So this was an idea that a lot of people thought would be great, and that's how we got to the Shopping District. . and no one hangs out there. Before all the shops were moved to that specific location, you had people gathering at specific stores (11/7, the family store, etc) which to me worked a lot better than having them all cluttered together. Banter has a point with scattering shops so people have more of an incentive to explore.
As for the new map, basing it off of a pre-existing city (and keeping the name) is a bad idea for a lot of reasons. The one that sticks out most to me, is it forces roleplay to be constrained to real life rather than making a more interesting fictional setting. Think how Ghibli films only use real cities as references, but the actual town in the movie has a completely different world to it. (Fanon Japan v. Canon Japan)