Best urban area to revitalize?

[KamaAina]

Last week I saw a piece on the NewsHour with a fellow who was pooh-poohing the new Disney Hall in downtown L.A. He made the area sound rather promising, actually: many old theatres to fix up, office buildings to convert to apartments like in lower Manhattan, etc.

Trouble is, it's not that no one's down there, it's that everyone's pulling in different directions. Hardly the place for a bunch of DUers to pull up with the U-Haul and start unpacking. Besides, what if there were females around when Gov. Schicklgroper came to town?!

So, any other brilliant ideas for an urban environment that needs to be settled in? Progressive local politics (there really aren't any states left :( ), good transportation, culture above the level of Terminator 4 at the 'plex, and the like. It could even be an "inner-ring" suburb" that new development has passed by (the model there would be Takoma Park, MD, near DC) or an old industrial town, as long as it was possible to get to a nearby city without an SUV (or any other private vehicle).

[bif]

1. Detroit, please!

this city ain't never coming back!

[FullCountNotRecount]

4. Saddest Picture: Detroit's Old Train Station

That was an amazing building. I don't have link but there is a site that is called "The Ruins of Detroit." Sad sad.

[NWHarkness]

6. It's slated for renovation

It's going to become the new police HQ.

[FullCountNotRecount]

7. Hallelujah! That's great news.

I'll be at the Grand Opening!

[NWHarkness]

10. Voluntarily, I hope!

[bif]

8. The Fabulous Ruins of Detroit

http://detroityes.com/home.htm

They're actually talking about turning the train station into the police headquarters. I'm not holding myh breath.

[NWHarkness]

5. Always somebody bashing Detroit

It gets so old.

Detroit has ben making a steady comeback for years. New housing, an increase in retail, office space and hotel capacity, and an enormous amount of downtown development, but the knee jerk detractors are always jumping up to know the city.

You'd think a city that votes 90%+ Democratic in every election might get a break here, of all places.

[bif]

9. Not hard to do.

I've lived here all my life. And it just makes me sick when I travel around the country and see how great other cities are...Pittsburgh, Boston, Chicago, Denver, even St. Louis, for Pete's sake. I've been hearing about the comeback since the early 70s. But I don't want to get into it.

[NWHarkness]

11. You're right

It's much easier to tear down than to build up.

[JVS]

15. Flattery will get you everywhere!

Pittsburgh great? I love it as my hometown, but I'd still have to say we're in a slump. Oh well, the Rust Belt shall rise again!

[bif]

16. Ya wanna feel good about your hometown

Spend a weekend in Detroit. That should be our motto. We spent a couple days in Pittsburgh and really enjoyed it. The downtown was bustling. We visited the Frick (?) mansion and the children's museum downtown and the remains of Forbes Field--the wall and where homeplate was. But we missed the Warhol museum Nice town. Who woulda thunk?

[JVS]

18. Detroit was my favorite place in the world as a kid. Grandma lived there.

Out by Denby High school near 94 and Outer drive. I went to Detroit for the NAIAS at the Cobo center back in 2002 with my mother. We were very surprised to see that the new stadium had been placed in the theater district. How are the casinos working out for the city? One thing that did seem odd to me was that there was a liquor store everywhere I turned, in PA we have state run stores. I like Detroit and wish it well.

I'm glad you enjoyed Pittsburgh. Children's museum was always a good time when I was young. I've attended many classes in that building where home plate is located. Rumor has it that the true location of the home plate is actually in the men's room right next to the home plate, but I think that is just the kind of cynicism that makes for good rumors.

[judge_smales]

2. Look around Boston.

n/m

[mainegreen]

3. Bangor, Maine

Liberal w/University.

If you can stand the long, long, long, cold, cold, cold winters.

Me, I kinda like the hibernation season!

[blueraven95]

12. What about Baltimore (MD)?

Its a beautiful area, close to Washington for protests, great Mayor (evil Govenor) but almost always goes liberal. Part of the 3rd biggest art areas in the country, but it still needs a lot of work, and is losing population every day.

[felonious thunk]

13. Agreed

The inner harbor revitalization needs to extend. There are some very neat buildings in Baltimore, but get a few blocks from the water, and it is in disrepair.

[KamaAina]

14. Yes indeed, my original home town

would have a great deal to offer. Even in the (relatively) posher neighborhoods north of downtown there are enough abandoned buildings in places like Waverly that anarchists have squatted them!

They seem to have routed the subway and light rail away from most of these kinds of places, though. The bus service, I understand, could stand some improvement.

Can't beat the access to DC, not only for demos, but for anything else you might desire (Dupont Circle, Kennedy Center, etc.). Some DC yupazoids have actually fixed up old Balto. townhouses and commute (about an hour by train)!

Last time I was there (we were, in fact, using it as a staging area for a demo) I recall that a group of co-housing advocates was planning to redo an entire block of rowhouses in West Balto.

[Redleg]

17. The space between Bush's ears.

EOM

[Syn_Dem]

19. I nominate Downtown St. Louis

man that place is dead.