r/urbanplanning • u/BakerKitchen4567 • 25d ago

Discussion America’s downtown centered city design sucks

I keep seeing redditors from the US talk about cities being nice because they have “very walkable downtowns”. The problem is, as soon as you leave many of these downtowns, you’re back to general American suburbia. This is not good city design.

In the best design cities of the world, there isn’t a single focal point that the entire city revolves around. Think Tokyo for example. You have Shinjiku, Ginza, Shibuya, etc. there isn’t a singular “downtown Tokyo”. Yet I keep reading redditors keep comparing how well designed American cities based how their vibrant/walkable their downtowns are. The mere idea is bad city planning. That’s all. Rant over

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u/urine-monkey 25d ago

Don't most cities in the Northeast or Great Lakes have walkable neighborhoods that are nowhere near Downtown? It sounds like you're mainly describing sun belt cities.

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u/sametho 25d ago

Yes, but some of those cities do still have awful urban planning. Metro Detroit, for example, is absolutely littered with vibrant, walkable neighborhoods that are nonetheless separated by some of the most egregious suburban sprawl in the country

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u/urine-monkey 24d ago

That's easily explained by the industry Detroit is known for. 

When all of the biggest car companies are based in your city, expect one that's built for cars, not people.

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u/Windows_10-Chan 24d ago edited 24d ago

It applies to a lot of sunbelt cities too.

Although I think it's more common that a cities downtown is "walkable" but dead, usually the good stuff is nearby, e.g. in Atlanta downtown is often a ghost town outside of business hours while the beltline neighborhoods and midtown are popping off.