Tag: Highland Park

Highland Park- a comfortable middle-class neighborhood and home to a Fredrick Law Olmstead park

The neighborhood is named after Highland Park, an expansive park located on the neighborhood’s southern border that is one of several in Rochester originally designed by Frederick Law Olmsted,

Highland Park was developed mostly between the 1980s and 1930s and is a comfortable historic middle class streetcar neighborhood friendly to families but also very economically diverse. The district shares a border with South Wedge along South Avenue giving it convenient access to the main retail amenities located there. Clinton Ave is another urban biz district running along the northern edge of Highland Park. This is a decent urban biz district with a good amount of services but quite a lot of auto centric development too. Other urban areas that could improve in Highland Park include better public transit access, more intersections with ADA compliance ramps, more dedicated bike lanes, several schools located within the neighborhood, more cultural amenities and more rental housing options.

Click here to view my Highland Park Album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Very convenient access to Downtown.
* Excellent diversity esp. economic.
* Nice diversity of affordability & moderately priced for sale housing. 1-bed homes sell in the 100Ks, 2-beds in the 100Ks & mid 200Ks, 3 & 4 bedrooms anywhere between the 100Ks and mid 300Ks depending on size & condition.
* The expansive Highland Park sits squarely within the southern portion of the neighborhood’s boundaries. Also a nice but small neighborhood park called Ellwanger and Berry Park.
* Culturally there is a good array of restaurants, bars, and cafes. There is also the Lamberton Conservatory Warner Castle within Highland Park.
* Retail amenities include a small local Grocery store, a Pharmacy, a butcher, a decent # of boutiques, several dessert joints, and local stores.. There is also a local public library and a major hospital.
* Good urban massing along South Ave but its more residential here than in South Edge. Clinton is a mix of urban and auto centric massing. 

URBAN WEAKESSES:

* Public transit access is so  here.
* Good sidewalk coverage but most intersections don’t have current ADA ramps.
* Only on dedicated bike lane and not dedicated bike stations in Rochester.
* Rental housing is very limited but generally moderately priced.
* No schools within Highland Park but a couple goods schools in adjacent districts that are quasi walkable.
* No art galleries, live music venues, theaters, and few museum sites here.
* Modern in-fill is limited mostly to crummy auto-centric buildings.

Highland Park and Prospect Hill, great neighborhoods on Hamilton’s westside

Some points of interest include a resurging main street with new businesses filling historic buildings along the southern edge of Prospect Hill and lovely 1920s & 1930s housing in Highland Park. Many pleasant streets throughout Prospect Hill in the early 20th century. Prospect Hill also has very convenient walkable access to Downtown.

The biggest areas I’d like to see in Prospect Hill/Highland Park improve include building new mixed-use buildings to fill in the missing teeth along Main Street along with revitalizing the blighted portion of the district along the Miami River.

Click here to see my full Highland Park Album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Great generational and economic diversity.
* For-sale housing is a mix of affordable and middle of the market with prices ranging from 50K-200K. Prices are most expensive in Highland Park with very affordable pockets in Prospect Hill in the more blighted areas closer to the Great Miami River.
* Decent amount of parks including the nice plaza along Main Street, extensive natural trails along two mile run, sport parts surrounding the middle school, and several neighborhood pocket parks.
* Nice urban commercial street along Main with a nice mix of urban retail including a cafe, several bars & restaurants, several boutiques, banks, a drug store, and lots of other neighborhood serving retail.
* Limited cultural amenities within Prospect Hill/Highland Park but one simply needs to walk 5-20 minutes to Dwtn to find this.
* Good architecture spanning the first half of the 20th century. Some blight in Prospect Hill, but not too bad.
* A public elementary, middle school, and high school are all located in Highland Park are ranked pretty well. No schools however in Prospect Hill. 

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Rental product is a bit limited but affordable. Concentrated in Prospect Hill. Highland Park is largely owner-occupied.
* Public transit access is limited.
* Limited amount of racial diversity.
* Generally a stable neighborhood but some blight along the River.
* Limited modern in-fill and what does exist is very auto centric. High Street becomes rather auto centric when passing through Highland Park.