urbanlife

that downtown plaza is going to bring much needed attention to the east side of downtown.

the pictures of the convention center look amazing.

great pics, try to get some of the east side of downtown along St Paul.

actually many of the companies in Portland started here. Many of them were people of Portland who helped start these companies. All I am saying is if you want fortune 500 companies, then grow fortune 500 companies. These companies don't move for the fun of it. And it is not time that builds culture, it is the will to build culture. Time only helps it age and mature. I will say this, the Military doesn't help culture anymore.

I should teach a class on this crap, maybe I should someday after I graduate. things to think about

Actually I am a regular on Skyscraperpage and post pictures of Portland with some funny commentary on both the Northwest section and the City Photos section. Plus all of my pictures are at flickr.com, user name is urbanlife78. I use to say the same thing Greekboy, if HR had one downtown we would be an amazing downtown. After living in Portland and visiting cities in the Northwest, I now believe that answer to be complete crap. (I will keep this on a simple level). The word downtown is where the financing is and where the big bucks are (minus today's edge cities, that's a class in itself). But that is not the case with Portland. We are a city of districts and small towns, it only seems that we have a downtown. We have the Old Town where the US Bank sits (not in old town, but just outside of it). That area has problems that I wont go into explaining, but thing will be changing soon. Then there is The retail district where our city has a 4 seperate block mall and all the department stores. (All that means is we took the mall and opened it too the streets). Then there is the lower part of downtown, the real downtown where all our office biuldings are, but just west of there is our growing Cultural district. To the north end of downtown sits the Pearl district, much of that is wealthy residential. To the West of the Pearl is "Nob Hill" (for the people who want to pretend they are in SanFran), but others call it the Northwest district (think Ghent with alot more retail aimed at younger wealthy people on one side and poorer young people on the other). Cross the river and you will find the Lloyd district, with a huge collection of 70's architecture and 70's planning (think Pembroke if they built it in the 70's "car friendly". Soon we will have the Burnside Bridge redevelopment just south of Lloyd district which will be another city in itself. South of downtown they are building the South Waterfront district "Portland's future most dense area" Also will act as a downtown for itself. Now away from downtown, every neighborhood has a small commercial and retail area that acts like a downtown, we have downtown Beaverton 20 minutes from downtown Portland, dowtown Gresham (on wow, laughed to hard on that one) about 20-30 minutes away. downtown Vancouver anywhere from 15 with no traffic to who knows when with traffic away, downtown Hillsboro (think Montana anything) 30-40 minutes away, downtown Oregon City, Milwaukie, and Salem all under an hour away. Which all this leaves me with my point, Norfolk has no excuse for not being bigger and better, none of Hampton Roads does, except maybe Suffolk (comeone they are still in farm town). The Problem with every city in the US is the fact that they don't start from home. Make it easy for local restuarants to start up (Portland has become a culinary mecca of local foods). Help small businesses get started and grow, help building owners afford to lower their rents so local can go in. Make your artist feel like they are important. Give them grocery stores where ever they need them. (If VaBeach works it will be because they have a grocery store downtown, they do still have that right?). Create districts for everything and give those areas the power over their land and what happens in their own city (also a bad thing if you piss them off, constant headache for anyone in Portland trying to build). Create a group that helps redevelop areas that are rundown. Create a metro to be in charge of regional things like transportation. Portland is not perfect, we still have a long way to go to get to that, but at least we are trying for it. It is the people who live in the cities that make it what they are. We have Nike, Adidas, Columbia, and Intel here, but they don't make Portland Portland, the people do.

I think if the focus is at better paying jobs and supporting its local smaller companies (like Trader) and help them become Fortune 500 teams then the rest will take care of itself. If someone wants to move a team of anything to Norfolk then let them, but don't sacrifice a strong city to get one. The city needs to continue focusing on what's important. As much as I actually like the architecture that went into the Scope (minus how it has aged). I do agree the city needs something bigger, not for a team, but for concerts and such. That tends to generate more money and goes on year round.

personally I think getting a pro team is a waste of time and money. Take the cost of a stadium for the team, now apply that money to building or rebuilding a few quality schools near downtown, then create a plan to construct affordable housing in towers for middle class people with kids and their you go, give it time and you have a busy downtown and growing city. no headaches, not crappy teams, no listening to the owner threatening to move if he doesnt get a new stadium every 10 years.

while they are both nice cities I am going to have to go with a clear winner. Portland, Or every medium city needs to study us and see what we are doing right.

I think the WNBA would have a better chance than soccer will have and the WNBA has little chance of making it. I just don't see it taking off in the states like the other sports have done.

the southland hotel is still standing. If you want to see it, go to Plume between Granby and Boush. You might want to stop by and check it out, it is a stunning building.

I can agree with that rusthebuss, or at least get the east coast to see Hampton Roads as a major player.

if there was a good architecture program to go to in VB I probably would of never moved away.

yeah if you have a chance to see some historical pictures of Norfolk make sure you have a tissue box with you because you will cry over everything that was lost and never happened. Good to see all this making a nice comeback for the city though. One question, not sure I have ever heard an answer on it. I know the Ikon building is coming down, not that big of a deal, but what will happen to the buildings that line Granby right behind the Ikon building? And can anyone take some pictures of them? They are some of the best urban buildings in downtown.

I would so love to see that.

Is that what we call losing?

Mets fan here! Love seeing Atlanta and Yankees losing. When they lose it is like a win for the Mets.

I have always loved the exterior look of the Hague, interior does need to be redone. The exterior always reminded me of the towers you would find in Philly.

the town center site before all cthe building started, Walmart offered alot more money than Divaris did to build a store there. Turning down Walmart and greenlighting Divaris might be the best thing the city has ever done for itself.

so what will happen to the guy pushing the broom? Is he not cool enough for renovation?

Newport News needed to change how people saw the city, the Oyster Point area really helps it.

Actually nothing much will ever happen to NE NC. The land is a hurricane hotspot and lowlevel land. So development in that area will stay small. Will probably be some continued growth out towards the Outer Banks, but that is a given.

I love the look of the museum, it looks like something straight out of a college architecture department.

I am in love with London's city hall, some of Foster's best work.

I agree, I love the look of the Boston City Hall but I am upset about what it destroyed to make it. so beautiful architecture, bad urban planning. That should sum up my opinion of that.