Downtown South- A Decent Las Vegas District South and East of Downtown

For the Downtown South Boundaries I included everything between Maryland and Eastern Avenues and between Sahara and Charleston Blvd.

Huntridge makes up the better known mid -century district within Downtown South centered at Maryland Parkway and Charleston where the old vintage Huntridge theater was constructed around 1945. The surrounding residential streets were built up starting in the 1940s and filling in by the 1970s. Downtown South is the extension of that neighborhood eastern wards to Eastern Avenue,

After the Arts Districts and John S Park neighborhoods to the west, Downtown South is considered one of Las Vegas’ best urban neighborhoods. It has generally gridded streets, decent public transit and good access among all modes to Dwtn and the Strip District, decent walkable schools, safety, reasonably priced housing, okay density, and some walkable cultural and retail amenities. But due to its auto centric business districts, a lack of place, limited bike amenities, and tacky commercial in-fill, I don’t quite consider this a quality urban neighborhood. For that to happen Sahara and Charleston Avenues need some walkable cohesion or Maryland Parkway needs to truly become a mixed-use street and center of the neighborhood.

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Decent public transit and very good access to Dwtn and the Strip.
* Good diversity across all categories.
* A decent # of walkable schools with decent ratings.
* For sale options are pretty affordability priced. Really no studio or 1-bed options for sale. 2-beds sell anywhere btwn 200K-350K, 3 & 4 beds anywhere btwn 230K-700K.
* Overall a pretty safe community.
* Some interesting mid-century architecture but much of it is pretty bland.
* Decent retail amenities including a supermarket, a couple Mexican markets, several drug store, lots of dollar stores, plenty of banks, a bike store, plenty of thrift and consignment stores, lots of antique stores, several dessert joints, and a major hospital is less than 1 mile south of the neighborhood. These are mostly auto centric oriented.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Decent ADA and sidewalk infrastructure. But plenty of residential streets with limited sidewalks and ADA curbs are often not up to date.
* One east to west bike lane running along St. Louis St. No other bike infrastructure in Downtown South.
* Rentals are very limited. 1-beds that do exist lease btwn 700K-1.5K. 2 & 3 beds lease for anywhere btwn 1.5K-2K.
* Park Amenities are pretty limited but there is Maryland Park in the middle of the Blvd and the larger and multi-faceted Jaycee Park.
* Modern in-fill is generally pretty awful autocentric buildings.
* No much redeeming about the urban form of the biz districts. Some ok mixed-use urban form along Maryland Pkwy.
* Cultural amenities are so . They include a decent # of ethnic restaurants, a handful of bars & cafes, a historic mid-century theater. Downtown cultural amenities are only 1 mile away.
* Limited sense of place as there is not walkable commercial district nor any heart to the community.