Chattanooga is a city I am conflicted on because while it has a great downtown and a lot of new developments. It is still very sprawling and becomes suburban rather quickly, I feel like it is a city that definitely deserves some better transit than just busses and the incline because while it had a strong urban center the inner ring and outskirts of the city aren’t the best. I did love how it still had a working class feel and the amount of new construction apartments was really impressive. It feels like a city going up, but I just want it to move in the right direction and to avoid the mistakes of other growing cities.
So what I love about Old Louisville is how it is one of the most unique neighborhoods in the us. It is historic and gorgeous and yet definitively working class with amazing density, a great cultural scene, and stunning architecture. It even has shops, restaurants and the 1st co-op in Kentucky. If It had serious transit and a grocery store, it would be almost perfect
So I was in Cincinnati today and it is a city that I have so many conflicting opinions on. Because on one hand it is genuinely one of the most gorgeous cities in America and its clearly still working class. But on the other hand it is just so car dependent, and half the city just doesn’t exist anymore because of racist policies. I feel like it’s one of the best examples of the rust belt in the US because of how so much has clearly been lost in the city and yet it like so many rust belt cities has so much potential for improvement and to become a great city again. It’s got amazing bones, if you go to surviving neighborhoods like NKY, OTR and Clifton there is so clearly a hope for the future, and I want that to happen. I feel like that streetcar is proof of the fact that the city can improve and yet how it falls behind because it is a good system with good ridership. But it needs serious infrastructure like dedicated separated lanes and desperatly needs an extension to Clifton and UC. All in all I like Cincinnati, I just feel like it as a city deserves so much better.