Quote:
Originally Posted by Illithid Dude
I was downtown today to try out Industriel and there were more pedestrians around then I have ever seen- and not just around Grand Ave. Down Spring, 7th, Hill, Hope, there were literally throngs of pedestrians. Any sidewalk seating that a cafe might have was full. Stores were buzzing. It was the most crowded, the most alive, the most- normal- I've ever seen downtown. And yes, I say normal. I think the stigma of downtown being a 'developing, gentrifying' neighborhood has finally vanished. I think it is safe to say that downtown is post-gentrification, that it is a real, fantastic, urban neighborhood, not just a neighborhood that had the capability to be fantastic. Suffice to say, I was happy.
Oh, and 7th and Grand looks almost complete, and very nice. The materials they used are really great, and the whole complex has a super clean, minimal, 'iRobot' look.
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Dunno, man. Biking through and hanging out in the area (probably will move there late next yea - hayyyy), there definitely has been a huge increase in pedestrians. The change from March 2011 (when I moved to Argentina) to May 2012 (when I came back from DC) has been phenomenal, and most certainly is noticeable. I was hanging out with friends @ Broadway/9th the other night, and at Pattern Bar (Spring/9th)..."suffice to say," there was nothing post-gentrification about those areas. A post-gentrified area is somewhere like Venice, Silverlake, Chelsea, Fort Greene, Prospect Heights, Lincoln Park, Dupont Circle, much of Boston, etc. Abandoned/heavily underused buildings, empty streetscapes at a night, and a dearth of retail and commercial offerings (at least on Broadway/9th), a generally blighted feeling, along with a huge, well-entrenched homeless population are not what I would consider to be the trappings of a post-gentrified area. The latter felt like SF's SoMa or the middle section of NYC's Broadway at night.
Also, Downtown's stigma as a place to socialize may have gone away, but as a place to live? I am we still have quite some way to go in that regard. In general, though, even if people are not quite ready to live there, they readily acknowledge and praise how far it is come, which I think is a great thing.
In addition to visiting friends who live there, I regularly bike along 12th and visit a friend who works at Handsome Coffee in the Arts District. Again, not to be a negative nancy, but there is lots of work to be done all across Downtown, especially when it is held up to the downtowns of other, world-class cities. That said, Downtown has really been developing at a fast clip lately. I would say that there should be huge, tangible changes within the next 2-3 years. We just need to find a way for it to break out of the restaurant-café-bar cycle, and further expand its retail amenities.
Broadway/8th, looking north:
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