It's just a heavily commercial area. Parking is expensive compared to the cost of living (~$400-500/mo for a garage downtown with no access restrictions which will probably be close to or maybe more than half your rent) and that coupled with the lack of services just makes it very hard to make the case for moving downtown. Even if the services came in, you would still absolutely need a vehicle to survive so when you compare downtown to a 30-45 minute rush hour commute it's a hard sell for sure.