Everytime I see something like this I think of the RFD, bless their safety minded hearts. (Southport dressed up for the 4th)
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Cool pic but everyone knows true wealth is measured in how many Gucci items you own, not how tall your building is.
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Sorry to say but Detroit DOES have a Gucci store…
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One of my top downtowns in NC (and really we have a lot of good ones from Wilmington to Asheville). I would put downtown Winston Salem in my top 5 downtowns. Today from a little tour I led. The amount of conversion of old buildings in downtown Winston is astonding from factories to medicine school from office to residential etc. The original Wachovia headquarters building is now an apartment tower. And the Twin City is so affordable compared to Raleigh Durham or Charlotte. Speaking of Gucci stores there is one in Southpark in Charlotte.
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I wonder how a poll on which is preferred wld turn out. I am torn, but I would have to say Euro. I really appreciate good light and am not a fan of skyscrapper canyons.
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We just took the Ethan Allen Express train from Manhattan to Saratoga. Very comfortable, on-time, relaxing trip with good beverage and snacks options. Plus some nice scenery.
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Very nice indeed. I am disappointed to see you didnt get @GucciLittlePenguin any beverages.
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Not to be too Albany centric, but I am gonna make one more post because I know the various fun opinions about downtown Albany on here. The Empire State Plaza is basically the poster child for everything most of us hate about city planning. They displaced like 7,000 low income people, destroyed downtown connectivity, hastened the decline of downtown and its businesses, and spent a fortune of public money (debt) on a vanity project to impress out of town people. The Wikipedia article is fascinating. We walked through this entire underground concourse that’s basically a mini city except it’s all marble and empty and feels like a transit hub. But it connects the museum and Capitol and a bunch of the tall marble buildings, and it’s definitely interesting in how weird it all is. I went inside the Capitol for the first time and it’s quite impressive plus there’s a lot of historical stuff inside that’s free and open to the public.
Plus apparently they had plans to build a giant domed tower but never followed through.
There’s also a 150 year old carousel in the natural science museum that’s connected.
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I’d love if ours got that sort of facelift.
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Manchester UK wasn’t really on my radar screen as a bike and pedestrian friendly city but I was pleasantly surprised to discover the entire inner core is effectively a car-light zone. See representative images below-- transit and cyclists are consistently prioritized. Tons of good infrastructure. Things get rapidly worse once you cross the inner beltway but the center city is pretty great.
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Now THIS is a fireworks show! Downtown Nashville finale. Apparently they have their symphony playing in the amphitheater in the background. How bout we put on a clinic like this over dix park next year for the 250th!
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Nice catch for Roanoke VA 2025 USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Championships - Roanoke, VA Home to the 2025 USA Cycling Endurance Mountain Bike National Championships https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5D-dVCZmjU&t=7s
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Are they already starting on the second and shorter tower? 
No not at all. No plans for that which I’ve seen yet.
I wish, that picture is from my apartment and I’m pretty sure I’ll be staring at that ugly parking deck until I move out.
Finally getting around to sharing about Bellevue. Many of the same cities are talked about here, but I haven’t seen anything on Bellevue specifically.
Pros: abundant high-end development, growing skyline, homeless population of effectively zero, awesome transit hub linking together new light rail with old bus system, big downtown park, thriving downtown shopping mall, & city council meetings are broadcast on local TV.
Cons: horrible walkability (Bellevue was proudly designed for cars with mega blocks and plenty of parking. You have to wait multiple minutes to cross their large intersections bc every signal prioritizes the car. You can see Seattle from Bellevue but it feels nothing like Seattle on the ground), no bike lanes (there is only one on one street so it’s useless), bikes are actually encouraged to share the sidewalk with pedestrians (lol), and it’s COMPLETELY unaffordable. Think doctors driving Uber (I’m totally serious). Here in Raleigh, we have no concept of this. You can still buy a livable home for <$400k 1.5 miles from Fayetteville St. Bellevue is so far past this being a possibility (adjusted for cost of living in the PNW of course) and will never return. The NIMBYism runs rampant. Downtown Bellevue is surrounded by SFHs pushing back against density, no surprise there. And finally, Bellevue shouldn’t have height restrictions but it does. They increased the max from 450 ft to 600 ft a couple years ago. Immediately the buildings are being built to 600 ft now. So they shouldn’t have maximums.
Would love to hear others’ thoughts on Bellevue. I’ll share some pics after this.
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