My wife just attended a talk by Pierre Fillion where he argued that successful mid-sized cities have:
- Proximity to a university
- Cultural attractions and historical buildings
- Pleasant pedestrian walkways
- Retail space (but not a mall)
He argued that parking and malls are not helpful. A downtown should be different from surburbs or no one will bother going downtown. See Archives: Journal of the American Planning Association for his article on “The Successful Few: Healthy Downtowns of Small Metropolitan Regions”.
Update (March 25th, 2005). I tracked down the article. Here is part of “Table 1. Features of downtowns rated as successful from respondent’s own regions (question 2).” from the Filion article:
And here is the a quote about the importance of universities.
Certain attributes are disproportionately present among these downtowns. Seven of them have a large university that is either in or adjacent to the CBD. In five more cases, while not immediately downtown, a university is located within 2 miles of this district; and in two additional cities, Savannah, GA, and Asheville,NC, there is a smaller college in or close to the CBD. (p. 332)
Bibliographic Reference: Pierre Filion, Heidi Hoernig, Trudi Bunting and Gary Sands. The Successful Few: Healthy Downtowns of Small Metropolitan Regions Journal of the American Planning Association. 70, 3. 328-343. 2004.