[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by IMBY

Any number of cities have this "problem" with rather dense uptown/midtowns, devitalizing the downtown areas, and you do your fantasies: uprooting those buildings and transferring them to the downtown areas, which isn't going to happen!

I believe St. Louis has this "problem" as well, given the photo spreads I've seen of St. Louis. Ditto to Detroit and Houston.

Here, in stuck-in-the-60's Las Vegas, they've created a whole new downtown area out in Summerlin, 25+ miles west, called Downtown Summerlin.

And, there's Hughes Corporate Center, a parklike area, close to the Strip, with one tall tower and other smaller towers of 10-9-8 stories. How I wish somehow, those buildings could be relocated downtown! Dream on!

I didn't realize there were steep hills leading down to the riverfront, which invites the possible idea of tram some day, along with some riverfront development or park. Even a simple tram, like they have in downtown L.A. rising up to Bunker Hill!

The main reason Minneapolis (City of Lakes) has developed such a dense downtown area is due to the Lake Calhoun/Kenwood/Lake of the Isles Nimby's around the Uptown district, who have squashed any mid-rise or high-rise plans around their precious lakes. When I lived there, I saw proposal after proposal shot down. In the early 70's, miracles of miracles, with the intervention of Senator Hubert Humphrey, no less, a 21 story tower (Lake Point Tower) got built, and nothing since then! I see they are finally building some apartment buildings around Hennepin/Lake but nothing taller than 4-5-6 stories.

st. louis had a terrible air quality problem due to high sulfur southern illinois (and south st. louis) coal being burned. the city used its guilded age wealth to sprawl out on the uplands away from the valley very early on. i've read st. louis planning documents that state that the city was building too much too far in the 1920s. by 1960 there were 2 districts in a line west of downtown that essentially were performing similar commercial functions to downtown.

kansas city really seems to have emulated that same early pattern of building secondary nodes that actually duplicated and then took over functions of downtown. perhaps it had similar air quality problems as st. louis in the industrial river valley that also spilled over into downtown.