Southern cities with a "big city" feel?

[LouisianaRush]

Walking on the streets, Miami and New Orleans seem to be the biggest cities in the south.

Houston (my former home), Dallas, and Atlanta while massive with large beautiful skylines, seem like overgrown suburbs when walking around the city outside the small geographical area of high-rises. Even their high-rise districts seem like mega office parks and not really a true urban downtown. Downtown Houston is fun, I lived next to Minute Maid Park for 2 years, but does not have the same urban feel as other large urban cities.

[summersm343]

For me, it would depend on amount and size of TRUELY walkable areas in each of these cities/metro areas. To me it seems:

Miami
Atlanta
Houston
Dallas
New Orleans
Nashville
Austin
Orlando
Raleigh
San Antonio
Phoenix
Richmond
Savannah
Charleston
Memphis
Charlotte
Tampa

Etc.

I could be wrong though. I don't know enough about Houston or Dallas and how many truly walkable areas there are in each of those cities outside of a few areas.

[Labtec]

Atlanta in some parts has that big city feel.

Fairlie Poplar area where there are a lot of pedestrians and people eating outside restaurants on the street.

https://www.google.com/maps/@33.7556...7i13312!8i6656

https://www.google.com/maps/@33.7558...7i13312!8i6656

Parts of downtown where you get the "Canyon skyscraper feel"

https://www.google.com/maps/@33.7595...7i16384!8i8192

Centennial Olympic Park and the touristy area of Atlanta (Georgia Aquarium, World of Coca Cola, College Football hall of fame, National center for civil and human rights).



And parts of Midtown and Buckhead as well.

It's not really big city feel but the Beltline is also a great place to people watch.

• Video Link

[BEER]

Originally Posted by Ant131531

Houston IMO easily has the most impressive skyscraper canyon feel of the Big 4 in the South(HOU, DAL, MIA, ATL), yet it probably has the least vibrant core of the four. It also has the least transit access. The most developed downtown, yet has the least big city amenities. It's an irony to say the least.

Atlanta's downtown is probably the least big city feel of the four(doesn't have many skyscraper canyons) because development spreaded out between Downtown, Midtown, and Buckhead. But Midtown Atlanta is an impressive beast on it's own which makes the core of Atlanta(DT/MT) feel large. Here's a recent picture of Midtown from the east.



Here's a photo from the southwest:


Midtown/Buckhead both developed along the MARTA rail line which I suppose is a good thing if the development wasn't going to concentrate in the downtown area.

I would have never thought of Atlanta. These pictures are something else.

[TexasPlaya]

Originally Posted by Ant131531

Houston IMO easily has the most impressive skyscraper canyon feel of the Big 4 in the South(HOU, DAL, MIA, ATL), yet it probably has the least vibrant core of the four. It also has the least transit access. The most developed downtown, yet has the least big city amenities. It's an irony to say the least.

Are we just limiting cores to downtown?

Houston’s downtown has decent transit access via its park and ride network and light rail with about 33% of commuters using transit plus the carpoolers who use a separated lane.

The only thing Houston’s downtown doesn’t have is a traditionally grocery store, there’s several outside of downtown.

[austlar1]

Heck, even dense and very urban Chicago doesn't deliver the "big city experience" one gets visiting NY. NY is in a class by itself. There is certainly no southern city that delivers on that kind of "big city" experience. The Southern and Texas giants definitely feel big. You quickly gain an awareness that your are someplace busy and important when you visit Atlanta, Dallas, Miami, or Houston, but a New York (or Chicago) kind of experience? It doesn't exist down south. New Orleans or Austin may have a pocket or two of 24 hour activity, but they are contained within fairly small downtown or center city environments The rest is mostly pure sunbelt sprawl, even in New Orleans.

[Double L]

Originally Posted by TexasPlaya

Are we just limiting cores to downtown?

Houston’s downtown has decent transit access via its park and ride network and light rail with about 33% of commuters using transit plus the carpoolers who use a separated lane.

The only thing Houston’s downtown doesn’t have is a traditionally grocery store, there’s several outside of downtown.

Phoenicia doesn't count? That’s a real grocery store. Plus there’s food halls and corner stores.

[Double L]

Hell, I don’t think there’s any city in the world that can live up to Chicago and NYC outside of Asia.

[dc_denizen]

Atlanta generally has the nicest downtown of Miami / Dallas / Houston

Austin is nice but too small still

[The North One]

Originally Posted by LouisianaRush

Walking on the streets, Miami and New Orleans seem to be the biggest cities in the south.

Houston (my former home), Dallas, and Atlanta while massive with large beautiful skylines, seem like overgrown suburbs when walking around the city outside the small geographical area of high-rises. Even their high-rise districts seem like mega office parks and not really a true urban downtown. Downtown Houston is fun, I lived next to Minute Maid Park for 2 years, but does not have the same urban feel as other large urban cities.

I think this conclusion is spot on and I agree.

[DCReid]

Of course, Washington, DC is no longer a southern city (I guess since the late 1960s/early 1970s?) and is unique anyway being the nation's capital. I haven't been through Richmond and don't know about the downtown. I vaguely remember Charlotte as a smaller and more staid Atlanta.

[Handro]

Originally Posted by Double L

Hell, I don’t think there’s any city in the world that can live up to Chicago and NYC outside of Asia.

If you're talking skyscrapers maybe, but as far as "feel" (as I would define it: lively street life, dense mix of residential/office/retail structures, busy commercial districts, etc), Chicago isn't that unique in the US let alone the world. San Francisco, DC, Boston, Philly immediately come to mind in the US. Then of course Toronto, and although I've never been to Vancouver or Montreal I get the sense they also scratch the itch. In Europe the list is even longer: London (which feels NYC level), Paris, Madrid, Berlin, Milan, Munich, etc.. I've never been to South America so can't speak on some of their big cities like Sao Paolo or Buenos Aires.

These are all cities you can easily get lost in without leaving a dense or relatively dense built environment, which I think is the underpinning of a "big city feel".

[Antares41]

Miami and Atlanta are the only two southern cities that give me a big city feel. While I acknowledge that Houston and Dallas are big, they seem too spread out to give me the concentration of activity that gives my that "big city" teeming with life feeling. In that respect both Houston and Dallas feel more like LA big, expansive but not concentrated enough in any particular area.

[The North One]

Originally Posted by Antares41

Miami and Atlanta are the only two southern cities that give me a big city feel. While I acknowledge that Houston and Dallas are big, they seem too spread out to give me the concentration of activity that gives my that "big city" teeming with life feeling. In that respect both Houston and Dallas feel more like LA big, expansive but not concentrated enough in any particular area.

But Atlanta is by far the most spread out of all of them.

[Segun]

Most of the World is compromised of cities with vibrant pedestrian traffic, even in the so-called 3rd World, where streets are jam packed with pedestrians, bikes, motorbikes and cars all vying for space.

In this comparison, Canada and the US (+Australia) is Unique. Cities in the South that don't have super vibrant cores are outliers. I've heard of European travelers visiting some of these cities just because it offers a different experience.

I have love for the South. Being Black, it's almost impossible to not have some love for it, as most of my people are from there. It's still frustrating that I can go to a Southern city and 9 times of out 10, it's
- A big downtown with tall buildings, and a handful of stores serving them that only open during the week
- Remnants of an exciting neighborhood adjacent to downtown that was destroyed.
- Wide, automobile-only roads, with sparse businesses scattered between strip-malls

There's very little visual difference between the South and Midwest, but if you have a discerning eye, you can catch it. It shows up in the abandoned factories that look several hundred years older than the Midwest counterparts. You also see it in some of the infrastructure that looks like it hasn't been updated since 1900. Then there's the frame housing, often propped up on cinderblocks. In the Midwest, you get the sense that a lot of the cities were big and rich, but in the South, it feels like many places have been poor for a long time.

To answer the question, I think it's a tie between ATL and Miami, but the more I think of it, Miami's coastal cities and neighborhoods really take this comparison easily, though Peachtree in Atlanta (the main one) is shaping up to be like a Southern version of LA's Wilshire.

I need to see more of Dallas and Houston. The latter I didn't have a good experience in.

[mrnyc]

miami overall gives the big city feels best. and more and more everyday. although being so new condo heavy its more like a modern toronto than chi or ny.

austin downtown definately gives the long island city development vibe best.

houston is most certainly a big city, but its it's own thing. more of an atlanta, los angeles and dallas vibe than any midwest or the eastern big cities.

[pj3000]

Miami is nothing like Chicago, and the next person on here who claims that the two cities are similar ought to be slapped so hard that the donut flies out of their mouth.

[pj3000]

To me, "big city" vibes do not come from tall, glassy towers in the sunbelt. At least not the big city vibes I get from NYC, Chicago, Philly, Boston, DC, San Francisco, etc.

I get bigger city vibes from New Orleans than I do from Miami or from Dallas. Miami and Dallas seem more like big places than they do big cities. I guess being a bigger, urban city for a much longer time goes a long way for me.

I live in both Pittsburgh and Miami. Downtown Pittsburgh is 10x more vibrant/active than downtown Miami... still. And I don't consider downtown Pittsburgh to be anywhere near top-tier vibrancy.

[ThePhun1]

Originally Posted by Buckeye Native 001

Is Louisville (or Cincinnati, for that matter) really southern?

Louisville maybe.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by pj3000

To me, "big city" vibes do not come from tall, glassy towers in the sunbelt. At least not the big city vibes I get from NYC, Chicago, Philly, Boston, DC, San Francisco, etc.

I get bigger city vibes from New Orleans than I do from Miami or from Dallas. Miami and Dallas seem more like big places than they do big cities. I guess being a bigger, urban city for a much longer time goes a long way for me.

I live in both Pittsburgh and Miami. Downtown Pittsburgh is 10x more vibrant/active than downtown Miami... still. And I don't consider downtown Pittsburgh to be anywhere near top-tier vibrancy.

Yeah, any city can have a gleaming downtown full of new skyscrapers. That doesn't give much of a "big city feel" when the density drops to suburban single-family homes as soon as you're outside of the greater CBD (like say in Charlotte).

To me, "big city feel" comes from miles and miles of intermediate density neighborhoods. These are typified by residential vernacular denser than detached SFH, and generally anchored by strong neighborhood business districts with apartments on their upper stories.