Saratoga Springs, NY- Historic Vacation Grounds for New Yorkers

Lots of great history at Saratoga Springs. The community was incorporated as a village in 1826 and quickly became a tourism destination after the arrival of the Saratoga Schenectady Railroad. Its mineral springs and eventually horse racing & gambling led to an explosion of large hotels. By 1900 the town had a fulltime population of 12,000, which grew to 15,000 by 1950. Following WWII, Saratoga had a couple decades of decline but quickly rebounded in the 1970s as a major destination but also attracted lots new housing and quality mixed-use infill.

Saratoga Springs has some major of urban weaknesses that prevent it from being a great urban area… expensive housing, lack of residential density, limited bike infrastructure, limited public transit access.

Click here to view my Saratoga Springs album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Good generational diversity and half of all households are family ones.
* Congress Park is a wonderful recreational amenity near Downtown. Several other nice park & recreational spaces in Saratoga Springs. Really wonderful in-fill development as well. Not just in Downtown but also in the residential streets.
* Vibrant downtown packed with great shopping and cultural amenities.
* Generally quality sidewalks and ADA curb cuts but lots out of date curb cuts.
* Low crime rate and limited blight through Saratoga Springs.
* Great urban form and streetscaping along Broadway.
* Schools are highly rated and most are located within the historic core.
* Great cultural amenities including ton of restaurants, bars, and cafes, several live music venues, Skidmore College theater, a cineplex, a good array of art galleries, museums and historic sites.
* Retail amenities include a dwtn supermarket, lots of smaller specialty grocers, great array of boutiques & independent stores, some brand name retail, a couple drug stores, bookstores, public library, post office, Saratoga Hospital. Only retail amenities missing is a target and department stores.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Density not great.
* Decent local public transit but limited access to downtown Albany or Dwtn Troy. There are a fair amount of jobs in Saratoga Springs with it local tourism, the arts and Skidmore College
* 40-45 minute drive to either downtown.
* Bike infrastructure limited inside historic Saratoga Springs.
* Generational high incomes here but some economic diversity. Racial diversity on the other hand is very limited.
* For sale housing is runs expensive but decent diversity in price and type (mix of townhouses, condos, and SF). Starter homes run in the 200Ks. Better 3-bedrooms generally 300-400K. Nice 3 & 4 bedrooms between 400K-700K. Large homes and luxury product generally selling between 700K and 1 M.
* Lots of rental product but pretty expensive. 1-bedrooms leasing in the $1,000s and low $2,000s, 2-bedrooms in the mid $1,000s and $2,00s

Kent, OH- hosts a quality historic downtown as state university near Akron

Difficult to decipher exactly what to include in this Kent evaluation as the pre-WWII fabric extents pretty far and inconsistently outside of the downtown center. I included all of Kent University and used a mixture of block groups and historic fabric to set the boundaries of this evaluation.

Kent was originally founded as part of the Connecticut Western Reserve and settled in 1805. It attracted settles due to its location along the Cuyahoga River which spurred water-power mills and eventually the Ohio canal. By the time Kent State was founded in 1910 the City already had a population of 4,500. Kent State was built on the eastern edge of the City and doesn’t fully integrate with the historic town. While there are several quality historic buildings, most of Kent State is unattractive 1950s-1970s buildings. Major redevelopment initiatives came to Downtown Kent in 2008 with a $110 Million dollar mixed-use development across several blocks.

Like most college towns, Kent has a good array of main street retail and cultural amenities. Park and recreational space are extensive along the Cuyahoga River adjacent to Downtown. Areas that Kent could improve from an urban perspective include a downtown supermarket and target, more consistent ADA infrastructure, and a better sense of place at Kent State University. There is also a fair amount of blight in the historic residential portions of the City.

Click here to view the Kent album on my Flickr Page

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Convenient access to lots of University jobs at Kent.
* Pretty good local transit access in the downtown core and university areas of Kent.
* Good bike access on Kent State’s campus and along the Cuyahoga River. No dedicated bike shares.
* Pretty good economic diversity.
* Crime rate is very low but still some blight in the residentials portion of Kent.
* Great tree canopy throughout most of Kent.
* Park and recreation highlights include the extensive and diversity park space surrounding the Cuyahoga River and quads at Kent State along with an attractive plaza space at Acorn Alley.
* Quality cultural amenities include many restaurants, bars & cafes, several live music venues & art gallery spaces, a couple local breweries, some local museums (Kent State University Museum and Kent Historic Society) and the performing arts hosted at Kent State University.
* Nice retail amenities as well including many boutiques and local businesses, local bookstores, a couple drug stores, several banks, along with a post office and library.
* Several good elementary schools within the historic core. The public middle and high school is just north of the historic core.
* Kent did a nice job rebuilding its downtown with quality urban in-fill.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Decent driving access to Dwtn Akron (25 minutes) and Dwtn Cleveland (45) but limited public transit connections.
* Limited racial and generational diversity.
* Local grocery store located in a strip mall just south of the historic core of Kent.
* Sidewalk infrastructure generally good but modern ADA infrastructure inconsistent.
* Most of Kent State University is ugly 60s & 70s towers. While there is attractive green space and quads, likes of parking lots spread throughout campus diminishing its sense of place.
* Historic housing is ok. Some nice historic commercial buildings in Downtown Kent.

Hudson, OH great historic town and childhood home of abolitionist John Brown

My evaluation of Hudson is very nuanced guided by the walkable pre-WW II fabric of the town. This included Western Reserve Academy to the north, the new urbanist shopping center built around First and Main Green to the west, Ravenna St to the south, and Oviatt St. to the east.

There is a lot of great history o this town. Hudson is named after its founder, David Hudson, who settled there from Connecticut in 1799, when it was part of the Connecticut Western Reserve. Western Reserve College and Preparatory School was founded in 1826 and but now exists as only a private high school (the college moved to Cleveland and is now Case Western Reserve). John Brown grew up in Hudson in a very anti slavery town and congregation in the early 1800s creating the seeds of his more radical actions. Historically Hudson was a always a small town. In 1870 there were 868 residents and 1940 1,400. Suburbanization, however, lead to an explosion of residents and the town now has over 20K souls.

Hudson is one of the wealthiest enclaves in the Akron metro likely drawn by its quality schools, history, and historic main street. Several attractive historic residential streets also surround Main Street with homes from every decade of the 19th century. In 2004 an attractive new urbanist retail development (1st & main) was built as a nice extension of Main Street,

Click here to view my Hudson album on my Flickr page

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Great historic architecture spanning many decades before WWII in the main street, residential streets, and Western Reserve Academy. Quality urban in-fill with a nice new-urbanist district west of the historic main street.
* Pretty easy drive to Downtown Akron (only 20 minutes). 45 minute drive to Dwtn Cleveland.
* Very high family households around 85%.
* Great tree canopy and street tree coverage on the main street.
* Grand public square park amenities, a nice trail park extending SE from dwtn, and some quality green spaces at Western Reserve Academy.
* Good cultural amenities including lots of bars, restaurants & cafes, several art galleries, a performing arts theater, and several historic homes.
* Lots of walkable retail including a nice array of boutiques, clothing stores, a supermarket, bookstore, post office, and library. Several other strip malls just west of the walkable core as well.
* Very low crime rates in Hudson. Some years there are no violent crimes.
* Several well rated public schools located on the eastern edge of Hudson Dwtn. Western Reserve Academy located on the north edge was well.
* Quality sidewalk and ADA infrastructure. Up to date ADA curb ramps are common near Western Reserve, main street and the new urbanism shopping center, but limited in the historic residential areas.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Poor public transit access. Although there is some commuter buses to downtown Akron.
* Limited Bike infrastructure.
* Very high household medium income around $125K but some income diversity here. Also limited racial diversity as central Hudson is around 90% white.
* Most for-sale options are expensive ranging between 300K-1 Million. Some more modest product selling in the 200Ks. Rental housing is limited.

Highland Square- Akron’s most urban neighborhood

Like most Akron neighborhoods, Highland Square was built as a early 20th century streetcar suburb with medium density and a mix of SF homes and apartment buildings. Highland Square stands as the most urban Akron neighborhoods due to several decent urban commercial nodes along Market Street and quality walkable retail & cultural amenities. Most Akron commercial corridors are auto centric. Highland Square is culturally also Akron’s most liberal and urbanite district.

For Highland Square to become a great urban district it needs to work to eliminate its remaining blight, encourage urban in-fill along Market to eliminate more auto centric stretches of the corridor, attract more neighborhood retail, and add more families and park amenities. Given its proximity to Downtown Akron, Highland Square should have much better transit service as well. This is more of a Citywide issue though.

Click here to review my Highland Square album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Good early 20th century wood frame residential architecture with some mansions concentrated in the NW corner of the district.
* Good sidewalks and ADA infrastructure but most intersections don’t have current ADA curb cuts. Better along Market Street.
* Convenient access to Dwtn Akron but only so public transit.
* Really nice bike path along the Little Cuyahoga River providing a great commuter path to Dwtn.
* Great racial diversity and economic diversity.
* Great variety of for sale SF housing price points ranging from 25K to 400K depending on size and condition. This is attributable to the mix of blighted and stable housing stock throughout Highland Square.
* Decent cultural amenities including a good array of restaurants, bars, and cafes, a historic movie theater,
* Retail amenities include a supermarket, post office, library, pharmacy and nice array of boutiques and local stores.
* Nice array of public and private schools.
* Great Tree Canopy

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* No bike share stations in the neighborhood.
* Only 33% Family households but decent adult diversity.
* Decent amount of rental options but all are pretty inexpensive. No luxury apartments in Highland Square.
* Park and recreation space a bit limited. Only a handful of small parks within Highland Square along with several cemeteries. Schneider and Elm Hill Park are medium size but just west of the district’s borders.
* Still some crime issues and a fair amount of blight in Highland Square especially in the southern half of the district.
* Urban commercial district massing is hit or miss including some solid commercial nodes along Market like at Portage Path and some more auto centric areas closer to Dwtn.

Crystal/Pentagon City- Arlington’s best New Urbanist Center

Arlington’s Pentagon City and Crystal City is a great example of how to built a relatively urban environment in the auto age. This is a rare American example where cars, pedestrians, public transit and bike modes are relatively. I can’t say I love the design and set back of the original buildings built in Crystal/Pentagon City in the 70s & 80s but their multi-model design was certainly ahead of its time. More recent in-fill developers have been much better from an architecture and urban design standpoint. The neighborhood is also a great example of how park and recreation space can be better integrated into the urban fabric when urban planners are given a clean slate.

Already Crystal/Pentagon City is a quality jobs hub with around 35-50K jobs. Amazon will bring over 25K jobs to Crystal in the next decade. The main areas to improve from an urban perspective is making Crystal/Pentagon City more family friendly. To achieve this more walkable schools are needed along with affordable 3-bedroom condos & townhouses. I fully anticipate future in-fill will continue to be built with quality urban design helping solidify Crystal/Pentagon City as a quality mixed-use district in Arlington.

Click to view my Pentagon City and Crystal City albums on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Many quality examples of modern in-fill. The design of in-fill buildings are better since 2000 but even the older stuff from the 70s & 80s has decent urban design.
* Consistent quality sidewalk and ADA infrastructure network. Sometimes sidewalks are uncomfortable due to high traffic boulevards.
* While there are probably around 50K jobs in Crystal/Pentagon City, it also has very convenient access to Downtown DC and other Arlington Nodes.
* Great public transit access and bike infrastructure including many dedicated bike lanes and good bike share access.
* Good racial diversity.
* Lots of rental options but generally pretty expensive. Studios and 1-bedrooms rent in the $1,000s, 2-bedrooms in the 2Ks & 3Ks, and 3-bedrooms in the $2,000s-$4,000s. Fortunately there is some affordable housing options here.
* Great array of parks and amenities well dispersed throughout Crystal/Arlington City.
* Cultural amenities include a great array of restaurants, bars & cafes, two performing arts theaters, a couple local museums, many art galleries, and an upscale movie theater.
* With at least 4 shopping malls, several department stores, countless brand name stores, several grocery stores, neighborhood retail, and a good about of boutiques and creative stores, its hard to get better retail amenities than here.
* Very safe neighborhood with really no blight (partially due to age of development).

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* No historic architecture in Crystal/Pentagon City.
* Connecting is decent but rather confusing with the city’s curvilinear street grid.
* Generally very high incomes but some economic diversity more so in Crystal City.
* Age wise the neighborhood skews towards the young professional but about 35-40% family households here.
* For sale condos are kind of limited and expensive. 1-bedrooms general sell in the 300Ks and 400Ks, 2-bedrooms 500Ks & 600Ks, and 3-bedrooms 700Ks-1 Million.
* No schools within the Crystal/Pentagon neighborhood boundaries, some elementary and middle schools about 1 mile away.

Rockville, MD another Washington D.C. suburb hosting a quality Urban Town Center

Downtown Rockville is really just a TOD plopped into the center of a mid century suburb. I included the entire new urbanist Rockville Town Square along with several other adjacent urban blocks. Jefferson St forms the southern border, Van Buren Street to the west, Dawson to the north, and the Metro line to the east.

Rockville, along with neighboring Gaithersburg and Bethesda, is at the core of the I-270 Technology Corridor, home to numerous software & biotechnology companies. Rockville remained a very small town until after WWII after it was connected via I 270. It had only 2,000 residents in 1940 and by 1970 was over 40,000. That being said Rockville’s historic urban core has always been pretty small. Yet this modest historic downtown was mostly wiped clean with ambitious urban renewal efforts in the 1960s. The Rockville mall replaced it but for only three decades before it too was demolished. A new urbanist town center “Rockville Town Center” replaced this in 2009. This mixed use center works well with the nearby metro station built in 1984.

Because of Downtown Rockville’s demolition happy past, the lay out and urban form outside of the Rockville Town Center is haphazard and uncomfortable for pedestrians. The worse example of this is the auto centric Rockville Pike running along the eastern side of dwtn. Thankfully city leaders got it right with Rockville Town Center and created a high quality urban base for downtown to work from. It is well laid out, holds a great civic center, mixes retail, entertainment, and residential options (that are actually reasonably priced). Hopefully the City continues to construct quality in-fill projects in-line with the same spirit of the Rockville Town Center.

Click here to view the entire Rockville album on my Flickr page

URBAN STRENTHS:

* With the Metro and quality bus service dwtn Rockville has great public transit service. As good as most inner city neighborhoods.
* That helps provide good access to Dwtn where a metro ride is only 30 minutes. Driving on the other hand is 45-1 hr.
* Fair amount of dedicated bike lanes and several bike stations but doesn’t really connect to a larger system.
* Incomes are high but decent income diversity in Dwtn Rockville including a 15% poverty rate. Solid racial diversity as well.
* For sale options are mostly condos but reasonable prices. One can purchase a 1-bedroom condos in the 100Ks, 2-bedrooms in the 200Ks. Limited 3-bedroom product.
* Excellent example of how to build urban infill from scratch, especially at Rockville Town Center. Some crummy 1950s-1980 mid sized towers as well along Rockville Pike.
* ADA infrastructure and sidewalks is high quality but some streets have high traffic making it uncomfortable to walk.
* Cultural amenities include a great array of restaurants, bars, and cafes, a cineplex, several live music venues, a community arts center, and a handful of art galleries and local historic museums.
* Excellent retail amenities as well include a supermarket, a couple pharmacies, a dwtn library, bookstores, and a bunch of clothing and neighborhood stores.
* Several walkable well rated schools are located on the border of Dwtn Rockville (i.e. Catholic grade school, public elementary & high school).

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Rockville Pike which flanks dwtn Rockville to the east is a basically a local highway. It has sidewalks but not a pleasant pedestrian experience.
* Good amount of rentals but on the high end. Rents start for a 1-bedroom at 1.5K, 2-bedrooms around $2,000. Limited 3-bedroom product.
* Park space is pretty limited within Downtown besides the excellent new urbanist plaza in the middle of Rockville Town Center. Welsh Park is also only 1/2 away and hosts a ton of park amenities.

Fredrick, MD a satellite city with great History and Urban Environment

Fredrick is a City with a ton of history. Its location where the Catoctin Mountains meet the rolling hills of the Piedmont region made Frederick a crossroads even before European explorers arrived. The town was platted in 1745 and early settlement beginning in the late 1700s. Many of the first settlers were German reformers and Lutherans. Fredrick quicky became the county seat for Western Maryland and an important market town. It was also the center of the young nation’s leading mining area in the early 19th century. As a major crossroads, Frederick saw considerable action during the American Civil War. Fredrick’s population grew slowly after the Civil War and into the 20th century hitting 9,000 in 1900 and 16,000 after WWII. Suburban growth from DC fueled explosive growth since WWII and Fredrick now tops 70,000.

The Downtown portion of Fedrick is the best part of the City complete with gorgeous 19th century architecture, especially the Italianate styles, a great main street along Market Street and several blocks of Patrick St. Recent interest in the town from DC residents looking for a quality walkable environment but cheaper housing has led to a renaissance for Dwtn Fredrick. This has sparked a great food & beverage scene, cultural arts, new recreational spaces, and lots of retail and independent stores. The next step to improving downtown Fredrick’s urban environment is investing in the gritty edges of town. Still room for quality urban in-fill here. Downtown also needs a supermarket. Some larger retailers would also be nice.

Click here to view my photo Album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Wonderful historic 19th century architecture mixing Georgian, federalist, and Italianate styles.
* Infill limited overall but some great new construction in the NW section of downtown reflecting historic styles and massing.
* Quality local transit service.
* Great connectivity and street grid.
* Nice bike path along the Carroll Creek greenway. No bike sharing stations yet.
* Highly walkable neighborhood.
* Great economic diversity in Dwtn Fredrick.
* For sale housing is good mix of price points and cheap compared to DC prices. One bedrooms condos/rowhouses sell between 150-300K. 2-bedrooms 150K-450K depending on condition, 3 & 4 bedrooms between 200K-500K. Some higher end product selling for over 500K.
* Rental options pretty reasonable as well. 1-bedrooms rent in the low $1,000s. 2-bedrooms in the mid $1,000s. Limited 3-bedroom rentals. Generally above 2K. Some affordable rentals downtown as well.
* Carroll Creek provides great park & recreational amenities including a bike trail, playground, sport fields, a bandstand, and green space. Some smaller parks spread throughout dwtn Fredrick as well.
* Culturally dwtn hosts a great array of restaurants, cafes, & bars, many museums & historic sites, several theater company and an Arts Center, live music venues, and a plethora of art galleries.
* Retail options include a great variety of boutiques, creative stores, bookstores, Dwtn library & post office, a couple drug stores, and other general retail.
* Blighted limited to the edges of Dwtn. Crime rates in Fredrick near national average.
* Schools are well rated in Fredrick. 2 walkable elementary schools sit just outside of dwtn. The middle & high school ae located about a 2 miles away.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* ADA infrastructure and sidewalks and generally good but ADA compliant ramps are limited and much of the sidewalks are brick due to historic preservation requirements.
* Not convenient to the District as its an hour drive (on a good day) and 1.5 transit trip. But lots of jobs nearby along I-270.
* Limited racial diversity. A mostly white population.
* Supermarket is located about 1 mile outside of dwtn.
* Very inconvenient assess to Downtown DC. Most jobs lie along 270 and are only accessible by car.

Woodley Park, a high-end DC neighborhood next to the National Zoo

Straddling Connecticut Avenue south of the National Zoo is Woodley Park a high end district developed mostly in the early 20th century. The eastern half of the neighborhood is mostly rowhouses fabric, at least in the residential streets. Connecticut Ave has been mostly replaced with large apartment buildings between the 1910s and 1950s. The western half of Woodley Park is mostly high priced single family homes. There are two urban commercial nodes along Connecticut, the smaller one at the western gate of the National Zoo and the larger one at Calvert Street.

Overall this a pleasant but not spectacular urban district. It lacks the commercial district and mixed-use development to an elite DC urban neighborhood. Neighborhood strengths include its metro access, quality parks and walkable schools, and decent bike infrastructure. Along with being a wealthy enclave, many embassies have claimed the neighborhood’s large historic mansions. Like most of DC, Woodley Park needs more affordable housing options. It also has limited family households and retail and cultural amenities are a bit lacking (at least compared to adjacent DC neighborhoods).

Click here to view the Woodley Park album on my Flickr page

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Very convenient access to DC with a metro ride of no more than 20 minutes, easy bike ride, or short car trip.
* Bike infrastructure is good, but not as good as other central DC districts.
* Good density likely due to the high concentration of large apartment buildings here.
* Great racial diversity here helped by the high concentration of embassies in the district.
* Very safe neighborhood with really no blight.
* Good Park amenities with Rock Creek Park wrapping around the southern edge of the district and the Tergaron Conservatory to the north and some athletic fields associated with neighborhood schools. No really neighborhood parks though.
* Great tree canopy including lots of street trees.
* Nice mix of historic SF homes, rowhouses, and large apartment buildings from the 1910s-1940s. Urban in-fill is of a good quality as well.
* Good but not great cultural amenities including a nice cluster of Diverse restaurants, bars, and cafes along Connecticut Avenue. The biggest attraction is the Smithsonian Nat Zoo on the district’s eastern edge.
* Retail amenities is similar including a pharmacy, a hardware store, bookstore, and some creative retail and boutiques. No grocery store, library, post office, or larger retailer. All of these amenities are in the adjacent Cleveland Park district walkable to half of Woodley Park residents.
* Nice mix of walkable private, public schools within Woodley Park.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Medium income is over 100K but some economic diversity in Woodley Park.
* Only about 1/4 of households have children.
* Great concentration of rentals but expensive. Studios start in the low $1,000s and 1-bedrooms rent btwn 1.5K-2.5K, 2-bedrooms generally in the $2,000s and 3-bedrooms over $3,000s.
* For-sale options also expensive. The lower end are studio condos starting in the 200Ks. Most 1-bedroom condos sell for 300-400K, 2-bedroom condos range from 400K into the low millions depending if its luxury. Any 3 or 4 bedroom option selling over 1 Million. 5 bedroom generally over 2 Million.

Downtown Bethesda, MD- a lesson on how to transform a mid-century American suburb into a thriving urban district

My evaluation for Downtown Bethesda included the dense Bethesda core along with the more urban pre WWII neighborhoods surrounding it. My main criteria was good connectivity to the dwtn and sidewalks. I also used block groups as a general guide to create the boundaries. The boundaries generally include Maple Street and the Columbia Country Club to the east, Chestnut St. to the north, Cluster & Fairfax Rd to the west, and Little Falls Pkwy and Norwood Park to the South. This includes several Chevy Chase neighborhoods (i.e. West Chevy Chase Heights and Chevy Chase Terrace).

Bethesda remained a small crossroads village through the 19th century. A streetcar line was established in 1890 and suburbanization increased in the early 1900s. Bethesda’s population really didn’t explode until the 1920s with the advent of the automobile. Following WWII Bethesda saw several major employers move to the City with the establishment of National Naval Medical Center and NIH Clinical Center. Rigorous Dwtn growth filled the expansion of the Metrorail into Bethesda in 1984. DC’s height limits also encouraged mid and high-rises to come to Bethesda. Downtown Bethesda’s most recent urban project is the Bethesda Row mall, a well planned new urbanist mixed-use shopping center that integrates well into the Downtown Fabric. There are also several residential subdistricts surrounding Downtown, a mix of large single family homes and apartment/condo buildings.

Downtown Bethesda really excels at creating an retail & cultural amenity rich but walkable environments. It also has good schools, quality parks, great bike infrastructure and convenient transit access. The major area for improve here is more affordable housing. That also drives a lack a racial and economic diversity in the City.

Click here to view my Bethesda album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Convenient access to Dwtn DC with only a 25 minute metro ride. Car access is also pretty good if traffic is reasonable. The Capital Crescent Trail is a dedicated bike trail that can connects to dwtn in only about an hour.
* Several other bike paths in Bethesda and good bike station coverage in Dwtn.
* Over 50% of households are family households, a very high number for DC. Median age is a bit high.
* Some affordable housing exists here thanks to progressive Montgomery Co policies, but still not enough.
* Excellent tree canopy including lots of street trees in the core of Dwtn.
* Great mix of parks and recreational amenities including well dispersed urban parks, dwtn plazas, trails, a public pool, recreational centers, and sport fields.
* Great cultural amenities including diverse restaurants, tons of bars, cafes, and live music venues, several theaters including some historic ones, a cineplex, many art galleries and a modest Children’s museum.
* Dwtn Bethesda is also well served retail amenities including several supermarkets & pharmacies, a dwtn target & staples, Bethesda Row (a well integrated urban mall with tons of shops and clothing stores), a post office & Library, and good array of locally owned boutiques, bookstores, and antiques. Several Hospitals are also located a mile north.
* Very safe community with limited blight.
* Solid walkable access to several highly rates public elementary schools and the Chevy Chase High Schools.
* High quality sidewalks and ADA access. A couple spots that are more stingy with sidewalks due to historic suburban layout.
* Very urban and well design in-fill. Less attractive 60-80s buildings remain but have decent urban form.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Street grid is connected but can be confusing at times as many curvilinear roads meet with standard gridded streets.
* Diversity is surprisingly limited in Bethesda (about 82% white). This is also a very wealthy area (Medium income is 150K). Only 2.5% of population lives in poverty.
* Good diversity of For-Sale housing product with a mix of condos and SF homes. But very expensive. 1-bedroom condos sale 250K-500 and 2-bedrooms 350K-600K although new product can be more. 3-bedroom start at 650K and go up into the low Millions. 4-bedrooms above 1-million.
* Rentals start in the 1,000s for Studios, 1-bedrooms start in the high $1,000s, and 3 bedrooms start in the high $2,000s. Lots of product.

North Berkeley, CA- home of the Berkeley Rose Garden

I included both North Berkeley and the smaller Northside district in this evaluation. North Berkeley is the district just north of Central Berkeley, Downtown, and the Northside. While not as dense or urban as Central Berkeley, North Berkeley is still a high quality urban environment built between the 1900s-1930s. It has several commercial nodes including a couple blocks on Euclid Ave, a long stretch of Shattuck Ave, and several small commercial nodes along MLK way. Its a nice mix of SF, duplexes, triplex, and small multi-family. Larger apartment buildings near Euclid Ave. Walkability is very high in North Berkeley as it is well served by quality public transit and good bike infrastructure.

Like Central Berkeley, housing is very expensive here. There are also limited family households and curb cuts are not always up to current ADA standards. I guess another improvement would be more density and multi-family housing to help alleviate the district’s high housing costs. But that kind of upzoning is best done on a citywide or regional level to avoid creating higher costs through speculation.

Click here to view my North Berkeley album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Solid urban density allowing most trips to be convenient by foot or bike.
* Much of North Berkeley can still be reached on foot from Downtown Berkeley. Convenient access to Downtown Oakland, and solid access to downtown San Francisco as the BART skirts the southern edge of the neighborhood. Challenging to travel to San Jose or the Silicon Valley where other major employers are concentrated.
* Good bike infrastructure with plenty of stations but not as many dedicated bike lanes as most Berkeley neighborhoods.
* High percentage of affordable housing options, which helps mitigate the City’s crazy high housing costs.
* Several high amenities parks and recreational spaces well spread through North Berkeley. Also convenient access to the Cal U campus.
* Lots of small-medium sized museums within Downtown Berkeley or University of California. Good access to museums offered in Oakland and San Francisco.
* North Berkeley holds a great concentration restaurants, bars, and cafe. Also a good array of art galleries, a community theater, and a couple museums. Still walkable to most North Berkeley residents are all the cultural amenities of Central Berkeley and Cal U.
* The neighborhood is also well served by walkable retail including a nice mix of independent and chain stores (dwtn targets). There are also a couple service grocery stores and pharmacies. The Target and other important retail conveniences dwtn and walkable to most residents in North Berkeley.
* High quality schools and walkable to almost every Berkeley resident.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Family households are pretty limited. But good age diversity amongst adults with a mix of students and established households.
* Very wealth off economically but students and young professionals add some nice diversity.
* Good offering of rental product but very expensive here in Berkeley. Most studios start at around 2K and most 2-bedrooms start at 3 K. Most for-sale options start at 650K.
* Great sidewalks and solid curb cuts. Modern ADA curbs are often missing at intersections however.
* Berkeley certainly feels very safe and has very little blight but crime rate is higher than the Nat. average. This may be partially attributable to its homeless situation.
* Some less attractive modern construction from the 60s-80s but generally still good urban form.