Category Idea: Unique Shopping & Entertainment Districts

[+JimmyEv]

When visiting a new city or town, sometimes you don't know where all the neat shops and restaurants are. I've visited New Orleans a few times, but thought that the only place to hang out was the French Quarter. Then, when I had to work there for a few weeks, I stumbled upon Magazine Street and the Garden District, as well as other cool neighborhoods that were mostly 'local.' This category would be for places like that.

 

For listing, the district would have to be walkable, a pleasant place to stroll.

 

The district would also have to meet two of the following characteristics:

 

1. The majority of the district is outside.

2. The district is targeted to tourists and/or conventioneers (evidenced by a concentration of hotels).

3. The district has architectural and/or historical significance.

4. The majority of stores and restaurants in the district are unique, i.e. not found elsewhere.

 

With these characteristics, the catgory should include touristy areas (San Antonio's Riverwalk; Dallas's West End), local areas (Dallas's Deep Ellum; Pittsburgh's South Side and Shadyside; Houston's Rice Village), small towns with lots of shops and restaurants (Jefferson, TX; Kemah, TX) and downtowns. It should exclude most garden-variety malls and strip centers.

 

Is this workable?

[+silverquill]

Is this workable?

 

Wish it were, but there are hidden rocks. The main ones are:

 

-- Subjectivity: Whenever subjective terms are used to define a category it gets fuzzy and there is potiential for conflict. Now "unique" in its strict definition of "one of a kind," is not subjective, but then every district becomes unique since there is none exactly like it. But, then, we all know that some things are more unique than others.

 

"Pleasant Walk" is subjective. I might not find walking through the French Quarter pleasant. You might not like Boston's North End, or Codman Square.

 

I think you've made an attempt to define what you're after, and maybe enough objective criteria, or fairly universally agreed upon subjective ones, that taken together you could have a viable category description. Worth working at, anyway.

 

-- Coordinates: "District" by definition is not a specific point on the planet located by a set of coordinates. So, where do I take the coords for the waymark? Even the boundaries of these areas are not always well-defined. Do you leave it up to each individual to choose a landmark or something that represents that district? Could you have multiple waymarks for the same district? I don't have answers to that one.

 

So, and interesting and worthy category -- if you can work out these issues. And, it would take some work to have a good variable set. Let's see what other creative ideas are out there.