Sainte-Marie- a once distressed but not Revitalizing Urban District on Montreal’s Northeast Side

Sainte-Marie is a solid urban district mixing a lot of different styles from the 1910s-1960s with older blocks towards the southwestern edge of the neighborhood. Sainte-Marie, and the Centre-Sud more broadly, have a long held reputation for poverty, organized crime and prostitution. Because of this, much of Sainte-Marie was demolished for urban renewal in the 1950s and 1960s. Fortunately most of what was rebuilt had decent urban form.

Ontario Street is the best commercial district running the length of the neighborhood. Some good mixed-use stretches along St. Catherine as well and plenty of other mixed-use blocks throughout Sainte-Marie. As the district is still recovering from several decades of blight, crime, and prostitution from the 1950s even into the early 2000s, much of the neighborhood still has a gritty feel and some blocks are even blighted. But the neighborhood is clearly on an upward trajectory and this is certainly reflected in its real estate prices. Filling the main vacant or underutilized commercial spaces, especially along St. Catherine, is a priority in my opinion for improving Sainte-Marie and creating more vibrancy.

Click here to view my Sainte-Marie neighborhood on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

Good commercial district along Ontario street, some good mixed-use stretches along St. Catherines.
Sherbrooke has a good urban feel with larger apt buildings lining a 5 lane streets. Get a bit too autocentric in the Northwestern edge.
Good number of small and medium sized parks but not as many as The Village.
Access to 3 metro stations. Also a good # of bike lanes and dedicated bike stations although not as many as other neighborhoods.
Pretty good tree canopy.
Decent amount of rentals and generally moderately priced. Good amount of 2 & 3 beds too.
Lots of for-sale options. Some more affordable 1 & 2 bedroom condos. 3 & 4 beds are plentiful but expensive.
Decent cultural amenities including lots of restaurants, bars, & cafes, and some night clubs.
Good retail amenities too including several supermarkets, some drug stores, several boutiques, a couple gyms, some bakeries & dessert shops, and other neighborhood shops.
About half of the ADA curb cuts are to modern standards, which is pretty good for Montreal.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

Still a lot of grit and even some blight in parts. This was one of Montreal’s notorious crime and prostitution neighborhoods until the early 2000s but it has come a long way since then.
Not much beyond food & beverage businesses for cultural amenities.
Could be a lot more retail amenities especially unique and locally owned shops.
Architecture while good urban form is often lackluster and utilitarian.
Decent amount of dead spaces or underutilized spots in some of the commercial districts.

The Village- Montreal’s LBGT District

The Village (akak Centre-Sud) was originally a poor working-class rowhouse neighborhood given its close proximity to the Saint Lawrence Seaway. The Centre-Sud neighborhood became increasingly attractive to the gay and lesbian community (both anglophone and francophone) in the 1980s attracted by the neighborhood’s affordability after the migration of many LGBT businesses from other parts of the city. The name Le Village de l’Est (“the East Village”) was promoted by one the main Gay business owners modeled after his time living in New York City’s East Village. Eventually, the name was simplified to “The Village”. The area has become considerably gentrified since the 1990s due in part to significant investment from all levels of all government.

While still hosting Montreal’s largest LGBT community, The Village is one on Montreal’s best urban districts outside of the Dwtn core thanks to its mixed-use character, 4 urban commercial districts, abundance of pocket parks and playgrounds, great retail & cultural amenities, excellent public transit and bike infrastructure, and solid urban form where modern in-fill mixes seemingly with historic rowhouses. The Village has also managed to squeeze in a ridiculous amount of trees inside the tight rowhouse blocks and the main commercial district (Saint Catherine) has largely been pedestrianized. The main improvement I would like to see of the district is more affordable 3 & 4 bedroom homes and apartments. This would make the district more appealing for families. There is also a fair amount of grit reminding one of the neighborhood’s sketchy history but for the true urbanist, this poses little issue.

Click here to view “The Village” album on my Flickr Page

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* The Village hosts one of Montreal’s longest pedestrian streets along St. Catherine.
* One of Montreal’s most vibrant and mixed-use districts outside of Dwtn. Also a large office present especially along the district’s southwestern edge.
* Nice mixed of historic and quality urban in-fil.
* Four major commercial districts (Rue Ontario, Bd de Maisonneuve, Atateken, and Saint Catherine St.).
* Lots of small pocket parks and plazas. Most blocks in The Village have their own neighborhood park. A couple medium sized parks located on the edge of the district, although the expansive Parc La Fountaine is only a couple blocks Northwest of the district. All the pocket parks and very intentional tree planting in the small backyards creates a decent tree canopy.
* Excellent bike infrastructure including several dedicated lanes and many bike sharing stations. The neighborhood is also served by 4 subway stations and has great proximity to Dwtn and Vieux Montreal.
* Lots of studio, 1-bed & 2 bed rentals availably and moderately priced.
* Decent for sale options but generally on the expensive side. 1-bed condos start around 250K and 2-beds around 300K. Some 3 beds available too starting at around 400K. Price go above 1 M across all sizes.
* Excellent retail amenities including several supermarkets and drug stores. Solid all around cultural amenities especially, restaurants, bars, cafes

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Plenty of grit and underutilized buildings spread throughout The Village.
* Av. Papineau and René-Lévesque East are wider roads that line two of the Village edges and are have a more auto-centric feel.
* Modern ADA curbs is hit or miss.
* 3 & 4 Bedroom apartments are pretty limited and expensive.

Vieux Montreal- One of North American’s Oldest Districts

Founded by French settlers in 1642 as Fort Ville-Marie, Old Montreal is home to many structures dating back to the era of New France and is one of the oldest districts in North America. The District’s original streets included the Rue Notre-Dame, the Rue Saint-Paul and Rue Saint-Jacques. The original fortifications of Montreal, erected in 1717 formed the boundaries of Montreal and didn’t expand for almost 100 years when the British authorities decided to tear them down and allow the City to expand. Montreal also enacted a wood ban in 1721, which is why almost all Vieux Montreal’s historic building are made of that iconic Quebec stone. The 19th century witnessed the emergence of the English and Scottish bourgeoisie merchants. Their growing activity significant expanded the importance of the port , built new centers of banking, commerce & insurance concentrated along St. James St., and ultimately lead to a decline in Vieux Montreal’s residential base as the wealthy merchants built extravagant homes closer to Mount Royal (Golden Square Mile). The Architecture also became distinctively late-19th-century Victorian in styling, a significant departure from the stone masonry used during the French era. The district continued to grow until the Great Depression, which caused the relocation of port facilities and the heart of Downtown Montreal moved further west. Many abandoned warehouses and commercial building were left behind and mid-century planners considered urban renewal and highway proposals. Fortunately this galvanized public support to save Vieux Montreal and a Historic District was established for most of the neighborhood in 1964.

Since then Vieux Montreal steadily revitalizing bringing back residents, tourist, shops and night life to the neighborhood and becoming one of Montreal most dense and lively neighborhoods. Quality urban planning efforts also reclaimed the Vieux Port leading to a lengthy promenade, park space, and publicly accessibly piers with major regional destinations. Saint Paul’s and Place Jacque Cartier were converted into vibrant pedestrian streets and the district is served well be several metro stations running along its western edge and great bike infrastructure.

I believe Vieux Montreal could improve in a couple urban areas. First off, the pedestrian zone can be greatly expanded, especially during the weekend. Several blocks of Saint Paul’s are still open to traffic and many other blocks in the heart of the district didn’t feel they needed car access. Vieux Montreal also needs more neighborhood amenities such as a supermarkets, larger stores, public library, and even medical offices.

Click here to view my Vieux Montreal Album and here to for my Vieux Port Album

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* But far Montreal’s best collection of Historic architecture but a really interesting mix of eras generally starting with 18th century buildings closest to the seaway and ending up with early 20th century office bldgs along the western edge of Vieux Montreal.
* Several important landmarks here including: Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal, Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel, Marché Bon Secours, Montreal City Hall, Tour de l’Horloge, La Grande Roue de Montréal, Nelson’s Column, Alfred Building, the Montreal Stock Exchange, Saint-Sulpice Seminary,
* Vieux Port running along the Saint Lawrence Seaway is also wonderful and a lengthy pedestrian promenade, plentiful park space, and access to lots of attractions along its many piers.
* Very pedestrian scaled and lots of small blocks.
* Several break plaza spaces including Place d’Armes, Place de la Dauversière, Le Champ-de-Mars, Parc place d’Youville
* Excellent pedestrian only stretches along several blocks of Saint Paul’s and the Place Jacques Cartier
* Great bike infrastructure including many dedicated bike sharing stations and several dedicated bike lanes.
* Several metro stations run alongside the western edge of Vieux Montreal.
* Excellent cultural amenities especially food & bev business, art galleries, Museums, night clubs/live music, an Imax theater, and performing arts theater.
* Great retail amenities including tons of boutiques/clothing stores, gift shops, creative stores, a couple book stores, plenty of bakeries & dessert shops, several gyms & churches, and a post office.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

Parts of the district would be difficult to live given the intense night life. Saint Paul’s and Place Jacques Cartier.
Missing a major supermarket, department store, drug store, public library, and medical offices. Fortunately these amenities are all located Downtown and in the International district only a 1/2 mile away.
Some sidewalks and narrow and this can be a bit difficult to navigate as a pedestrian when car traffic is high.

Quartier des Spectacles- Montreal’s exciting Arts-based District

While Downtown encompasses the Quartier des Spectacles I didn’t include it in my Downtown review and kept it as its own distinctive neighborhood. For the Downtown review I’m including everything south of City Councilors St. to Guy Street along with the Golden Square Mile neighborhood, considered by most standards to be part of Dwtn but also a bit autonomous . This stretches west to Mount Royal Park. The main spine of Downtown runs down Sherbrooke St. This formed the historic heart of Golden Square Mile where Montreal’s turn of the 19th century millionaires settled. Eventually all of the mansions on the northern stretch of Sherbrooke were replaced with post WWII skyscrapers creating a pretty bland and soulless American urban environment. But many mansions and historic structures were preserved in the southern half of Sherbrooke between Stanley and Guy street.

Saint-Catherine St is the great historic shopping district of Dwtn Montreal akin to Chicago’s Miracle Mile. It remains at a very human scaled with mostly historic commercial buildings remaining. Recent improvements have improved the urban form expanding the sidewalks and make the street even more human scaled. In the southern half of Dwtn Bishop, Rue de la Montagne, and especially Crescent, are three narrow east to west streets that preserve some of Montreal’s best late 19th century grand townhouse architecture. The northern half of Dwtn is mostly post WWII high-rises with the main exception of many historic buildings surrounding Phillips Square. West of Sherbrooke is a mostly residential neighborhood mixing historic and modern residences and institutional uses from McGill University.

Parts of Downtown are not the most exciting because of a large amount of bland high-rises, plenty of wide blocks, and a lack of premier park spaces. But because of its density, good urban planning, smart urban design decisions, good pedestrian activity and great remaining shopping Downtown Montreal has been able to largely overcome these downsides. When adding the exciting Quartier des Spectacles I would still likely include Downtown Montreal as a top 10 Dwtn in North America. The height restriction creates an interesting uniformity to the highest skyscrapers in Montreal as none can exceed the height of Mount Royal (232 Meters). Overall I like this especially when viewed Dwtn from Mount Royal or from afar but it does create some blandness on the ground. Fortunately the new skyscrapers being built are a lot more unique and creative.

Click to view my Quartier des Spectacles and Quartier de Latin Albums on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

Really nice mix of modern and historic architecture. Even some of the ugly brutalist buildings in the heart of the Quartier des Spectacles is soften by good urban design.
Great concentration of parks, plazas and theaters & cinemas. Quartier des Spectacles certainly does well in other cultural amenities.
Strong student presence with the University of Quebec in Montreal spread throughout in multiple places.
Two great urban pedestrian districts; St. Catherine’s that cuts through the heart of the district and Rue Denis also considered the Latin Quartier and biz heart of the University.
Good vibrancy and few surface parking lots.
Excellent bike infrastructure and access to several metro stations.
While not quite as great as Dwtn still great retail options including the Complexes Desjardins (Shopping Mall), several department stores, plenty of clothing stores, several supermarkets & drug stores, and plenty of other retails.”

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

Some grit in points especially along Ontario and some northern blocks of St. Catherine’s.
Plenty of cold 1960s and 1970 architecture but urban designers have done a great job at softening the building with quality streetscaping and plaza spaces in the heart of the district.”

Downtown Montreal, Quebec

Click here to view my Montreal Album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Some major Dwtn landmarks include Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral, Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Sun Life Bldg.,
* Several attractive parks and plazas including Phillips Square, Dorchester Square, and Place du Canada. But not including Mount Royal.
* Excellent public transit access including 6 subway stops. Same with the dedicated bike lane network Dwtn where most are separated by barriers. Feeds into an incredible bike network across the City and Metro. The dedicated bike station system is also one of the best (if not best) in North America.
* Decent bike canopy.
* Generally solid pedestrian activity especially along Saint-Catherine (Canada’s business commercial avenue) and the more historic and mixed-use sections of Dwtn.
* Solid cultural amenities of a Dwtn but with several movie theaters including several indie theaters and a cineplex
* Very good retail amenities Dwtn including a couple supermarkets and lots of ethnic groceries, plenty of drug stores, a great array of clothing stores concentrated along St. Catherine St., several shopping malls including the extensive Eaton Mall and the underground City (the largest underground shopping mall in the world. This comes with many department stores. Other retail amenities are pretty standard for a Dwtn.
* Good pedestrian activity in much of Dwtn but still plenty of dead spaces.
* Lots of residential options Dwtn, generally expensive but not terrible. Solid density with about 20K per square mile living in the greater Dwtn area.
* Lots of universities studies thanks to McGill, the University of Quebec in Montreal and many other smaller colleges.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Limited modern ADA curbs.
* Plenty of modern single use skyscrapers from the 1960s-2000 in the northern and eastern edges of Dwtn which creates some dead spaces.
* No extraordinary parks spaces in Dwtn Montreal as found in other great North American cities like Chicago, NYC, or Boston.
* Several wide autocentric streets run through dwtn still. Thankfully the highway in the Center City Montreal is underground in Dwtn.

Montreal’s Cite Multimedia District- a Former Industrial Area Repurposed into a Dense Mixed-use Neighborhood

The neighborhood’s name is derived from the name of the government-subsidized office complex built in its core. Cite Multimedia is the result of a vast real-estate project launched by the Quebec government in the late 1990s which redeveloped abandoned 19th century industrial buildings into a tech and design cluster. A decade later condos and apartment buildings became the main redevelopment use of the neighborhood as surface parking lots and light industrial buildings were repurposed. Cite Multimedia is similar to other American neighborhoods located close to the Downtown areas that gradually redevelopment old warehouses and industrial spaces. Some good examples include Pittsburgh’s Strip District or Denver’s Union Station neighborhood. Cite Multimedia doesn’t have the most sense of place as its a rather gradual and haphazard redevelopment of available warehouses and industrial space, but it is surrounded by some great neighborhoods including Vieux Montreal to the north, Downtown to the western and Griffintown to the south. Cite Multimedia is also a very mixed-use district in its own right with quality bike infrastructure and public transit access. The only real room for improvement is redeveloping the final surface parking lots that remain.

Click here to view my Cite Multimedi album on my Flickr Page

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Great access to Vieux Montreal and Dwtn Montreal.
* Excellent Density.
* Infill is generally quality urban form.
* Lots of diverse condo and rental options.
* Goo access to the Square Victoria-OACI Subway station.
* Excellent Promenade park along Autoroute 10, the southern edge of the neighborhood. Also a wonderful promenade along the Vieux Port and seperated two-way bike path.
* Good array of food and beverage bizs especially along the northern border (McGill Ave). Not many other cultural amenities in the neighborhood but plenty in neighboring Vieaux Montreal.
* Good retail amenities here including lot of remaining warehouse type stores (camera store, wholesalers, office supply, computer stores, etc.), several specialty grocery stores, several gyms and dessert stores,.
* Good array of dedicated bike lanes.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Not much sense of place. Cite Multimedia feels mostly like a place to live in a high density urban neighborhood to live or good to work close to Vieux Montreal.
* Crime is pretty low and limited blight.
* Decent amount of quality historic buildings remain in the neighborhood.
* Generally good sidewalks but half the curb cuts are not up to modern ADA standards.
* Still some surface parking lots.

Downtown Visalia, CA

The Heart of Dwtn lies between West and Bridge Street. From north to south Dwtn is located roughly between I-198 and Oak Ave, which also has a railroad located on it. Between Main St and I-198 are larger regional attractions including a hospital, convention center and hotel. Downtown Visalia benefits from being the county seat of Tulare and this has brought a good number of government jobs and regional amenities (aka convention center, major hospital and a large Dwtn hotel). Main St is the west-to-east heart of Dwtn containing several well preserved historic blocks filled with many food and beverage business and local shops. This is where the majority of Dwtn’s historic buildings have been preserved. Court St is the 2nd best urban street dwtn running north to south. The edges of Dwtn Visalia become rather auto centric filled with numerous surface lots and car friendly buildings. What Dwtn Visalia needs most to become a solid urban neighborhood is simply more people. Apartments and condos are rare here and Dwtn feels very much just a place to work and hang out.

Click here to view my Downtown Visalia album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Good sidewalk infrastructure and decent ADA curb cuts.
* In tact commercial district along Main Street stretching for several blocks with mostly 1-2 story buildings. Church and Court (running north to south)also have good urban fabric too.
* Decent concentration of historic stock along Main St. Historic stock becomes very scattered outside of Main Street.
* Several dedicated bike lanes running through Dwtn connecting to a good sized bike system across Visalia.
* Solid food and beverage bizs but also several night clubs, a couple art galleries and local museums, and a historic and new movie theater.
* Great local shopping options including tons of boutiques & clothing stores, plenty of banks, plenty of dessert shops, and other amenities. Also a major hospital, convention center, city hall, and other government bldgs are located dwtn.
* Solid public transit access.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Outside of Main St especially on Dwtn’s western, eastern, and northern edges the fabric loosens and many surface parking lots and autocentric uses spring up.
* Lots of bland modern infill from the 1960s-1990s. But of it at least has good urban massing albeit not always good urban form.
* Missing important neighborhood amenities such as a supermarket, hardware store,
* Limited population.

Downtown Ventura, CA- An attractie seaside California Community with a very walkable Historic Downtown Core

My evaluation area includes the heart of Dwtn Ventura and some surrounded streets that have a pretty high level of urbanism and connect well to Downtown. My western boundary is Ventura Ave., Chrisman/Sanjon is my eastern boundary, Poli St to the north and Ventura Freeway/the railroad tracks to the south. The area East of Dwtn Ventura also hosts pretty good urbanism with mostly pre-WWII housing and semi-urban commercial districts. This however felt like a distinct neighborhood from Dwtn.

With the arrival of Spanish missionaries in 1782, Mission San Buenaventura was established by Junípero Serra, giving the city its name. Following the Mexican secularization of the Californian missions a small community arose. Following the American Conquest of California, San Buenaventura eventually incorporated as a city in 1866. The 1920s brought a major oil boom, which along with the post–World War II economic expansion, significantly developed and expanded Ventura. Population steadily grew in the turn of the 20th century reaching 1,300 in 1880, 2,500 in 1900, and 4K in 1920. Population exploded after 1920 reaching 13K in 1940, 30K in 1960, 73K in 1980 and now sits at 110K.

Thanks to Ventura’s decent pre WWII population it hosts an excellent historic core with great urbanism along several blocks of Main Street between Juniper St and Fir St. East of here Main st continues as more of a mixed-use area with lots of residential development. Some decent urban form along Santa Clara and less so along E. Thomas Blvd, which doubles as a state highway 101. Unfortunately a highway separates Dwtn from its waterfront making the connectivity less than ideal. East of Fir St is a solid mixed-use turn of the century walkable residential area with attractive California historic housing. Some nice mixed-use development along Front St, which doubles as a historic wharf district. For Dwtn Ventura to become a top urban district is needs to fill in its remaining surface parking lots and underutilized auto centric spots. It also needs better urban density and a lot more affordable housing.

Click here to view my Flickr Album

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Solid public transit access.
* Consistent sidewalks access. ADA curbs cuts are great in the heart of Dwtn and along Main St but get less consistent on the surrounding residential streets.
* Excellent urban form and streetscaping along the core of Dwtn Ventura along several blocks of Main St. Lots of mix use fabric beyond this but a decent amount of auto centric form mixed in.
* While there are no dedicated bike stations here, a great system of dedicated bike lanes dwtn connecting to the rest of the City.
* Solid racial and economic diversity but not a ton of families with children and median age skews high.
* Excellent historic architecture here.
* High level of pedestrian activity Dwtn especially along Main St.
* One of the safest communities in California apparently. Blight is almost non existent.
* Excellent cultural amenities including a plethora of food & beverage bizs, plenty of art galleries and night clubs, a historic cinema, a live music venue, a performing arts theater, a couple local museums and lots of historic sites including the Mission Basilica San Buenaventura.
* Good park amenities including convenient access to the Beach, the Ventura Botanical Gardens, the excellent plaza park, several attractive plaza spaces, and good access to the Seaside Wilderness Park located just southwest of Dwtn.
* Great retail amenities too including a supermarket and lots of smaller grocerias and gourmet grocery stores, a couple drug stores, tons of local boutiques, gift shops & clothing’s stores, a hardware store, lots of antique and thrift shops, several bank branches, tons of dessert joints & gyms, plenty of salons, a couple book stores and florists, a dwtn post office/public library, several medical offices, & plenty of churches.
* Public Elementary, middle and high school all located in the Dwtn area with pretty good ratings.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Urban density is pretty mediocre.
* Ventura is very far removed from any major Dwtn area in the LA Metro. The closest probably being Santa Monica about 75 minutes away. But Ventura is at least the County seat of which brings a decent amount of Dwtn amenities.
* Good amount of rental product, just very expensive. 1 beds lease anywhere between -3K, 2-beds lease between 2.5K-4K. Limited 3 & 4 bed product and what does exist is very expensive single family homes.
* For sale housing is pretty diverse but even more expensive than rentals. 1-bed condos sell btwn 600k-800K, 2-beds btwn 650K-1 M, 3 & 4 beds range between 800K-2 M.
* So so tree canopy.

Downtown Fresno, CA

Downtown Fresno is historically quite large and well built in places. Between the 1880s and World War II, Downtown flourished, filled with extensive streetcar lines, several lavish buildings and a vibrant main street along Fulton Street. But Downtown Freson was hit hard with the twin enemies of suburban flight and urban renewal. A cool modernist Downtown complex was created in the 1960s but this was only after serious destruction of the Dwtn fabric, which exceeded well beyond the current footprint. The Fulton Mall was created in 1964 closing traffic as a way to compete with new suburban shopping malls. Sadly like most such attempts in American it failed and by the 1980s, most storefronts on the mall were empty. Cars were not reintroduced on Fulton until 2017 Interesting the public art and fountains built on the mall were kept and relocated to the sidewalks.

The area between Tuolumne Street and Divisadero St has been rebranded as the Mural District and is now the best residential area of Dwtn with significant infill development mostly concentrated on Broadway and Fulton. The Arts side of the district is still very nascent. There is the Arte Americas and several murals but not much else. The Brewery District, which surrounds the Ballpark is an up and coming food & beverage district with most of the activities businesses lining Fulton. Some nice historic residential blocks near the modern City Hall Bldg and the Fresno Catholic Cathedral. Chinatown is technically part of Dwtn but I excluded it from this evaluation as its on the other side of the railroad tracks and largely abandonded. The rest of Downtown is mostly underutilized or dead space with parking lots, warehouse buildings, or government office buildings. Dwtn is starting to see some buzz and redevelopment interest. Thankfully it has some strong assets like Fulton St and many historic buildings to build momentum. The sky is the limit it seems for Downtown as there are so many surface parking lots, underutilized warehouses, and vacant historic buildings to revitalize.

Click here to view my Downtown Fresno Album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Solid density for an urban area.
* Generally good sidewalks and ADA curbs but some ADA curb dead spots.
* Decent public transit in Fresno especially Dwtn and neighborhoods north of Dwtn and to a lesser extent east of it. Public transit access drops off quickly once you reach the suburbs.
* Generally a well connected grid dwtn but plenty of wide streets and serious inner-belt highways.
* No dedicated bike stations but a solid bike lane system Dwtn and especially across the City of Fresno.
* Good racial diversity living Dwtn.
* Good cultural & regional amenities including several museums, a minor league ballpark, a hockey arena and event center. Also a great concentration of governmental offices and a major dwtn public library.
* Decent but not great array of food & beverage amenities, several art galleries, live music venues, and night clubs, a couple gorgeous historic theaters and a modern performing arts theater.
* Good number of elementary and middle schools in the Dwtn and surrounding areas, mixed ratings however.
* So nice historic architecture especially concentrated along Fulton Street, the historic main street of Dwtn. Van Ness also hosts a good amount of historic fabric. This comes with the caveat that much of this fabric is pretty blighted and underinvested. Some historic residential area surrounding St. John’s Cathedral.
* Thanks to the City Government Complexes, decent pedestrian activity on Fulton and Civic heart of Dwtn.
* No data on # of workers in Dwtn Fresno, but it appears to be decent with all the governmental jobs.
* Decent retail Dwtn with a supermarket, a CVS, several banks, decent # of boutiques & clothing stores, the Mammoth Mall (collection of antique & resale shops), and unique stores mostly concentrated along Fulton. Also plenty of salons & barber shops, several dessert joints, a major hospital & lots of surrounding medical offices, and plenty of churches.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* 1/3 of the residents living Dwtn are in poverty. Some higher incomes but not enough to create meaningful economic diversity.
* I don’t consider Dwtn Fresno dangerous but I wouldn’t consider it safe either with its high vacancy rate, large dead spaces, and medium sized homeless population.
* Not the most vertical or concentrated skyline but some unique antique towers that make the skyline somewhat interesting.
* Pretty limited rental inventory and very cheap for a Dwtn. 1-beds lease for generally in the low 1Ks, 2-beds in the mid 1Ks, a handful of 3-beds leasing around 2K.
* For sale product is also rather limited and affordable. Most for sale housing is located in Villa Borgata Condos. Some 1 bed condos that sell in the 100Ks, 2-bed inventory sells in the 200Ks, limited 3 & 4 bed inventory sell in the 200Ks & 300Ks.
* College presence is very limited in Dwtn Fresno to maybe a couple hundred students. Closest college is Fresno City College located 2 miles north of Dwtn with an enrollment of 15K.
* Modern in-fill is a mixed bag. Some really interesting and relatively urban 60s infill in the City-Government complex and surrounding blocks but also plenty of unattractive rather autocentric infill. Some decent infill in the Mural District.
* Good urban form along Fulton and parts of Van Ness but lots of dead and semi-dead spaces and surface parking lots throughout Dwtn.
* Courthouse Park is an impressive Civic Heart and Government mall but not much else Parkwise in Dwtn Fresno.

Clovis, CA- Exploding Fresno Suburb with a well Invested and Urban Downtown

I drew the Urban Area of Clovis pretty tight to its Dwtn core as suburban development begins pretty quickly. I used Sierra Ave. as the northern border, Clovis Ave as the eastern, 8th St. as the southern, and Minnewanna Ave as the western.

Clovis was established in 1890 as a freight stop for the San Joaquin Valley Railroad by a group of Fresno businessmen. Clovis was officially incorporated as a city in 1912. The City’s population hit just over 1,000 residents in 1920 and was pretty stagnant through the early 20th century, only reaching 2,750 residents by 1950. In the Post War period, Clovis exploded into Fresno’s largest suburb as it now has a population of 120K. Clovis is one of Metro Fresno’s most in demand suburbs apparent with its quality schools, stable housing stock, and explosive growth. Thanks to its wealth, the City has been able to invest significantly into its downtown area creating an walkable main street but almost entirely with modern infill. Generally I believe the City has succeeded in this endeavor as the architecture and urban form of its in-fill is to a pretty high urban standard. Dwtn Clovis, however, still needs a lot more mixed-use bldgs and density. Other areas for improvement include better public transit access, development of its surface parking lots, more park amenities, more rentals, and some key retail amenities (i.e. a dwtn supermarket, drug store, and medical offices).

Click here to view my Clovis Album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Several quality urban commercial streets including several blocks of 5th St., Clovis Ave., and Polansky Ave. These blocks also have excellent streetscaping.
* Sidewalks and ADA curbs are generally good but several streets are missing sidewalks and ADA curbs in this evaluation area.
* Excellent dedicated bike/recreational path passing through the center of Dwtn. Also a good bike lanes on Sierra St as well and good connected system across all of Clovis.
* Good diversity indicators especially racial.
* Overall a very safe community.
* Most of the dwtn architecture is actually in-fill and quality urban in-fill.
* Some good historic architecture in the residential areas but nothing too exciting.
* Decent pedestrian activity especially in the core of Dwtn.
* Clovis seems to have a pretty good buzz across the region.
* Excellent schools in Clovis but only a handful are walkable and in the Dwtn core including 2 elementary schools and a middle school.
* Pretty good for sale diversity with 2-beds selling btwn 200K-400K, 3 & 4 beds sell btwn 300K-700K albeit with limited 4-bed product in the dwtn area.
* Good cultural amenities including plenty of food & beverage businesses, several local history museum, several night clubs, a performing arts theater, and some live music venues.
* Good retail amenities including several banks, lots of boutiques and clothing stores, lots of gift shops & antique stores, a few floral shops, toy stores & book stores, several dessert stores & gyms, a local post office & public library, and several churches.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:
* Density is pretty low for an urban area.
* Public transit access is very limited in Clovis.
* Transit to Dwtn is pretty terrible taking about 1 hour only on peak times. But a driving commute is only 15-20 mins.
* Decent amount of surface parking but generally behind building that are front the street. The surface parking in the center of the main square is the most unfortunate.
* Northern couple blocks of Clovis Ave are pretty auto centric.
* Some rentals available usually moderately priced.
* Missing amenities dwtn include a supermarket, drug store, no hardware stores, and few medical offices.
* Parks are limited a quality plaza, medium sized parks, and a recreational bike trail.