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Originally Posted by Downtown_Austin
Well said, Kevin. They are nice amenities, but museums and tourist trap destinations are less desirable than grocers and stores that fulfill everyday needs. BTW, this is something I've long advocated for: as a downtown resident i don't want/need another salon, furniture store.
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I think the problem is a lot of really big cities (New York, Paris, London, Chicago, Madrid) have great museums downtown and so smaller cities feel like they need a museum downtown too. But these cities all have everything else taken care of already in the way of every day needs.
In a lot of commuter cities throwing a museum or stadium downtown can be a nightmare scenario. It kills off blocks that could be used for more lively activities and in some cases the stadium is only used a few times a year. Plus, with commuter cities it just means everyone is going to drive and park downtown which isn't really what you should want happening. The cities I mentioned above have great mass transit to get people downtown without the congestion of 20,000 cars trying to leave after the game.
Baseball stadiums probably make the most sense downtown because you are talking about 80+ games at the stadium a year so it will drive a lot of people downtown often. Football stadiums are a terrible idea downtown unless you have a giant park like Chicago to put it in. Basketball can make sense if you have a hockey team also because it can be used for concerts and whatnot as well.
I think Austin is pretty lucky having UT so close to downtown without being in the core of downtown. We still get to drive a lot of people downtown before and after football games to help out the economy, but it's far enough North and on campus that it isn't taking up valuable real estate.
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