Downtowns Rebound

"Downtown is Back" seemed to be a common observation throughout the 1990s. It turns out that thiswas more than wishful thinking. Among this sample of 24 cities, 18 downtowns saw increases in theirdowntown populations.In a lot of ways, the story of downtown is a counter trend of what is happening in the rest of urbanAmerica. While most central cities are losing population relative to their metropolitan statistical areas(MSAs), most downtowns are gaining a larger share of MSA population. While cities such as Charlotteand Phoenix are booming, their downtowns are getting weaker. Race and immigration play a differentrole in downtowns as well. Compared to cities? overall population changes, the downtown populationgain is less weighted toward blacks and Hispanics. Increases in white residents led the resurgence indowntown living-in stark contrast to the general decline in city white population. Note: The title below links directly to an Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) file.

Thanks to Brookings Institution