Resident-centered urban cores have lots of housing, public amenities like schools and parks, and local restaurants, shops, and other businesses. AdvertisementThe nation's capital offers a stark example of a downtown designed largely to serve office workers and tourists. The unsexy way to get people downtownBefore cities focus on bringing in visitors, they need to serve their residents, Wesolowski argued. Parks along urban rivers, lakes, canals, and ocean beaches can attract new residents, visitors, and commercial development while serving as a buffer for flooding. "It has a really quite an extraordinary balance of tourist facilities, local universities, medical complexes, residents living downtown, a baseball team downtown, a waterfront — it sort of does everything right," she said.

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Persons: —, Jon Jon Wesolowski, Wesolowski, Tracy Hadden Loh, Karen Chapple, Loh, Chapple Organizations: Service, Business, Visitors, Eiffel, Chicago, Brookings Institution, of Cities, University of Toronto Locations: Washington, Chattanooga , Tennessee, Paris, Chicago, Wicker, Parks, Diego's