Quote:
Originally Posted by pdxtex
Dallas looks massive. It seems like the best sunbelt candidate to break the sunbelt mold and turn into something pretty walkable and urban. Southern cities are hot too so I can't fault them for being car oriented. Its bicycle network and street grid seem pretty workable too. Arlington looks less pedestrian oriented but Ft Worth seems like it heading in the right direction. I bet the metro becomes the third biggest in our lifetime.
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Maybe a tad bit of boosterism here, but I think Atlanta is the city to break the sunbelt mold:
-Already has a heavy rail subway, which no other city in the southeast has (slight asterisk for Miami)
-The Atlanta Beltline is an absolutely gamechanger in terms of walkability and bikeability
-Weather is better. Yes, Atlanta gets hot, but it's nothing like the Texas cities
-Atlanta already has fewer cars per household, and a larger number of car-free households, than most (any?) sunbelt cities, including Dallas, Houston, Austin, Nashville, and Charlotte.
-From what I've seen in following urbanism developments in southern cities, Atlanta is in the lead for large cities in adding bike/ped infrastructure
Also a caveat that I think New Orleans, if classified as a sunbelt city, is already ahead of anything else in the region.
I visited Dallas recently, and while the uptown area is nice, it reminded me more of Buckhead Atlanta, which has pockets of true urbanism but lacks connectivity and many aspects are still car-oriented. If Dallas could better utilize and build from the Katy trail it would make a huge difference.