Many American downtowns are still struggling to bounce back from pandemic-induced remote work, which has emptied office buildings and hit local businesses hard. In the scramble to get people back downtown, many are turning to tourism.
Tourist-focused downtowns are mostly centered around large event venues, like stadiums and convention centers, attractions like museums and monuments, and lots of hotels. Resident-centered urban cores have lots of housing, public amenities like schools and parks.
The nation's capital offers a stark example of a downtown designed largely to serve office workers and tourists. Half-empty federal office buildings, boarded-up storefronts, and national museums that sit empty after 6 p.m. make downtown an unwelcoming place for residents.
Most American downtowns just don't have regular people that live there - they're either priced out because of real estate, or there just isn't much there to attract the type of people that are willing to pay that much for the real estate.
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