There seems to be "a trend toward city living in smaller metros," including ours.

Our downtown has come a long way in the past couple of decades, which for all the legit complaints about it now is worth remembering. 

Comments

[Brian]

It's a nice thought, but it is crude analysis which doesn't tell an accurate picture for GSO/HP. I believe we had this discussion before, but the blue blob in Figure 3 coincides entirely with the merged City limits of both cities. The real question is what was the configuration of that blob in 2000? I think much of the gains have come through annexation. Yes, we are seeing an increase in apartment construction within city limits (Sterling, Lofts on Lee, Cityview, Providence and now Greenway) which I'm sure partly explains the increase.

There is a lot more room in the urban core for continued increase in density.

[justcorbly]

Yes, it is crude. For example, here in NC, when towns could incorporate at will, the relationship between a city's borders and what is usually considered urban went out the window. Raleigh, among others, has shown tremendous growth precisely in largely suburban areas.

My measure of urban-ness is some place that's within walking distance of groceries, shops, places to eat, and such, and with convenient public transit to places visited less frequently, like doctors, barbers, etc.

In other words, a place you could live without a car.

[Brian]

Corbly...you can measure a neighborhood's "urbanness" using that very criteria using WalkScore. It, too, is a work in progress, but they continue to improve it with user feedback.

[Spag]

There aren't many true suburbs in the South.

[Ed Cone]

To someone coming from a traditional big city, most of GSO looks like a suburb of itself.

Our suburbs are different, too -- they tend to be towns unto themselves, or unincorporated areas, while outside of NY or Philly you have these really densely populated places in which downtown GSO would fit comfortably, and contiguous towns that have grown together to form an undifferentiated mass -- you can walk from Haverford to Bryn Mawr Pa without knowing you've left one and entered the other.

[Stephen]

I always considered Clarksville a Nashville suburb, but what do I know. What's considered a suburb to Greensboro/HP? Siler City and Archdale?

[Andrew Brod]

After moving here in '89 from Evanston, Ill., I realized something. Evanston was a suburb but not suburbia, whereas Greensboro was suburbia but not a suburb.

[Bill Yaner]

I like justcorbly's definition of urban-ness. Like the Supreme Court's definition of pornography, I.e. you know it when you see it, so it is when you're walking around in the core of a city that's alive.

[George Hartzman]

just talked to walker sanders from the community foundation.

they don't know how parking for the gpac will affect local businesses.

they didn't do the study.

he denied lobbying for gpac.

he doesn't think other places like the library or the cultural arts center or any downtown businesses will be negatively affected.

but no study that says so to validate.

says ross harris' salary is
fully deductible by donors.

refused to release the names of the donors who matched gso's 200k

said the money put up by the donors to match gso's taxpayer money is fully deductible

[George Hartzman]

cited adam fisher as to the evidence on. the parking.

adam fisher was asked to count spaces.

spoke with him last within the last week.

he said he was not asked about the affects on other businesses and didn't want to speculate, and walker cites adam that there won't be a problem for private businesses.

i brought up the undercurrent and he said their patrons would park in the decks if there was no on street parking.

i asked how much.

he said they don't know yet.