Yay, It's official

[Anthony]

Toronto and Montreal both have underground cities.

Calgary has an above-ground indoor walkway system that is similar.

 

[jackal]

There are quite a few cities like that, aren't there?

Likely so, but Seattleite (?) Bill Speidel has turned this one into a profitable tourist venture.

I'd like to go down to Moscow's Metro 2 someday...

 

[PRR 60]

There are quite a few cities like that, aren't there?

Seattle is different than the type of underground that exists in Toronto or Montreal. Those were developed from the lower levels of buildings to make an interconnecting maze of retail establishments. The Seattle Underground is, in fact, the original street level of the city. The city was raised due to the risk of flooding and some quite acute issues with sewage flow. After it hit the fan one too many times, the old city level was abandoned in-place and a new city street level was established at the second story of the existing buildings. The old level still exists with access from shafts at the new street level. It is kind of like a basement museum of old Seattle.
The Seattle Underground tour, which takes you down into the now underground passageways where you can see the old building fronts and doorways, is well worth while and very entertaining. The tour guides are an attraction themselves. They turn what could be a dry history lesson into a comedy routine.

 

[DesertRat]

I asked my brother; he said he saw the Atlanta underground in Georgia. Judging from what I saw on Google, it's pretty much a shopping mall whereas the Seattle one is the original street level like PRR 60 says. I look forward to checking it out.

 

[Joel N. Weber II]

NY doesn't have that much of that kind of underground city. There's a lot of underground passages and shopping areas, more in the vane of Montreal's, but nowhere near as extensive. There is also abandoned underground infrastructure, such as dead subway lines, which are rumoured to contain some nonsense called the Mole People. I think thats a load of hogwash, but I am also pretty sure that there are homeless living there.

Dark Days (2000) is a documentary about people living in a tunnel in New York who were kicked out by Amtrak near the time they finished shooting the documentary.

 

[Green Maned Lion]

I know of one group that operates out of an abandoned basement. If there is even mildly sheltered spaces that are somewhat lit, homeless people will utilize it. I doubt, however, that it is an ordered society of sunlight-hating recluses.