American cities are using Brooklyn as a modern downtown model
More and more cities across America are beginning a trajectory that includes microbreweries, coffee shops fronted by bearded baristas and homogenous interior decorating snatched from the pages of a West Elm catalogue. In other words, according to Bloomberg columnist Justin Fox, they are becoming a lot more like Brooklyn.
As Fox sees it, this isn’t all bad. The revival of America’s downtown cities is, he writes, a big upgrade from the downtown streets of the past, which were deserted after 5.pm. and dominated by chains and “mass-produced sameness.”
Yes, there are also problems with today’s trendy coffee shops and ubiquitous modernization, but Fox argues it’s better than the “pre-downtown-revival era.”
Brooklyn Boro
View MoreNew York City’s most populous borough, Brooklyn, is home to nearly 2.6 million residents. If Brooklyn were an independent city it would be the fourth largest city in the United States. While Brooklyn has become the epitome of ‘cool and hip’ in recent years, for those that were born here, raised families here and improved communities over the years, Brooklyn has never been ‘uncool’.