Riverside Gentrification Complete. Where to next?

[David]

Now that it's hard to find a parking spot in Five Points around dinner time and over at King Street on the weekend, it appears the gentrification of Riverside/Avondale is in full swing and will be complete soon.

Being the counter-culture "I liked that before it was cool" type  that I am, I need to hang out in the up and coming/not-yet-on-the-radar spots.

Will Springfield finally get some traction going? Murray Hill? I'm wanting to time travel to say, late 1990's 5 points, where it's just Fuel and a handful of other creative business entrepreneurs struggling to stay a float.

I thought I had found that area in Springfield around 2003 or so, but it never seemed to gel.

The next future artist/eclectic shop haven that will almost always be described as "funky" in newspaper write ups must not yet have a grocery store. It needs a little crime but nothing too stabby. Just enough to scare the yups away for a few more years.

I'm thinking that mantle still belongs to Springfield but I could be mistaken. I yearn for a yin to Riverside's yang. Something along the lines of ATL's Cabbagetown answer to their Little Five Points.

An up and coming warehouse districting perhaps? Talleyrand Tapas. Moncrief Mongolian. Emerson Eclectic Vintage Records and more. Annnnnd I'm out of ideas.

Feel free to add yours!

[I-10east]

Being the counter-culture "I liked that before it was cool"

That sounds like a textbook definition of a hipster, which I'm cool with!

[TheCeleryStalker]

I think Springfield has more potential than Murray Hill as far as size of area and different types of buildings.  I've owned in Murray Hill for 7 years now and it really hasn't changed much.  We have the Edgewood corridor for retail and that's about it.  It is also extremely walker/biker unfriendly along Edgewood.  It would take some love from the city to redesign how traffic flows through here to really get that 5 points/king street feel.  We would also need a way to fill in the gap between First Block and the Edgewood Bakery/Murray Hill Theater area.

[ChriswUfGator]

Springfield will be dead last as long as there remains a group of misguided people dedicated to turning it into a rehash of southside boulevard by calling code enforcement on local businesses and bashing them on the internet, while holding out for their stated preference of starbucks and panera bread. There is some fresh blood but the transfusion is not yet complete, and until it is you'll continue to see the area languish.

[peestandingup]

I don't know that Murray Hill has enough of a retail district to truly be able to self sustain itself like Riverside or San Marco mostly does. It seems it will always sorta straddle that part urban part suburban line on the edge. Hence won't be what a counter culture is looking for.

My guess is Springfield. It has all of the ingredients. And I already know lots of people who have moved there on account of Riverside becoming too expensive & too "normal".

[ChriswUfGator]

I don't know that Murray Hill has enough of a retail district to truly be able to self sustain itself like Riverside or San Marco mostly does. It seems it will always sorta straddle that part urban part suburban line on the edge. Hence won't be what a counter culture is looking for.

My guess is Springfield. It has all of the ingredients. And I already know lots of people who have moved there on account of Riverside becoming too expensive & too "normal".

The same starting point was reached in the early 2000s, but never got off the ground because the primary neighborhood group wasn't receptive. This is also why most of main is vacant lots, and you have a modernist's tribute to Stonehenge at the entrance of the neighborhood where the park view inn used to be. People with the wrong ideas continue to have too much input in the process.

[peestandingup]

I don't know that Murray Hill has enough of a retail district to truly be able to self sustain itself like Riverside or San Marco mostly does. It seems it will always sorta straddle that part urban part suburban line on the edge. Hence won't be what a counter culture is looking for.

My guess is Springfield. It has all of the ingredients. And I already know lots of people who have moved there on account of Riverside becoming too expensive & too "normal".

The same starting point was reached in the early 2000s, but never got off the ground because the primary neighborhood group wasn't receptive. This is also why most of main is vacant lots, and you have a modernist's tribute to Stonehenge at the entrance of the neighborhood where the park view inn used to be. People with the wrong ideas continue to have too much input in the process.

All too true. I wasn't here for the first wave but mostly caught the dramatic decline of the bust over there & the failures of the micro managers who plagued the neighborhood. Maybe I'm being too optimistic but I think eventually the people themselves will end up defining what Springfield ultimately becomes for the reasons I mentioned (influx of counter culture looking for a deal in an urban setting that isn't so bad that's it's unlivable). I think the King Street district sorta fits with that as well, but not sure of that's considered "Riverside" still.

But as far as truly separate neighborhoods, Springfield is about all I can really see as a contender at this point. I'd love to see the Eastside (Philip Randolph area) come into its own someday, but that's a long way off.

What area would you say, Chris?

[mtraininjax]

People are being pushed into Murray Hill who cannot afford Riverside, and its OK, because they are next door to one another. The Shoppes of Avondale are only 1.5 miles from Murray Hill, so they are close, relative to Springfield.

As downtown goes, so goes Springfield. That is, if Springfield cannot find its own identity, I think it can, but the people in the neighborhood need to open more shops along Main Street. As Main goes, so goes Springfield. With 9th and Main still closed, its a reminder to the good times, but it could be again.

Even Brooklyn will get traction from Riverside. You want to be closer to the source of heat, rather than multiple neighborhoods away.

[BoldBoyOfTheSouth]

We moved to Murray Hill because it has so many creative and eclectic people.

It's kind of a Bohemian Mayberry. Mixture of creative and mainstream.

Post Street has many small apartment buildings for edgier millennials to rent. Close to the Metro and a short walk to King Street and the upcoming CoRK district.

Edgewood Avenue has many retail spaces small and affordable enough for a new struggling businesses to cater to the creative class. Edgewood also has some decent sized buildings closer to I10 that can be converted into art galleries with parking.

Houses in Murray Hill range from turn of the 19th~20th century. Many houses built in the 1920s in the English storybook Cotswold style and most still gave their original charm and character of hardwood floors, glass doorknobs and interesting windows. Then there are many priceless craftsmen bungalows too.

[BoldBoyOfTheSouth]

What I also like about Murray Hill is that it's in the center of everything yet it's an isolated village off by itself.

Post Street separating Riverside from Murray Hill kind of let's M.H. drift off on its own. Roosevelt and the train tracks clearly let's Murray Hill be an island from Avondale. Cassatt & Lenox definitely borders as as ocean from the Westsiders. South M.H. kind of blends into a never land to the point where it's easy to forget there are neighborhoods to the southwest. I10 is close by but yet a world away.

We in Murray Hill kind of live upon an island to ourselves yet convenient to the Shoppes of Avondale, King/Park Streets and 5Points whenever we feel line mixing.

[Bill Hoff]

I don't think there's a "next".

Murray Hill, Springfield, and Brooklyn are all very different, and they will all continue to develop.

In general, Murray Hill has less work to do to, but has a lower ceiling than SPR. While Springfield has a higher ceiling, but more work to do. In the big picture, proximity to Downtown, it's planning, zoning, & unique housing stock would indicate SPR. In the short term, with it's proximity to Avondale, Murray Hill.

But it's not either/or. They're different enough to not cannibalize eachother.

You'll see some good things happening in the Eastside neighborhood, particularly along APR, soon.

Brooklyn is in another catagory as it's mostly a blank slate, and benefits from being technically (some how) included in the Downtown boundary.