD. like i mean nobody is walking around, nobody is in any restaurants or shops, it’s just boring.
@@TropicalityCat
Isn't the Winchester Mystery House there?
@@mousetreehouse6833 About 5 to 6 miles west of Downtown.
San Jose is not a big city.
@@jonathansykes4986 Yes it is. It's bigger in population than San Francisco. 971,000 people. There's an NHL team there.
Man, you really are the king! 👑
15:03 cool to see a Cheesecake Factory in an urbanism video that is not by citynerd lol
Entire Phoenix metro looks and feels like Mars. It’s like a plain over-toasted bagel with zero seasoning. The people don’t have any unique accents, there’s not a lot of music, or culture that is unique to the area either. It’s like the sun fries people’s brains there.
Downtown DC is the downtown for the metro area, not Rosalyn. The transportation connectivity in DT DC, the fact that the highest concentration of jobs in the metro area are still in downtown, and all of the famous tourist attractions are located there as well. As someone who lives in the DMV, we refer to “downtown” as the area by the mall. On the other hand, we refer to Rosslyn, Bethesda, Alexandria, and Silver Spring as their own places.
Yes, DC has a height restriction, but downtown DC is centralized enough to a point that it is 100% the main downtown in the DMV.
The Port of Los Angeles is “colonial incorporation”- where the municipality gerrymandered a bizarre protrusion to wrap itself around a high-revenue area so they could deny that money to people in Inglewood, Compton and others more affected by the port’s negative environmental impact. Chicago did the same thing with O’Hare airport.
I am surprised to NOT find the Vietnam (and adjacent Corea) Memorial sites mentioned. When I visited DC way back I found those highly impressive. Over all I believe your Survey is informative and as usual well balanced! Well done!
Always loved your videos keep up the good work!!