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ctman987

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I just returned from vacation. I went to Philadelphia, Baltimore and Ocean City, Maryland. While I was there I could not help but make lots ob observations about these places and compare them to other cities including Hartford.

Philadelphia: Philly is an international city. It is a major Americian city and has many things it benefits from. One of the big things I noticed is that the city of Philly is huge (in terms of square miles). I traveled to the Franklin Mills Mall which is an outlet mall which is 20 minutes from downtown and it is still in Philadelphia, there is an area called Chestnut Hill thats about 30 minutes from downtown and its still part of Philadelphia. This is great and something Hartford would benefit from (annexing other areas - west hartford, east hartford, etc.). Center City which is downtown was full of activity and was not dead, another area of the city called University City where many of the city's colleges & universities was hopping despite the fact that school is not in session and on my drive in I drove down Broadway which is a 14 mile stretch of road that stretches from downtown through South Philadelphia and in South Philadelphia Broadway is filled with shops, restaurants and homes all being used by people of all differant races, ethnic backgrounds, etc. Broadway was not an overly big street in Philly - just the right size and is had parking in the middle of the road. One area of the city that seemed a little quiet was an area at the edge of downtown by the art museum. In addition to these locations a new office tower had been built randomly in an area west of downtown and there is a stadium area in the city - intresting fact about 1 of the stadiums is that they wanted to build one in Chinatown which would obviously destroy the neighborhood. There was a lot of public oppisition and they listned and built the stadium out of Chinatown which meant out of downtown. With all this though Philly has seen an increse in crime with the city having its 223 murder while I was therere.....the day I left the mayor was to make an announcment on his new plan to curb the violence.

Baltimore: Baltimore is known as the city of urban renewal, one that other cities should model themselves after. Well Baltimore is a great city but not one to model others after neccesarily. My father went to the University of Baltimore Law School which is why we visited Baltimore. With this in mind we stayed in the Mount Vernon Historic District of the city which is basically located just north of the Inner Harbor and the CBD. The Inner Harbor is home to a convention center (which was hosting a huge firefighters convention), numerous hotels (Marriott, Hyatt, Days Inn, Holiday Inn, Intercontinental Hotel. Renaissance Hotel and a new Hilton Hotel which is being built), a science musuem, a visitors center, an aquarium, 2 galleria type buildings which feature restaurants and shops, a Renaissance Hotel which is home to the Galleria Mall which features the upscale shops, the Power Plant which is a renovated factory that is home to new shops, nightclubs and restaurants, the USS Constellation boat & museum, and lots of office space including the 27 story World Trade Center which is right at the Inner Harbor. There were no vacant store fronts at the Inner Harbor and the area was filled with people all walking around eating, shopping, drinking. There were families, teenagers, older people, etc. This is the good news but when one walks one block north of the Inner Harbor they have entered the CBD which is filled with big office buildings, some restaurants and many business related stores (Constitution Plaza type situtation). This means that this area is really only busy from 9-5. There are though some buildings being turned into apartments & condos...not the same amount though that is happening in Hartford. Even though its dead after 5 there does seem to be a lot of jobs there....there are numerous buildings that have their logos on them including Bank of America and Legg Mason. Heading past the CBD on the same road is the Mt Vernon Historic District which is a charming neighborhood filled with restaurants, shops, townhouses, row houses, a hotel (Mt Vernon Hotel operated by Baltimore International College), some museums and the very first George Washington Monument. The sad part though this area is pretty much dead. There are more vacant store fronts then at the inner harbor and except for the restaurants which fill up with locals there is not much happening there when there should & could be because this area is having the life sucked out of it by the inner harbor. I did stay at the Mt Vernon Hotel though and it was filled with tourists, business people and students who are from the college. With urban renewal the whole city should be active and so downtown Hartford at 7:00pm on a Saturday night is a lot more active then the CBD or the Mt Vernon district of Baltimore at 7:00PM on a saturday.

Baltimore has a great water taxi which takes visitors all around the Inner Harbor to places like Little Italy, Fells Point, Canton, etc all of which are part of Baltimore. In back of the Inner Harbor and all along the waterfront all these guh highrise condo towers (inclduing one by Ritz Carlton) are built as well as a new Marriott which opened. Little Italy was a little quiet ( I went at lunchtime though) and there were some vacant restaurants and so it was not like Little Italy in Boston or New York and with some work Hartford's little italy has potential. Fells Point is along the water and features all these restored buildings which house inns, new lofts, trendy botiques and restaurants and Fells Point was busy during a business day with tourists because the water taxi brought them there.

I did hear some news about crime but every seemed to be used to it by now. I did listen to the Washington DC news though and DC is struggling with crime and has just implemented a new curfew for young kids. They must be in by 10PM which is 2 hours earlier then the previous midnight curfew

Ocean City, Maryland: This is not really a city but more of a vacation resort which resembled Miami Beach. Ocean City is really like a long thin island that has a main road called Coastal Highway which runs down it. Coastal Highway is like the Berlin Turnpike. It is not home to big box stores but hundreds of motels, some stores, buffets and farther north highrise condo towers. This did not impress me but then I got closer to my hotel and realized that every street off the coastal highway are each little streets with homes, hotels, B&B's and condos. Streets on one side lead to the bay side and streets on the other side lead to the ocean side. On the ocean side is the pride & joy of the city: the boardwalk which runs for 27 blocks along the water. The boardwalk is filled with shops, restaurants, cafes, ice cream shops, a mini amusement park, hotels, condos, inns, private homes and the Ripleys Believe It or Not Museum. The boardwalk is packed all day and night with people walking up and down. During the morning you will see people taking their morning jog and in the morning until 10AM people are allowed to ride bikes on the boardwalk. As the day progresses all the families start heading to the boardwalk and by nightime there are families and lots of teenagers, college students and young proffesionals and by late night the boardwalk turns to catering to them. There were people of all ages there. There was also not one vacant property, retail site or blighted proprty on the boardwalk and about only 1 blighted property in all of Ocean City.

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I just returned from vacation. I went to Philadelphia, Baltimore and Ocean City, Maryland. While I was there I could not help but make lots ob observations about these places and compare them to other cities including Hartford.

Philadelphia: Philly is an international city. It is a major Americian city and has many things it benefits from. One of the big things I noticed is that the city of Philly is huge (in terms of square miles). I traveled to the Franklin Mills Mall which is an outlet mall which is 20 minutes from downtown and it is still in Philadelphia, there is an area called Chestnut Hill thats about 30 minutes from downtown and its still part of Philadelphia. This is great and something Hartford would benefit from (annexing other areas - west hartford, east hartford, etc.). Center City which is downtown was full of activity and was not dead, another area of the city called University City where many of the city's colleges & universities was hopping despite the fact that school is not in session and on my drive in I drove down Broadway which is a 14 mile stretch of road that stretches from downtown through South Philadelphia and in South Philadelphia Broadway is filled with shops, restaurants and homes all being used by people of all differant races, ethnic backgrounds, etc. Broadway was not an overly big street in Philly - just the right size and is had parking in the middle of the road. One area of the city that seemed a little quiet was an area at the edge of downtown by the art museum. In addition to these locations a new office tower had been built randomly in an area west of downtown and there is a stadium area in the city - intresting fact about 1 of the stadiums is that they wanted to build one in Chinatown which would obviously destroy the neighborhood. There was a lot of public oppisition and they listned and built the stadium out of Chinatown which meant out of downtown. With all this though Philly has seen an increse in crime with the city having its 223 murder while I was therere.....the day I left the mayor was to make an announcment on his new plan to curb the violence.

philly is an enormous city with tons of problems, especially crime. when you say broadway, do you mean broad st? it runs north and south through center city and down to south philly, hits market at city hall (which is the size of a full city block in th emiddle of center city, also one of the tallest buildings).

i'm curious to know what the mayor had to say about his plan to stop the violence. my fiancee goes to drexel (which is located in university city although her school is in center city) and lives just west of UPenn in university city (when she's there of course... she's up here for the summer).

philly is actually somewhat similar to providence in the neighborhood structure and the way it's such an industrial city. there are a lot of individual neighborhoods and people really identify with their neighborhoods and each neighborhood has its own characteristics and identity.

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Hey Jim, is Pod still in University City? That place was great, really good food and vibe. If it's still there, and you get a chance, go eat there.....

i'm not sure... never been there, but i want to say i've seen it. do you know where it was? if i can think of the area, i'm sure i'll remember.

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i ws shocked when i saw that...

Not to go off topic, but here some interesting cities for square miles:

Jacksonville- 841

Houston- 596

Phoenix- 515

LA- 498

Indianapolis- 425

Dallas- 378

NYC- 321

Chicago- 228

Tucson- 227

Seattle- 98

Omaha- 97

Las Vegas- 84

San Diego- 73

Orlando- 65

Pittsburgh- 56

San Francisco- 47

Denver- 45

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Not to go off topic, but here some interesting cities for square miles:

Jacksonville- 841

Houston- 596

Phoenix- 515

LA- 498

Indianapolis- 425

Dallas- 378

NYC- 321

Chicago- 228

Tucson- 227

Seattle- 98

Omaha- 97

Las Vegas- 84

San Diego- 73

Orlando- 65

Pittsburgh- 56

San Francisco- 47

Denver- 45

I would of guesed that Los Angeles and Chicago would of been on the top of the list as first and second. Denver is a surprize, being only 45 sq miles. I thought it was a lot bigger than that. Jacksonville is insanely huge surprizingly.

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I would of guesed that Los Angeles and Chicago would of been on the top of the list as first and second. Denver is a surprize, being only 45 sq miles. I thought it was a lot bigger than that. Jacksonville is insanely huge surprizingly.

Jacksonville was never that large up until recent times, I forget when but they anexed most of the county into the city except for some areas on the beaches.

I thought Louisville did it also, but on a smaller scale, however it looks like Louisville is only around 65 square miles. Maybe it was much smaller before they anexed some towns?

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I thought Louisville did it also, but on a smaller scale, however it looks like Louisville is only around 65 square miles. Maybe it was much smaller before they anexed some towns?

Louisville must have been 65 sq miles before they annexed all of Jefferson County, KY. I say this because I know that Louisville's population is now hovering around 650,000, and there's no way they fit 600,000+ into 65 square miles.

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I think San Diego might be a little larger than 73 square miles. I have family out there and visit frequently. Most of the 35-mile drive on I-5 between the Mexican border and the City of Del Mar is within the City of San Diego (downtown S.D. is located around Mile 16 on I-5). Furthermore, when you drive east from downtown on I-8, you don't leave the city until Mile 12.

In any case -- with the continuous annexation of unincorporated land going on primarily out West -- it will be interesting to see how large some of these cities become in 10 to 20 years.

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In my last job, I traveled extensively. I'll never forget being in cities like St. Louis or Dallas and driving for over 1/2 hour and never leaving the city limits.

Being in close proximity to Boston and New York gives Hartford a bad rap because the inevitable comparisons to these two cities is unavoidable (although unfair). However, compared to many cities of comparable size nationwide, Hartford is head and shoulders above most.

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With all this annexation going on, Hartford should try to jump on that bandwagon. Yes I know I'm beating a dead horse...

That's never going to happen, the last annexation CT had was in the 1800's... We have 169 little towns that we are stuck with, we can even forget about county government, that pretty much never really existed in this state and was pretty much abolished in the 60's except for breaking the state into geographic names.

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That's never going to happen, the last annexation CT had was in the 1800's... We have 169 little towns that we are stuck with, we can even forget about county government, that pretty much never really existed in this state and was pretty much abolished in the 60's except for breaking the state into geographic names.

not another one with the same whalers logo as their avatar! i'm gonna get all you hartford people confused now... :wacko:

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Wow Jacksonville is almost the size of Rhode Island... Nothing beats Juneau, AK, though, it's 2,718 sq. miles...

Actually after its incorporation as a city in the year 2000, Sitka Alaska is 2,874 square miles.

If you counted water, Sitka has 4,710 square miles while Juneau has 3,108.

Anchorage is actually very large also.

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That's never going to happen, the last annexation CT had was in the 1800's... We have 169 little towns that we are stuck with, we can even forget about county government, that pretty much never really existed in this state and was pretty much abolished in the 60's except for breaking the state into geographic names.

Perhaps in the future if more and more Connecticut municipalities become burdened in providing services under the current property tax system, there might be a move towards municipal consolidation. However, I envision this potentially happening more between the towns rather than between the towns and cities.

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Jacksonville was never that large up until recent times, I forget when but they anexed most of the county into the city except for some areas on the beaches.

I thought Louisville did it also, but on a smaller scale, however it looks like Louisville is only around 65 square miles. Maybe it was much smaller before they anexed some towns?

The old city of Louisville was around 68 square miles. The new merged city of Louisville-Jefferson County is 385 square miles, or about the same area as Dallas. The merger happened in 2002. The population in this area is 701,000 as of 2005.

However, the OFFICIAL census estimates will not allow Louisville to incorporate many of its large suburbs in the Louisville-Jefferson population. Therefore, the census lists Louisville's population as ~560,000. Clearly this leaves out some very large suburban areas so I am sure it drastically lowers the square miles of what the census considers the "city." So the census may list it as "Louisville-Jefferson" but realize that a popualtion of 560k is not NEARLY the whole county. It leaves out about 140k people who live in several large suburbs.

As of 2005, Louisville's MSA was 1.21 million. That means about 7/12 people in the metro live in teh core county, something we are really trying to keep here.

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