Biggest Downtowns (largest, comparison, bigger, populations)

[Dream Chaser]

I know New York is first then Chicago but whats the next downtowns that are large.

[Java Jolt]

San Francisco, Philadelphia, Miami, and Boston would probably follow.

Usually the more eastern a city is, the bigger the downtown.

That's why Los Angeles and similar cities built mostly on sprawl have large downtowns but still rather small in comparison to the eastern cities.

[Java Jolt]

To the OP, the topic is about big downtowns in measurement of square mileage, not how tall the skylines are, right?

[Dream Chaser]

Really I mean by big downtown is with population.

[munchitup]

Originally Posted by Java Jolt

San Francisco, Philadelphia, Miami, and Boston would probably follow.

Usually the more eastern a city is, the bigger the downtown.

That's why Los Angeles and similar cities built mostly on sprawl have large downtowns but still rather small in comparison to the eastern cities.

Downtown LA is quite large, and comparable to EC cities, in both physical size and population.

(Not to mention it is not a city built on sprawl - like say, Phoenix )

[munchitup]

Wikipedia says Center City Philly is the 3rd largest downtown by population after NYC and Chicago with a population of 57,000 in 2 square miles.

Downtown Los Angeles has a population of 45,000 in an area of 5.3 square miles. Expect this number to rise - DTLA grew despite the recession (In 2006 the population of DTLA was 29,000. It has grown by 65% in 6 years), and now that we are finally pulling ourselves out, the number of new developments is simply staggering.

Another interesting note about DTLA is that it is currently at a perfectly even racial demographic split - 25% Caucasian, 25% Black, 25% Asian, 25% Latino. Probably won't last long as the Caucasian and Asian populations are rising.

[oakparkdude]

Working population or residential population?

[benleis]

There's an inherent tension between building lots of residential towers in a downtown area and functioning as a central business district. Too much residential development may crowd out businesses and vice versa.

So measuring a downtown especially one strictly defined to a few square miles by its residential population can mask a lot of differences depending on the concurrent business usage. There are cities where the "downtown" area is really transforming into a high density residential zone vs. ones are growing lots of new jobs vs. ones that are balancing both vs ones that are losing jobs but gaining residents etc.

Ben

[Atticman]

Downtown Toronto has a resident population of 175,000 in 4.5 square miles.

[kidphilly]

Am pretty sure Philly has the third largest population and work force (265K)

Mostly, Center City's doing great - Philly.com