What is the residential and office population of your downtown?

[pdxtex]

stat. discrepancies aside, it amazes me how much more dense canadian cities are compared to alot of our (US) less transit friendly cities.

[mhays]

Originally Posted by InlandEmpire

I read that Seattle's downtown population is around 33,000; the downtown employment number was around 160,000 or so. Just something I found online while reading an article about Seattle's mayor wanting to double the downtown population within the next few years. I'm not sure what boundaries they used for this so I'll have to look into it.

The Downtown Seattle Association came up with a figure of 46,484 residents in 2000, growing to 54,572 in 2005. That includes census tracts that generally go to Broadway on the east and Mercer or Roy on the north. It also includes a giant amount of industrial land with a little slice of Beacon Hill. Delete tract 93 and the new figure is around 51,700 in 1,750 acres or so, or about 18,900 per square mile. (roughly double DT Minneapolis' density figure and less than half of Vancouver's)

The employment number for 2003 was 192,000 not including tract 93, or 230,000 including it.

Fascinating: http://www.downtownseattle.com/conte...oodProfile.cfm

[InlandEmpire]

^
Thanks mhays! I was thinking the numbers I had found were a little on the low side... good to know the boundaries used too.

[McBane]

Each city has its own definition of downtown. I think in many post-automobile cities (houston, phoenix, etc), downtown is traditionally the location of the CBD, not a place where people live or hang out.

In other cities, downtown can be just another neighbhorhood, but comprising of a combination of office, residential, cultural and entertainment.

For Philly, our downtown (Center City) is really a geographic area (although only 2 sq. miles) that is further made up of many small neighborhoods, most of them residential, with the commerical buildings relegated to a few streets. That is simply the way Philly developed.

In Manhattan the term downtown can vary. Taken literally in Manhattan, it refers to the Financial District area, along with Battery Park City (a relatively new residential area) and perhaps another neighborhood or two. Even with the population of BPC, downtown Manhattan has a relatively small residential population and is very much a M-F 9-5 area, though this is changing somewhat.

The thing with Mantattan is that virtually the entire island has characteristics of a traditional downtown (at least in Philly's sense). Still, I am not 100% familiar with these things, but I believe when the statisticians talk about NYC's downtown population, they might actually be talking about Midtown and its environs. At the very least "downtown" NYC relative to other cities, would probably cover everything south of, what, 96th st.? That's probably between 800,000 - 1 million people.

[MplsTodd]

Originally Posted by mhays

I looked at Minneapolis by census tract using 2000 numbers once. It was around 22,000 (or 24,000?) residents for an area bounded the freeway loop plus a little south of Loring Park.

About a year ago, the City of Mpls reported that there were 30,000 residents in dwtn. We've added lots of units since then--therefore I adjusted upward to 31,000. By my count, DT Mpls has added about 3,300 residential units since 2000 (including apartments and condos).

[mhays]

I wonder if they were using 2000 figures. In the past few years a lot of sources have used the 30,000 figure based on the area I described plus at least one tract across the river.

Seattle's 51,700 figure would go up by probably 4,000 if it was based on December 2006. I'm guessing we've had 3,000 units complete since the July 2005 figure I quoted, with occupancy around the 1.3 range for these types of units. (I didn't do a real count, but have done periodic "underway" counts that I'm extrapolating from.)

With thousands more units underway now and an even bigger boom possible in the next year, it looks like we might go well over 60,000 for the 2010 census.

[Bassic Lab]

Originally Posted by The Chemist

How is that seriously pushing the definition of 'downtown'? All the neighbourhoods that furry mentioned, including the Beltline, are clearly part of the downtown area.

I'd agree with him. The Beltline was never really considered "downtown", there is a clear boundary that exists in the form of the train tracks. I'd include the rest of the communities in downtown though. I don't think that communities should be added to downtown just because they're dense.

So Calgary ought to have about 14 000 thousand people living downtown with 120 000 jobs. This would be in an area of about a square mile. An additional 18 000 or so people living in the Beltline, the community south of downtown of rough equal size.

[SpongeG]

hmm Vancouver is said to be around 60,000 - 70,000 residents downtown and growing

it also is apparently one of the only cities in the world who has more people leave the downtown to go to work than any other city - reverse commuting they call it

no idea of the work force down there

[Kevin]

For Syracuse

Downtown Employment: 30,000
Downtown Population: 2,500

[agrant]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

hmm Vancouver is said to be around 60,000 - 70,000 residents downtown and growing

it also is apparently one of the only cities in the world who has more people leave the downtown to go to work than any other city - reverse commuting they call it

no idea of the work force down there

I just read a census from 2001, and the downtown population back then was around 70,000. The work force was about 140,000. The numbers will be a lot different now...

[dfane]

Originally Posted by passdoubt

A lot of sources throw around the stat that Center City Philadelphia has the third largest residential downtown population in the US, behind New York and Chicago. 88,000 residents. Traditionally, Center City has been between Vine and South, river to river. But maybe they're using Spring Garden to Washington now?

It's expected to break 100,000 residents in Center City before 2010. Gotta wait for the next Census to see.

Yea you are about right although there hasnt been a census in a while considering the new condos going up, but the residential population is expected to boom and it has been. It is up 12% from 2000 supposedly. Here is an article on philly.com today that sort of breaks it down and also talks about a huge pending project.

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/16233877.htm

[UncleRando]

Resident Population:
The CBD/downtown is quite small due to geographic constraints (10 square blocks), so often times they refer to a 'greater downtown' as a more accurate/comparable population count.

CBD: 3,500
Greater Downtown: 12,000

As for the office stuff, I have no idea

[mhays]

10 square blocks as in 2 by 5?

Maybe you meant 10 blocks square.

[UncleRando]

^yup (10x10)...sorry about the mis-classification

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

Currently, the Downtown LA pop is around 30,000 with a doubling up to 60,000 expected in the next few years.

[Quixote]

^Yeah, I remember reading that Downtown LA will have about 60,000 residents by 2010. But somehow I just think that there will be more than 60,000 residents living in Downtown by that time because more projects will be announced in 2007 and 2008 which would be completed by 2010-projects that the article didn't take into account.

[forumly_chgoman]

^^^^^yeah Good Luck

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

well, why dont you get informed before you make a comment like that. there are over 30 thousand units either completed, being built or planned for Downtown LA in the next 3 years.

[Quixote]

And not to mention Downtown LA will be the cultural hub and entertainment hub of The West Coast.

Grand Avenue:

-Walt Disney Concert Hall (Frank Gehry)
-Dorothy Chandler Pavillion
-Ahmanson Theater
-MOCA
-Colburn School of Performing Arts
-Two skyscrapers designed by our very own Frank Gehry
-Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels (Rafael Moneo)
-LAPD Heaquarters
-Federal Courthouse
-Caltrans (Thom Mayne)
-16 acre Grand Civic Park
-Los Angeles Central High School for the Performing Arts (Coop Himmelblau)

...All of which will come together to create the cultural and artistic hub of a soon to be vibrant Downtown with music, theater, contemporary art, performing arts, cutting edge architecture, government, and religion.

Los Angeles Sports and Entertainment District:

-Staples Center
-LA Live (currently under construction) with shops, restaurants, theaters, clubs, Ritz-Carlton hotel, Ritz-Carlton Residences, Marriott Marquis hotel, as well as the corporate headquarters of Herbalife and West Coast headquarters of ESPN.

Downtown Los Angeles will have no problem attracting new residents when you consider all the amenities it has and will have to offer!

[mhays]

Originally Posted by LosAngelesSportsFan

well, why dont you get informed before you make a comment like that. there are over 30 thousand units either completed, being built or planned for Downtown LA in the next 3 years.

It's ok to question such things. Personally I expect that a lot of the planned stuff won't happen, just like other cities. This is partially because so much is planned.