Cities that Never Sleep
I love exploring real cities, cities that have people living in them, 24 hours a day. All to many American cities are filled with offices, businesses, and shops, but most of the people live outside the city core and commute in and out. If is easy to tell a living city, a city that never sleeps, because the things that people need like markets are still located in the city and are busy. The Spruce Food Market is on Spruce Street in Philadelphia just a few blocks from city hall. It is alive, it serves a population that lives and works within the city core. The streets of the city don't go to sleep when the workers go home for the night the streets remain awake with the locals in the neighborhood.
Here in Washington DC, we are seeing apartments and condos being built back in the city, and markets are returning to the city.
We love New York, and Chicago, cities that remained alive at the core with people living there and the businesses that serve them remaining in the city.
While I do agree with you, sometimes I would like a return to quieter times when at night there might be theatregoers and those out to see a film but that is all. Sundays 40 years ago you could fire a cannon down our main city street and not hit anyone. Now it would be a massacre.
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine rolled a bowling ball down the main street in the town my parents lived in, went almost a mile without hitting anything on a Sunday morning.
DeleteI never thought of DC as a city, like philly.
ReplyDeleteand the burbs, where I do live, has its +/- things.
I see you visited our gayborhood whilst you were in town.
By accident, it is a wonderful day in the neighborhood.
DeleteCanadian cities try very hard to keep their cores alive and vibrant. Lots of money and effort get poured into that. Sometimes it's successful, sometimes not.
ReplyDeleteIt takes the right balance of jobs, housing that is affordable and the services people want to be near. It is hard to do well.
DeleteI give PHX credit for turning their downtown from a ghost town to somewhere people may want to visit.
ReplyDeleteI also love cities that are homes to the people. I wonder if downtown Los Angeles has gotten any better since we moved away. It always seemed so strange to me.
ReplyDelete