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Eric Fredericks 1:22 pm on April 1, 2009 Permalink | Reply

My Top 20 Favorite Large US Cities: 20 through 16

I’ve been meaning to do a list like this for a long time, but it’s not the easiest list to put together—I felt I actually had to visit most of the largest 100 cities in the United States before I could create my list. I’ve had the good fortune to visit many of the cities on the list, especially those that I believe are the most walkable. Walkability is the most important quality for cities on this list, but it’s not the only factor. Weather, transit service, amenities, access to water, and other factors were also important.

It should be noted that there are a few cities that I have not visited (or spent enough time in) that I think could crack my top 20. Some of these include: Philadelphia, Denver*, Pittsburgh*, Milwaukee*, Minneapolis/St. Paul*, Louisville*, Nashville*, Charlotte, and Baltimore (cities with an asterisk I’ve been to, but not spent enough time there recently to judge). Please see my comment in the comments area below for my background on why I feel confident creating this list.

20. Indianapolis, IN – Indianapolis has seen a lot of recent revitalization of its downtown. The city circle is one of the most beautiful public spaces in all of America. Indianapolis Photos

19. San Jose, CA – For a city that’s synonymous with urban sprawl, there are many things to like about its downtown. Like Indy, San Jose has a great public space in Plaza de Cesar Chavez. It also has very nice weather and close proximity to many amenities of the Bay Area. San Jose Photos

18. Cleveland, OH – Despite being labeled the poorest city in America and home to some of the worst foreclosure problems, Cleveland does have some redeeming qualities. One of my favorite spots: Little Italy. They also have a new BRT line! Photo courtesy of Joshua Rothhaas

17. Cincinnati, OH – Cinci has a nice location along the Ohio River. It has some very livable neighborhoods and a nice urban downtown. That’s the good news and we’ll leave it at that. Cincinnati Photos

16. Los Angeles, CA If it were not for the massively wide and congested streets, LA would probably be a really incredible city. It’s actually more dense than most people think, and it has one of the best transit systems in the country (seriously!). LA is definitely a city to watch as they plan to add tens of thousands more people to their downtown. Los Angeles Photos

Thanks to John Williams for featuring this article in Centerlines.

UPDATE: I also decided that I should have included New Orleans in my original Top 20.

My Top 20 Favorite Large US Cities: 15 through 11

My Top 20 Favorite Large US Cities: 10 through 6

My Top 20 Favorite Large US Cities: 5 through 1

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Rob 5:35 am on April 2, 2009 Permalink

You should do some more traveling and spend more time in cities first before you write such an article.
Eric Fredericks 7:45 am on April 2, 2009 Permalink

Rob, I respectfully disagree. I would wager that I’ve been to more US cities than 98% of Americans. When I go to these cities, I try to visit as many parts of the city as I can, spend several days there (usually riding transit systems, walking , and/or biking), and I usually take hundreds of photos. And I don’t even think it’s necessary to do that really, I think I can get a feel for a city within 5 minutes of being there. Those cities with an asterisk above, some I’ve actually been to like 6 times and I still didn’t include them.

Besides that, I’ve only released 5 cities so far… and these are MY favorites. I certainly think I’m entitled to my opinion every now and then.
Peter 2:00 pm on April 15, 2009 Permalink

Hi Eric. I couldn’t find your city walkability rankings from #1 to 10. Are they on this site?

Hey — since you’re a guru on this subject, perhaps you could make a recommendation for us. We have moved to Florida for a better climate, but don’t find any of the cities here to be interesting. We previously lived in pedestrian-friendly cities which have TONS of cool neighborhoods, including Toronto, New York, Montreal and Baltmore (well, Baltimore was the exception. Baltimore actually didn’t meet out standards because it didn’t have nearly as many neighborhoods as the other three. It’s not a “BIG” walkable city like Toronto, New York, San Francisco, Boston or Montreal. We love all five of these cities. All five have so much to offer, have so many great funky neighborhoods, and are incredibly historic/pedestrian-friendly and vibrant. The problem is that they are all located in cold winter climates (even San Francisco is too cold for us). Miami has a great climate, but the only interesting neighborhood is South Beach — and we’re kind of “done” with it. Miami is just too new to be an interesting city. It’s mostly just sprawl and no urban density. So, we’re ready to move on to somewhere else and are considering LA. Will Greater LA do it for us? Only a VERY big city will meet our standards because we need a place that has DOZENS of cool neighborhoods, where people are on the streets walking and enjoying life. Chicago would probably meet our standards, but it would pose the same problem all over again — winter weather. We hate waiting for winter to end every year so that we can enjoy a measley 5 month summer. I know that LA has \great weather year-round…but is it a “real” city? Any suggestions?
Vanessa 2:46 pm on May 11, 2009 Permalink

Peter – I just moved to Los Angeles this year from the Bay Area and I love it here! I was nervous about moving because I had to learn how to drive (I grew up in Manhattan and had never owned a car before) and because I thought L.A. was going to be a nightmarish, smoggy, sprawling wasteland. L.A. is definitely a “real city” and I actually think that Los Angeles is a much more interesting and vibrant than San Francisco. L.A. has endless neighborhoods to explore, great architecture, world-class museums/cultural offerings/restaurants/etc…, and beautiful botanical gardens, parks, and hikes. And, while I wouldn’t recommend living here without a car, it is definitely possible to set up your life so that you don’t have to drive everyday.
jennie 4:49 am on June 1, 2009 Permalink

What was your answer to Peter on his April 15th blog wanting a great city with nice weather.
Rudy Wobito 12:12 pm on June 7, 2009 Permalink

I cannot beieve that you did not include Philadelphia in your top ten. It easily one of the most walkable and beautiful cities in the country. I am very disappointed.
Rudy Wobito 12:15 pm on June 7, 2009 Permalink

San Francisco was the absolute worst city that I have ever lived in.

My top 10
1. NYC
2. Chicago
3. Philadelphia
4. Los Angeles
5. Washington DC
6. Boston
7. Seattle
8. Portland
9. San Francisco
10. Miami/South Beach
Rosalie 3:24 pm on October 6, 2009 Permalink

See! No one even cares about Kansas City. I’ve looked on like thousands of websites like this, with thousands of different opinions and yet not one has Kansas City been mentioned. Not even on a top 100 list. It makes me so sad to know that I live in a magnificent city that most people probably haven’t even heard of. Hello! Kansas City is the city of fountains (which are amazing ecspecially the JC Nichols Memorial Fountain), best BBQ (look it up I’m not making this up), Heart of America (as in middle), beautiful skyline, perfect blend of normal life and nature, and don’t even get me started on haw beautiful and wonderful KC is (I mean have you seen the Country Club Plaza). There are so many reasons we all love KC. You should check it out, I’ll admit it is not the best city ever (by a long shot) but it is still awesome. someday I’ll make Kansas City the #1 city in America, again (it was like as important as New York is now like a long time ago, because of the Missouri and Mississipi Rivers (that is like the one bad thing, we’re landlocked and the only water is so brown it just looks like a river of mud)) If you visited here you’d all like it too.
Rosalie 3:24 pm on October 6, 2009 Permalink

See! No one even cares about Kansas City. I’ve looked on like thousands of websites like this, with thousands of different opinions and yet not one has Kansas City been mentioned. Not even on a top 100 list. It makes me so sad to know that I live in a magnificent city that most people probably haven’t even heard of. Hello! Kansas City is the city of fountains (which are amazing ecspecially the JC Nichols Memorial Fountain), best BBQ (look it up I’m not making this up), Heart of America (as in middle), beautiful skyline, perfect blend of normal life and nature, and don’t even get me started on how beautiful and wonderful KC is (I mean have you seen the Country Club Plaza). There are so many reasons we all love KC. You should check it out, I’ll admit it is not the best city ever (by a long shot) but it is still awesome. someday I’ll make Kansas City the #1 city in America, again (it was like as important as New York is now like a long time ago, because of the Missouri and Mississipi Rivers (that is like the one bad thing, we’re landlocked and the only water is so brown it just looks like a river of mud)) If you visited here you’d all like it too.
Rosalie 3:25 pm on October 6, 2009 Permalink

oops sry bout the double post
Rosalie 3:42 pm on October 6, 2009 Permalink

Oh yea! So there is no confusion I was talking about Kansas City, MO.

Eric Fredericks 5:10 pm on February 14, 2009 Permalink | Reply

Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis Biking Through Midtown Sacramento: Video of the 2009 AMGEN Tour of California Time Trials

The video above is Lance Armstrong biking down N Street Through Midtown Sacramento. The video below is of Floyd Landis. You can hear the crowd yelling “Floyd! Floyd!” See more photos and video of the 2009 AMGEN Bike Tour.

Popularity: 18% [?]

KFZ Auto Versicherung is discussing. Toggle Comments
- KFZ Auto Versicherung 2:02 am on October 7, 2009 Permalink
  
  I thought that sun shines always in Sacramento and it is hot but On the video I can see the opposite. Looks like winter is coming Thanks for the video.
Eric Fredericks 4:28 pm on February 14, 2009 Permalink | Reply

Fabian Cancellara wins the AMGEN Tour of California time trial

Cyclist during 2009 Amgen California Time Trial

Fabian Cancellara won the Tour of California Sacramento time trial. (Note: this is not Cancellara pictured). He finished the 2.4 mile course with a time of 4 minutes, 32.90 seconds. Lance Armstrong finished with a time of 4:37.17. The rain held off for the entire race, with just a few sprinkles during Floyd Landis’s run. More news, photos, and videos to come…

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Eric Fredericks 2:25 pm on February 14, 2009 Permalink | Reply

Videos and Photos from the 2009 AMGEN Time Trials in Sacramento

The time trials are underway as I type this. The crowds on the street are great! Here is a video and some of my first (not necessarily the best) early photos of the time trial. The rain is holding off… for now. Lance Armstrong still to come! Some drunk guy keeps yelling “Dig Deep” at every rider that passes by.

Popularity: 15% [?]
Eric Fredericks 2:01 pm on February 14, 2009 Permalink | Reply

Video of the Sacramento Community Bike Ride – AMGEN Tour 2009

Sorry for the quality, I had my dog on the leash. See more of my photos and videos of the 2009 AMGEN Tour.

Popularity: 16% [?]
Eric Fredericks 1:30 pm on February 14, 2009 Permalink | Reply

Sacramento Community Bike Ride – AMGEN Tour 2009

The Sacramento bicycling community came out in full force this morning for the 2009 AMGEN Tour of California Community Bike Ride. There was a solid stream of bicyclists along N Street for about 30 minutes. It was quite a site to see. Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson was leading the pack, decked out in full cyclist gear.

Here are some highlight photos so far. More to come in this photo gallery.

Popularity: 3% [?]
Eric Fredericks 11:27 am on February 14, 2009 Permalink | Reply

Live Blogging the AMGEN Bike Tour Sacramento Time Trials

Today, I’ll be live blogging (as much as I can) the AMGEN Tour of California time trials held today in Downtown and Midtown Sacramento. They’re expecting some 75,000 people to attend. The big attraction: Lance Armstrong’s return to cycling!! Also, it’s Floyd Landis’s return from doping suspension.

The streets are already shut down… except to bikers and walkers! The shot above is N at 17th Street in Midtown (sorry about the photo quality). There are port-a-potties at every street corner.

The community bike ride is about to begin, and I’m going to go take some photos.

Popularity: 1% [?]
Eric Fredericks 7:07 pm on January 12, 2009 Permalink | Reply

Video: A Ride on the Portland Aerial Tram

Last October, my fiance and I took a trip to Portland… and subsequently fell in love with the city. Portland is an amazing city that deserves dozens of posts about it, but for the sake of time, I at least wanted to share with you an interesting experience we had.

We took a ride on the Portland Aerial Tram from the South Waterfront District up to the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) campus. I shot the YouTube video above on the ride back down. The ride lasts about 3 minutes. The tram cars are very sleek and modern. I would refer to them as new-age skybuckets, but since they are enclosed and can fit up to 78 passengers, it would be misleading. I suggest that you read this fantastic Wikipedia article about the tram and its history. It is more than you will ever want to know about it.

Some other interesting tidbits: The fare is $4.00 round trip (though only collected going up). The tram has far exceeded ridership projections—which is good because there were large construction cost overruns. The tram cost $57million to build, the bulk of the funding coming from OHSU. The vertical distance is 500 feet. And the tram is super-cool.

I also took several photos of the Portland Aerial Tram and posted them in our photo gallery. You can also view my other Portland photos (I still have several hundred more to upload, however).

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Eric Fredericks, Ride, Ella and one other person are discussing. Toggle Comments
- tom van milligen 2:15 pm on January 16, 2009 Permalink
  
  I’ve been following your blog for a while – hoping to do something similar for Cincinnati. I included you in a meme project, in the hopes that more will read your writing: http://2foot4.blogspot.com/2009/01/meme-project.html
- Ella 8:10 am on March 11, 2009 Permalink
  
  Thanks for sharing your experience on the aerial tram. That view was amazing.
  
  http://www.newurbanismblog.com
- Ride 2:31 am on April 9, 2009 Permalink
  
  Woah! I’d be scared watching down. But maybe I should try it out.
- Eric Fredericks 7:32 am on April 9, 2009 Permalink
  
  I’m scared to death of heights, but I was able to manage ok. There is a bit of a swing at first going up.
Eric Fredericks 7:11 pm on January 2, 2009 Permalink | Reply

I Got Engaged… and Found a New Love!

Many of you already know this, but I haven’t officially announced the news yet on this website: I got engaged last summer! The girl who does not yet know what she’s in for is Sarah Bontrager. She’s also an urban planner, though she works in the private sector and focuses mainly on assisting communities with their federal and state grant programs (like CDBG, etc.). We met in the fall of 2003 in Columbus, OH, while she was attending grad school at Ohio State. She’s originally from the Scranton, PA area and her first love will always be her undergraduate alma mater, Penn State.

The photo above is near the spot where I asked her to marry me. I asked her in Chicago, IL, in front of the Adler Planetarium, with her looking at the Chicago skyline. It’s a truly spectacular spot if you’ve never been there before. I found out afterward that a few other friends of mine have also become engaged there!

I actually did all of the ring shopping without using a car and without telling anyone I was doing it. This was a fairly difficult process, as most of the good jewelers in the Sacramento area are in suburbia. However, I found that many of the better ones were within a long and somewhat hostile walk between each other. So, I took a combination of the light rail and the bus and walked on a few hot July days to several different spots. Ultimately, I came back to the first place I went, Jeannie’s Jewelry Creations, and ordered one of her custom designed rings. It was amazing!! I highly recommend her to anyone. She and her staff are such fantastic people. She also commented to me that in all of the years she’d been working in the industry, she’d never seen someone go through so much effort to pick out a ring. Yes, the public transit is PITIFUL in Sacramento.

Now, you’re probably wondering about my new love since I’ve been with Sarah for over 5 years. His name is Edgar. He’s an adorable schnoodle puppy (schnauzer-poodle mix). We got him back in June and we are head-over-heels in love. I’ve never owned a dog before, but since we’ve owned him, I’ve learned so many new things about my neighborhood (Midtown). I’ve also met many of my neighbors and made new friends. I highly recommend getting a dog, especially if you live in a walkable community and want to get to know it a little better. This photo below I took back in July (it’s really hard to take a good photo of an all-black dog!).

So, this is partially where my 2008 went. It certainly cut into my web time. But, I certainly will take less web time for them!!

One of my 2009 resolutions (yes, I’ve decided to make one or two this year—I usually don’t) is to devote more time to writing and posting. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve written articles and not posted them! I have been working on a couple of big projects and plan on assisting some businesses in launching new websites this year, so I’ve probably already over committed myself, but I really miss doing more with this website. I will hopefully launch one of the projects I’ve been working on the last year sometime this year. It involves over 13,000 photos, so you can imagine how time-consuming it is! You can view some of the photos online here, but this is only part of the project.

I wish you all a happy, healthy, and safe 2009!

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Dan is discussing. Toggle Comments
- Dan 7:41 pm on January 6, 2009 Permalink
  
  Congratulations, Eric!
  Yes, that is a great spot, super view!
Eric Fredericks 10:48 pm on November 5, 2008 Permalink | Reply

A Picture Says A Thousand Words…

…but this photo by jetheriot says one incredibly important one: HOPE.

No matter what part of the United States or corner of the world you’re from, no matter what your political persuasion, I think that’s the one thing we all share in common today. We all hope that Barack Obama lives up to or exceeds our expectations.

I know that many Americans shared the same feeling that I felt last night: I’ve never felt so proud to be an American.

I bet millions of people have played the famous Lee Greenwood song over the last 24 hours.

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