Selling a good razor and then making the razor blades crazy cheap - what a wacky idea for a business model! Eagerly awaiting launch of the Henson inkjet printer. Anyway, go to hensonshaving.com/CITYNERD and enter "CITYNERD" at checkout to get 100 free blades with your purchase! The only thing better than cheap razor blades is free ones.
Several years ago I picked up a 1960s Gillette from eBay I still use. I only use disposables if desperate. I may try the Henson just to see what I may be missing, thanks.
What I love about this channel is you don't just celebrate the best of the best cities in the US, you find ways to celebrate all cities in the US. You show us that every city has its issues, but every city has charm and things that stand out. Keep up the great content!
St. Lious downtown is dead. If you want a true urban area that is affordable I would recommend Mexico City, Mexico. Very easy to get to, English is used enough to get by, and I can ride a bicycle or public transit essentially anywhere.
Streetsblog Chicago has done interviews with People for Bikes over the last couple of years and the low ranking for Chicago is mostly based on the city's 30mph default speed limit which bumps every street in the city into the "high stress" category in their Bike Network Analysis model. I understand the posted speed limits might make Chicago somewhat less bike friendly than other cities, but they rank it 1,635 out of 1,733!? Unreal.
Agreed. Personally I think walkability matters more to urbanism than biking. Chicago, with its decent public transportation system is pretty walkable compared to other Midwestern cities.
Yes! I came here to say this! If the 25 MPH ordinance passes in city hall, Chicago will be bumped way, way up on the People for Bikes list in future rankings.
@@walktheearth7878Maybe there could be actual traffic stops for drivers speeding, blowing red lights & stop signs, etc. What difference does a speed limit make when literally never enforced? This could make a real difference in safety.
As always, I will point out that the primary reason why Philadelphia remains relatively affordable among large cities is the property tax abatement program, which has led to healthy development and redevelopment. Land Value Tax works. Henry George was born in Philadelphia.
I grew up near Cleveland and now live in Pittsburgh. Tossing around the idea of moving back there when I finish planning school next year. I just visited last weekend and found a three bedroom house literally right next to a metro station for $170,000. And this wasn’t in some abandoned part of the city. It was like a ten minute walk to Gordon Square and 15 minute walk to Ohio City. Kind of unbelievable, really, but I guess that happens when the metro is as underutilized by residents as it is there.
A halfway decent 1-bedroom in Cleveland, with convenient transit links, goes for approximately $900 a month right now. Yes, you read that right. I had a great time living car-free there for a few years: Among other things, you can totally take transit to the points of high culture, like Playhouse Square and the art museum.
@@thexalonSounds a lot like Baltimore, which I consider the most underrated city on the East Coast. Even in the most trendy neighborhoods where crime rarely occurs, you can easily find 1 bedrooms for very cheap. I recently saw an apartment in Highlandtown (great neighborhood) for $1,300 a month total….with over 1650 square feet and three floors. Unreal. The whole city has to deal with the “murder capital” label, which actually keeps the safe/trendy/walkable neighborhoods free from dramatic housing cost increases.
St. Louis seems like good value city, but I'm worried about the crime. I get that crime isn't spread across a city equally, but I have a feeling the safer areas would either be on the outskirts and more suburban or very expensive compared to the rest of the city. Would love to hear your thoughts
@@antonioiniguez1615Think of it another way. With the money you save by living in St. Louis you can live in one of the safest neighborhoods for the same price as a dangerous neighborhood in a more expensive city.
My brother lived in St. Louis while he did his PhD. It's a great city. There's two problems that ensure that I personally would never want to live there, though: 1. crazy hot, humid summers. 2. You have to live in Missouri, with all the red-state politics that entails. But if you can deal with those two things it's a great place to live.
@@antonioiniguez1615 st louis crime isnt bad outside of northside and some pockets of the south side.. cwe and midtown are crazy value (you can find 1200 1 bd apartments in a very walkable area) however like a comment said, we get crazy hot humid summers (like minimum of 100 degrees for AT LEAST a week straight but past few years its been getting worse like we had temps of 114 last year) also we get really cold winters (to me) like we regularly get temps below freezing for at least 2 months out of the year if not longer and with windchill it can easily be below zero sometimes
Dont worry, NYC is wonderful and I love visiting there. If I didn't have lots of local family obligations I could def love living there. Life is an experience and enjoy it.
As a 25 y/o St. Louisan, this is exactly why I want to buy my first home asap. I love our city and I think it’s going to grow a ton in the coming decades once everyone realizes how great and undervalued it is.
Also your age and thinking of at least living in STL for a while. In Denver right now, originally from Indianapolis. I visited a couple times and thought it was really neat. Which neighborhoods would you say would be great for people our age? Definitely don’t want to do suburbs like St Charles, Chesterfield, etc
@@DangerouslyFast My family is originally from north STL but moved out to the burbs when I was in middle school. Now my partner and I currently live in Maryland Heights, which is a great suburb of STL located in west St. Louis County. One thing you'll learn about quite quickly in STL is the unique City-County divide. We honestly love it here in Maryland Heights, but just want to be closer to friends, work, events, etc. in the city proper so are looking at neighborhoods all over the south parts of the city, mostly at the neighborhoods near or between Forest Park and Tower Grove Park: Central West End, The Hill (my partner grew up there), Southampton, Tower Grove South, Hi-Pointe, Bevo Mill, etc. and some other places further east like Soulard and Benton Park. In general, you want to avoid the neighborhoods in the northern part of the city, for now, until programs to reduce crime have some more time to take effect. There are still nice areas to be found in north STL, especially if you don't mind being in an area which may have significantly higher crime rates and gang activity. As always, use best judgement. I do hope you come to STL and enjoy it!
@@DangerouslyFastmoved from STL to Denver! The Hamptons are nice, but Central West End or Tower Grove/Shaw would be ideal imo for the most urbanist experience.
@@DangerouslyFast Central West End, The Hill, Tower Grove South, and Southampton are where we’re looking the most. Also looking at places a bit further east like Soulard and Benton Park. In general most places in south city are fine, some are just more desirable. In north city you have to be more careful picking a spot, depending on how comfortable you are being near an area with more crime and gang activity. We’re currently in a smaller suburb in STL County, but we want to move to the city to be closer to friends, work, things to do, etc. I hope you move to STL and love it!
Dogtown is really safe but I didn't care for it's architecture. Dogtown is mostly suburban feel. The Grove is really neat. My brother lives in the north part of Marine Villa. It's basically Benton Park but maybe a little cheaper.
Thank you for pronouncing Lancaster correctly! Fun facts: oldest farmers market in US, the county has most productive non-irrigated farmland in US, and the city resettles 20x more refugees per capita than US average
That Lancaster is pretty much the opposite of the one in CA, which has made a bottom 10 CN video, with good reason. Also, the accent on the CA one is on the 2nd syllable. Crazy how these things go.
St Louis's MetroLink is really good for what it is! Its Red and Blue Lines effectively act as a light metro thanks to great grade-separation left over from old ROW. The Eads Bridge that the MetroLink uses to cross the river was the first bridge built across the Mississippi south of the Missouri River, and since earlier bridges didn't survive, the Eads Bridge is also the oldest bridge on the whole Mississippi! The Eads Bridge was once briefly used by Amtrak trains between 1971 and 1974 (stopped on the year of Eads Bridge's centennial). So when they were constructing the underground stations downtown, the tunnel was already there, using the St Louis Freight Tunnel. On the Red Line, trains use the former Wabash/Norfolk & Western Railroad's Union Depot line that once brought passenger trains from Ferguson to Union Station. When the Red Line makes a stop at the Delmar Loop station, it is located just below the original Wabash Railroad's Delmar Station building! On the Blue Line, it follows a former Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis (TRRA)/Rock Island railroad right of way. When they were constructing Skinker and University City-Big Bend stations, they faced opposition because that section was gonna be street-running, so they opted to build them underground! So thanks to NIMBYs, they ironically made the Blue Line a better and quicker service through no street-running! Another example of a North American light-rail system that mostly uses old rail right of way is the HBLR in NJ, a system that has helped revitalize the NJ waterfront with lots of TOD, bike infrastructure, and Vision Zero to complement it! The Bayonne and West Side Ave portions were once part of the CNJ, and the portion between Hoboken and Tonnelle Ave used to be the New Jersey Junction Railroad (part of NY Central), which was bought by NJT when it was under Conrail's River Line. When 8th Street station opened in 2011, its headhouse was built in the style of the original CNJ depot. Much of the HBLR is repurposed ROW, though the downtown JC segment was built brand-new. The repurposed ROW selected goes through dense neighborhoods, like the Weehawken Tunnel formerly used by New York Central trains is now used by the HBLR with an underground stop at Bergenline Ave in Union City! Jersey City was the first in NJ to have a bikeshare system when Citi Bike expanded there in 2015, with Hoboken joining in 2021.
Hello from Cleveland! Thought I'd check out this video as I gear up to walk out my front door, walk through a leafy urban suburb, and catch the rapid transit train downtown to check out a new bookstore. Nice to see us make the cut! P.S. Excited to see your Durham video. I'm in Cleveland because I just got aggressively priced out of Durham after living there for about 10 years 😢. Things changed there quickly!
@@c_rob1 Been in Cleveland a year--previously was in LA for a decade and NYC for nearly a decade prior to that. Cleveland punches way above its weight. There is a lot of suburban sprawl, but you're engaging with this channel so I'm assuming you'll steer clear of those parts and live in the urban core (somehow still affordable). You can live your car-free urban dream easily here. Getting more bikeable all the time, rapid transit exists but can be frustratingly infrequent. Overall value for money, transit, walkability, and culture/stuff to do 8/10.
@c_rob1 because you asked, some sketches and thoughts -Cost of living here makes me question why people pay 2x or 3x for similar lifestyle. I live in a historic, stunning home on a beautiful street surrounded by kind, interesting people. This home cost significantly less than a modest mill house in Durham -I have excellent commercial districts in walking distance from my front door. There are nearly zero chain/corporate business at these locations. Are they swagged out, instagrammable hot spots? No. I see this as a good thing -People here are extremely kind and easy going. People are not competitive with one another. Everyone minds their own business while showing interest in their neighbor. Very cool -Regionally, there feels like there is much to do. Northeast Ohio itself is packed with smaller towns and cities that offer stuff to do. Additionally, Cleveland is surrounded by many other excellent, formerly magnificent cities that require many visits to take in (Detroit, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati) -Cleveland has a remarkable super power: Everyone assumes it's terrible. This keeps things real and local. It feels like this city is truly for the people who live here. Seems to keep predatory investment away. Like a little secret. I probably shouldn't even be talking about it strangers... -In my year here I've been out and about quite a bit and I feel like I've seen maybe 25% of the city. -People will tell you the weather is terrible. They are incorrect. The last winters have been incredibly mild. The spring, summer and fall all feel like platonic ideals of each season. No excessive heat, no annoying bugs. There is immense natural beauty. The moisture from the lake encourages massive plant growth across the city. The well funded parks system is world class and beyond charmed. The lake provides a marquee feature that defines the city in a nice way. I've had about a dozen different visitors since moving here and every single one of them now keeps an open mind about moving to Cleveland. Ok don't tell anyone.
Wow... was not expecting to see my hometown on this list. Lancaster is a beautiful, charming city. Founded in 1730 its streets are narrow and lined with colonial rowhomes. Great walkability and urban amenities for such a small city. Amtrak is great for getting to Philly in just an hour without a car, and the city is ever-increasingly trying to improved pedestrian safety and bike infrastructure. I'm proud to call it my home. You should come visit sometime!
@@blueveins295 There are several grocery stores in the central city that carry most things you'll need. Beyond that there are bus routes that have stops directly outside several grocery stores in the suburbs.
I’m moving to St Louis from Boston in like 4 days after being in MA for 30+ years. There are some pretty nice walkable neighborhoods close to everything good in the city. We were renting in Cambridge MA at $2.50/sqft for an ancient apartment and in St. Louis that translates to $1.50/sqft in basically brand new construction in one of the most desirable neighborhoods in the entire metro with tons of walkability and amenities. A similar apartment In Boston would be, not exaggerating, $8,000+ a month
After you’ve been there for a month please give an update on your thoughts! I work remotely and I’ve been considering St Louis as an option to move to but on the fence.
Just got back from the Twin Cities and Milwaukee. Very little litter. The Twin Cities have the most bus shelters of any city I have been to. The trail along the Milwaukee River is an added benefit in Milwaukee. Philly has a lot to offer. The amount of litter is shocking. The Barnes Museum is a must see. Lived in Salt Lake County for nine years. The State Legislature in Utah is about control. Be careful about air quality.
While COL has definitely increased a lot in the past few years, Richmond VA where I live is actually still pretty decently affordable to have the level of urbanism and walkability it has compared to other cities in the South. I live in a nice two-bedroom apartment in the largest Victorian Historic District in the US (the Fan) for $1,795 a month and drive less than 4k miles a year. It's an easy 12 minute bike ride downtown to work with a protected cycle track to get me there or a 10 minute bus ride on the BRT Pulse line which is free. Whole Foods, Aldi, and Lowes all within a 15 minute walk as well as dozens of restaurants, bars, shops, and even a couple of local grocery markets. The Museum District, Church Hill, Oregon Hill, Jackson Ward, Scott's Addition, Carytown, Carver, and Monroe Ward all just as great. The city eliminated parking minimums last year and has been installing speed tables, raises crosswalks, separated bike lanes, etc at a rapid pace. Whole neighborhoods like Manchester have been upzoned to TOD-1.
I moved from Seattle to Philly recently and it's wild how much less I spend on everything, especially rent. The culture is also a much better fit for me.
@@r.d.9399 Like any city there are less desirable/dangerous areas in Philadelphia. Outside of those areas it is a reasonably safe city and provides an excellent urban lifestyle. I’ve lived in the Twin Cities (Mpls. & St.Paul) and they are delightful as well.
if you ever visit oakland, i highly recommend staying in uptown, old oakland, rockridge, or temescal. there are many other great neighborhoods, but the ones i listed are the most transit friendly and walkable (imo)
Carmel is good for biking because it has good trails and bike lanes, plus the roads aren't super wide or high speed. But it's so spread out that it's hard to walk places unless you live right downtown (a small area).
It’s also isolationist. No transit between Carmel and Indy, even though they’re neighbors, because they do not want to be associated with them one bit.
Cincinnati, OH is undermentioned. 80-90% of restaurants are local businesses, closest starbucks is on the UC campus, not even a Taco bell until you cross route 75. Only one streetcar running N/S through the middle of the city, which definitely has room for expansion, but the city isn't really that big in terms of walking/biking. Metro bus routes reach for miles outside downtown. One bedroom can be found for $700-1300/mo average, parking runs for $65-$150/mo. One of the, if not the largest amount of parks per sq/m within the city limits, with one within walking distance of anywhere in the city. Great value overall, and down the highway from an international airport
CityNerd has little good to say about Cincinnati, even though he claims to like the place. I think it's the freeways. The thing is, they are not as big a barrier as he seems to think. For example, Fort Washington Way does not cut the riverfront off from downtown, because the freeway is sunken and there are plenty of ways to go over or under it. We're also at the mercy of our geography, with all the hills and rivers. And you are right, we have a great park system, especially if you include the county parks. We have some of the prettiest architecture anywhere, and many neighborhoods have lots of tree cover. We don't really have stroads; even the main drags have sidewalks, lights, and crosswalks.
Moved to Cleveland a year ago after spending nearly two decades in Los Angeles and NYC. It may not be as cosmopolitan, but my life here is much more walkable, bikeable, and urban than it was in my last two homes in LA (and I technically live in a suburb! [Cleveland Heights]). I, in fact, spend more time outdoors here than I did in LA. For anyone flirting with the idea of moving to Cleveland from a bigger metro or a small town, pull the trigger. You can live your dream of living car-free in a happening urban core that has amazing parks, architecture, and cultural institutions for a fraction of the price of its counterparts. Transit can be frustratingly infrequent, but if you compliment the RTA with a bicycle and the occasional rideshare, you're golden. We need more people with urban values advocating for density. Steer clear the sprawling 'burbs! See you soon!
Caveat--despite popular belief amongst Clevelanders, Cleveland is a part of Ohio. This is a negative. The state government is antagonistic to cities and especially aims to hamper the urban agenda of the the most liberal metropolitan of Ohio, Cleveland.
Crazy to see my hometown of Dayton on any kind of urbanism list. The Oregon district is great for late night bar crawls, and catching a ball game with the Dayton Dragons is always a good time.
Yeah. While Dayton has a lot of things going for it, I wouldn't call it an urbanism dream. Most of the best parts of the region (most of the metro parks, Yellow Springs, Miller Lane, Austin Landing, Scene 75, and Wright Patt) are pretty much only accessible by car (or very inconvenient bus routes). Sure the theater district and Oregon districts are nice, but without a car, you are missing out on most of the employment opportunities and much of the amenities. Also one of the greatest things about Dayton is that it is just an hour away from Cincinnati and Columbus and 90 minutes from Indianapolis. I love the Dayton region and think that it could be overhauled into a more walkable region. Building a mixture of light and heavy rail would help connect the suburban job centers better with downtown. Also a high speed rail (or even a regular train) to Cincinnati and Columbus would be a game changer. However Dayton as it currently stands requires a car to live a full life.
@@jonathanbowers8964unfortunately you pretty much need a car if you want to get anywhere else outside of where you live in Ohio. (Unless long distance bike trails are your thing) You may have some cities or neighborhoods with pockets of walkability in places.
Please tell me Thai 9 is still there. 🙏🤞 I went to school there for one year before transferring to a school in TX that was a better fit for me but while I was in Dayton, I was in a sorority, and I think we celebrated a sorority sister’s birthday at Thai 9 about 1.5 times a month, on average. I remembered my Thai 9 order until probably a few years ago. OMG AND MILANO’S?!! AND TIM’S?!!!!!!!!! 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 What was the pizza place…
I live/have lived in two places that get a lot of CityNerd love: Madison, WI and St. Louis. I’m constantly recommending both places to people. The latter always seems to come as a bit of a surprise to the listener. The day that stops happening is the day that I’ll know the “secret” of St. Louis is finally out.
Madison looks like the best small city in America, by the numbers. If ever I had to leave Australia for America, I would choose there. Milwaukee is an extension of Chicago, but Madison is true Wisconsin. Lovely people from there.
I take St Louis. It's my favorite N American city, it's just fantastic. I've lived there for years and was very sad to get a job that forced me to move out. There's so much stuff to do, and its bikable downtown feels endless as it extends 7 miles from the river westward, and 4 miles southward. North is the incredible Chain of Rocks bridge. It's all gentrified now. Even the Delmar Divide is kinda gone, with housing property shooting upward. Houses in Tower Grove that were 80K ten years ago are now 400K...and that just gets you the right to repair an older house. The higher housing cost does mean the city is flush with cash.
Madison might have been affordable pre-pandemic but not anymore :/ Major housing crisis now. $400K+ starter homes and triple digit rent increases every year are pushing a lot of people out now.
Glad to see Cleveland on the list. I have family in a certain Florida city you mentioned, and every time I visit there, I find the area so depressing - concrete and strip malls galore.
@@thenexthobby it’s complicated because they do not plow the bike paths for days or sometimes weeks after a snowfall. I’ve tried to keep cycling through the winter and stopped because I don’t want to be crushed to death by an F-150
I live in the state capital of Harrisburg, just 40 minutes from Lancaster in a bigger metro area. I’m constantly blown away by how Lancaster does pretty much everything better than Harrisburg. I don’t know if it’s the presence of nearby colleges or proximity to Philadelphia, but as an urban environment, Lancaster beats Harrisburg in almost every category.
Yes Lancaster has a little cute downtown, but Lancaster is a smaller town! Like Harrisburg and York. But for some reason, he's including it with other cities of over 500,000 people! The county is not the city.
No Pittsburgh this time... It is a shame that our prices have gone up so much we are no longer the bargain we used to be. The first video brought alot of people here.
Median rent is still a good deal cheaper than other cities on this list. I wonder if the bike metrics might have hurt it. They keep adding more bike stuff, but a lot of the city is hilly and has narrow streets. So many neighborhoods outside of the east end and lower north side just aren’t built for biking.
@@johnakey924Everywhere saw a decline in ridership after the pandemic, though recovery has differed from place to place. That’s just the nature of remote work taking over. Though I guess we’re falling behind the average recovery. One source I saw has us at 64% of pre-pandemic ridership, though the average is 79%.
This list is great news to me. I'm moving to Minneapolis sometime in the next 9 months, but it was for completely unrelated reasons. I've visited 3 times now, and the bus network was honestly really impressive to me (as someone who lives in a place with terrible transit and sprawl, mind you, but an hour's drive from DC so transit isn't exactly foreign to me). Good to see that it stacks up as much as my deprived mind thought it would!
As an STL resident this really made my day. Tons of planning on the Jefferson Line north south light rail expansion that I’m hopeful will actually happen. If you ever want a good primer on the racialized disinvestment and history of the city (more of a fun read than it sounds) check out Broken Heart of America by Walter Johnson.
Me too! When we first moved here, we landed in Fenton (yuck!). It didn't take too long to move to Central West End, sell my car and either taking the Metro, public transportation or just walking! Loving it!!
I wasn't impressed with St Louis when I visited in April, there's hardly anything to do, despite smaller cities being more vibrant. St Louis is a dying city riddled with crime.
You gotta visit Philly one day. I absolutely fell in love when I visited briefly for a conference. Not a great way to get the vibe of a place, but it was enough to get me interested. I've been back just once and still STILL need more. And I am speaking as a St. Louisan. The two cities just feel like they have so much in common.
The parkway to the Art Museum is nice, and the Schuylkill trail along the river is my favorite. Plenty of parks and green spaces. Tons of restaurants, affordable housing, bike friendly, extensive public transportation, what more can you ask for?
I'm so happy that SLC is getting a little bit of positive recognition lol It's really changed so much in the past 15 years and I'm super excited to see how it's gonna look 15 years from now! Especially after hopefully getting the winter Olympics in 2034 🤞🏽
As much as I don't want anyone else to know about Cleveland, thank you for mentioning us! I recently moved to St Louis but I was born and raised there. Beautiful city. So underrated. I will return someday but I had to escape the winters for at least a little while 😆
I just visited on my way back home to a Milwaukee from where I live now, Boston, and I was SHOCKED by how cool it was. I stumbled upon Tremont on a Friday night and it was very much my scene. Feels like where I used to live outside of Milwaukee, Bay View, and where I live just outside of Boston now, Somerville. Couldn’t believe how lively downtown was either! That sh*t was POPPIN’. Tbh Milwaukee is dead as a doornail in comparison, and Boston shuts down early + people were so happy out in Cleveland, making convo with everyone no matter whether they knew them, and you will NOT see that in Boston.
This might be the best video you've done. Simple but extremely relevant methodology, yielding a mix of predictable and unpredictable results - well-explained in both cases. I'm in the market for a future (for now) home city, and Philadelphia is really increasing in odds to be that.
Yes! St. Louis! I am moving there this summer and I specifically chose it because to me it seemed like the best mix of walkable/bike-able/good transit and affordability. Thanks for doing the research and showing quantitatively that what I was thinking was true. So excited!
I haven't watched the video in its entirety but I'm a fan of Grand Rapids, Mi. Although it doesn't have light rail the bus system is pretty good, several vibrant pocket neighborhoods for a city it size, 6 institutions of higher learning, beautiful architecture, and about a 30 minute drive to Lake Michigan.
If we can get the Rio Grande Plan put in for Salt Lake City it will punch even more above it's weight class. Especially with the new Amtrak proposed network of preferred routes map they released recently.
One thing people dont often mention about STL is the beautiful architecture. There are tons of stunning public and private buildings that are increadible. The neighborhoods have just unbelievable historic homes and business buildings that are so charming. We let half of the city just go into ruin over the last 70 years with white flight (North side) but that means there are a lot of rehab and new building possibilities also. I live in a house from 1896 and I love it and my neighborhood.
Dayton made a list, woo! I love it here. I'm 36, recently bought a renovated house in walking distance to downtown, am getting back into my childhood and college hobby of bike riding because I'm near several bike paths. I grew up in the burbs here but have seen a lot of progress in the downtown area and nearby neighborhoods. Slow progress admittedly, but then again fast progress leads to problems like in Columbus and Austin. Dayton is still in recovery from decades of industrial decline but it never fell off near as bad as bigger Midwestern cities. In this case, "middling" is key, because while our success is middling our failure is also middling and that's not a bad problem to have. Overall, it's just really easy to live here. Even when I drive, which I usually do, it's very easy. I'm a car guy, of course I'm going to drive around town, and I can literally get anywhere throughout the burbs within 20 minutes.
Dayton has trolleybuses! Yup, one wouldn't expect a city in Ohio to have trolleybuses, but Dayton stands out! They've operated trolleybuses since 1933 (streetcars between 1888-1947) and their trolleybus system had a ridership of under 2 million in 2022! Impressive in a city that had just under 136K in 2022! Theirs is the second-oldest trolleybus system after Philly, and Dayton's been continuously operating an electric transit service of some kind since 1888, longer than in any other city in the US! And I feel like there should definitely be an honorable mention for Newark, NJ because it's affordable, it's very walkable around the Ironbound, Seventh Ave, and downtown, the Newark Light-Rail is mostly a legacy system with great grade-separation including a downtown subway and it goes where people wanna go like NJIT, it's on the Northeast Corridor thanks to Newark Penn Station and besides NJT trains and Amtrak, it's a big hub for many local and intercity buses as well as the light-rail, there's Newark Broad Street station too, there's great entertainment downtown with the Prudential Center and NJPAC, and of course when you're in downtown, you're pretty close to EWR. The Newark Light Rail has two different sections, with one being the Newark City Subway that has four stations (Penn, Military Park, Washington St, Warren St/NJIT) underground and if you only travel between those downtown stations, it's cheaper than the regular light-rail fare. The line then continues up towards Grove Street in Bloomfield (which was extended from Branch Brook Park in 2002), hugging Branch Brook Park which has the largest cherry blossom collection in the US. The City Subway line opened in 1935 along the old Morris Canal right-of-way, from Broad Street (now known as Military Park) to Heller Parkway (now replaced by the nearby Branch Brook Park station). From 1954 to 2001, this line used PCCs bought from Minneapolis/St Paul. The other section of the system connects Newark Penn to Newark Broad Street Station with NJPAC along the way. It branches off the older City Subway using the existing junction that had led to the former Public Service terminal. The former Public Service terminal was a three-level streetcar station that served as the terminus for streetcar lines from as far as Trenton. This was demolished in 1981 and became PSE&G headquarters. The Broad St extension opened in 2006 and was originally meant as the first phase of the Newark-Elizabeth Rail Link, but the rest of it wasn't built. The artwork at the new stations has a common theme, "Riding with Sarah and Wayne." It is a tribute to Newark-born jazz greats Sarah Vaughan and Wayne Shorter, and includes the lyrics to Vaughan's signature song Send in the Clowns
Thank you for focusing on the urbanism metrics and skipping the crime/school district stats in the methodology. They can be so subjective after all. I found the way you analyzed the data really helpful. I subbed on Nebula via the lifetime offer, but still enjoy coming here to see the comments :)
Born in Philly metro region, moved to Pittsburgh, and then to STL for work. STL has been great to me so far! Biking experience hasn't been great, but rent is AMAZING in comparison to many cities + the metrolink is incredibly efficient for urban travel (for county you would definitely need a car though) and talk about the green line going North/south is super exciting too. I think people have an understandable fear of the crime reputation STL has but it's good to keep in mind: - Most crime in very concentrated in only a few small neighborhoods (mostly north city, and maybe a couple spots south around the Gravois/Dutchtown area). Yes, you will hear gunshots and depending on the area, you will hear them often. But the likelihood of an unrelated attack is extremely low compared to shootings due to gang/organized crime involvement - Our crime stats are influenced by the St. Louis city/county divide and crime from East St. Louis, IL (yes, that's a different city) - Everytime the city tries to do anything to help with the crime (via gun control or etc) the state blocks it or heavily guts it - The metro PD is severely understaffed and functionally useless for any incident short of severe bodily injury, and IMO also under very poor leadership Otherwise, just be reasonable and keep your head out of any escalating situations. For the rest of the city, your biggest worry is probably going to just be car break-ins, aggressive drivers (there's basically no enforcement on car registration/plates so the highways are a wild west), and mediocre pizza. I lived in CWE at first but then settled in Dogtown and haven't even experienced a break-in tbh, though I hear it can be more common in the TGP surrounding areas and Soulard/Downtown region. And for better or worse, since the pandemic lots of stores now close earlier which reduces your risk of being caught in a bad place at night. There's a lot of great things here (we have a HUGE and amazing metro park with lots of FREE(!!!) activities), local markets and vendors, and a lot of great change happening to many neighborhoods right now. The people I've met have been really nice too. And whatever you do, don't let them trick you into liking provel.
So refreshing to see the Saint Louis love!!! I’m born and raised in STL and have lived in other big cities like LA and Atlanta and recently returned home and there is so much value and potential here in The Lou!
Wow, I’d never thought I’d see my hometown of Dayton on a CityNerd top ten list! I can confirm that due to the city grid it’s very easy and safe to bike almost anywhere. And there is a great network of trails…you can even get to Columbus or Cincinnati by bike without ever riding on surface streets. And Dayton punches above its weight when it comes to the arts. You made my day, Ray!
Glad to see my adopted home of Minneapolis (and our little brother of St. Paul) still on this list. Id love to see a real in-depth analysis of light rail costs vs BRT, because light rail has cheaper operational costs but higher construction costs. My argument is essentially LRT breaks even vs BRT much sooner than most people think it does, because of the increased operational costs. So how much daily ridership is needed before LRT is the better option?
Oakland is a beautiful place to live. Incredible weather, redwood parks in the hills, diversity in cultures. Edit: i appreciate how much CityNerd graciously and intentionally lauds cities for their successes without the predictable, and unnecessary, cautions about crime. It’s wild how many viewers cannot allow me to celebrate what I love about my city without shrieking about crime. I live here and I know there’s crime. Can I just say what I like? Jfc
I applaud the effort, and as a Pennsylvanian am willing to accept Philadelphia not being first (though it obviously should be with what I'm about to say). You have the term "value" wrong. Higher value is getting more for what you're paying and, to use your top two as an example, compare incomes in Philadelphia to St Louis. Being low price isn't equal to value. Being cheap is often a function of low demand AND purchasing power. So I think you need to make an adjustment to rents based on median incomes within the city centers. I also think your need a better resource for walkable. Ain't no urbanist in Lancaster who will say it's more walkable than Philadelphia. It's nice (West Chester PA may be better), but for every one thing you can walk to in Lancaster, there's 20 that you can walk to in Philadelphia. Also Lancaster really shouldn't be on this list for population. The Census Bureau just defaults to the county population is MSAs, and that's where your 550,000 people come from about half of those people aren't in the contiguous urban area of Lancaster. If you go to Lancaster, which you should, you'll see it's really quite small. Reading and Allentown of bigger urban areas by a lot.
Not surprised to see STL at #1. It's not just the downtown, but so many of the surrounding cities in the county have great urban cores. And to top it off it still has a lot of the public spaces funded by industry of 100 years ago (free zoo, great parks, etc).
Moved from NYC/Newark to Philadelphia and it is as good as these lists make it out to be. The difference from NYC in cost of living is truly game changing.
Im genuinely considering that right now. Grew up in Brooklyn but now live in NJ and thinking whether to spend the money in NYC or try out Philly. Still a more or less quick Amtrak ride to NYC so if needed I can even keep my job in the city. How long have you been there and how do you like it overall?
@@yuriydeebeen here about a year and lived in south philly and fairmont. I love nyc, and it took me a bit to adjust, but the city has really grown on me. It is worth considering, especially if you live in NJ just to afford to “live” in nyc.
I'm in Philly right now for work and my company bought me a rental car that I took from the airport to city center and then parked for a week and haven't touched since. Literally everything you need in a 5 sq mile radius and SEPTA is dirt cheap and always on time.
DAYTON finally getting a shoutout on this channel! Affordability is already great and there’s tons of new housing and hotels going up in downtown. I just wish our transit was a bit more robust.
Honestly, Salt Lake City is indeed underrated and is doing almost as much as much bigger cities but no one talks about it. After all, if it can earn itself an RM Transit video that is not criticism (seattle, los angeles, and many others have still not managed), it's probably doing something right
We really are. I hope CityNerd finds his way out here somewhat soon. 2100 South Sugarhouse, 900 South, 300 West, every street reconstruction project we do takes car travel lanes away and gives them back to people outside of cars. It’s looking like the TRAX orange line is also going to happen as well.
I'm sure that roadrunner at 4:20 was very happy to see you and not a certain coyote! There are two species of roadrunner, the Lesser roadrunner and the Greater roadrunner, with the Greater roadrunner being the ones native to the southwestern US (as well as northern Mexico) while the Lesser roadrunner is found in southern Mexico and down to Nicaragua. Greater roadrunners can run at speeds up to 26 mph, easily outpacing a human. Roadrunners have evolved a range of adaptations to deal with the extremes of desert living. Like seabirds, they secrete a solution of highly concentrated salt through a gland just in front of each eye, which uses less water than excreting it via their kidneys and urinary tract. Moisture-rich prey including mammals and reptiles supply them otherwise-scarce water in their diet. Both chicks and adults flutter the unfeathered area beneath the chin (gular fluttering) to dissipate heat. Roadrunners don't "Meep meep". Females give off a number of up to twenty-two short, low-frequency shrills, resembling coyote squeals, which can be heard 300 m away. Both male and female roadrunners emit a series of five or six chatters accompanied by groaning, loud enough to be heard 200 m away. This sound is the roadrunner's most common vocalization during the incubation period and the rearing of chicks. Greater Roadrunners eat poisonous prey, including venomous lizards and scorpions, with no ill effect. Roadrunners can also kill and eat rattlesnakes, often in tandem with another roadrunner: as one distracts the snake by jumping and flapping, the other sneaks up and pins its head, then bashes the snake against a rock. Roadrunners hold a special place in Native American and Mexican legends and belief systems. The birds were revered for their courage, strength, speed, and endurance. The roadrunner’s distinctive X-shaped footprint, with two toes pointing forward and two backward, are used as sacred symbols by Pueblo tribes to ward off evil. The X shape disguises the direction the bird is heading and is thought to prevent evil spirits from following.
Lancaster is a nice town, but to find good work, you'll most likely be commuting (the largest employers are a hospital, insurance company, and supermarket chain). SLC is really trying its best, and I haven't owned a car since I moved here 10 years ago, but the housing prices alone make it unreasonable at this point. Last I checked, the home price in the county was $620k, and it's nearly impossible to find an empty apartment unit anymore.
I see rowhomes going for 175k in Lancaster quite consistently, and in good parts of the city too. Just saw a 6bdr Victorian rowhome in chestnut hill go for 350k?!! It’s definitely still affordable
@@pjflynn5978 Yeah, it is affordable, I was just commenting on the lack of good-paying jobs. Maybe it's changed since I moved west (10 years ago) but at the time, if you lived in Lancaster or York and wanted a good career, you just commuted to Hbg or Baltimore
@@za_wavbit oh yeah i bet that’s the truth. I plan on working in urban planning/historic preservation, and my fiance in education, so hopefully we’ll be able to walk to our jobs that way while living in Lanc
How do you find living in SLC without a car? I bet as soon as you leave the city it’s nearly impossible to commute comfortable without a personal vehicle
If you enjoy Minny-St. Paul, Cleveland and Lancaster, you will probably also enjoy Des Moines, IA for its affordability, walkability and bikeability as well as Erie, PA which has fewer of those things, but Presque Isle totally makes up for it.
Has Des Moines gotten more walkable/bikeable in the past few years? I went to college in Iowa and back then (about 6 years ago) there was no bike infrastructure I could see, and it wasn't particularly walkable. It scores pretty poorly on walkscore, too, which in my experience tends to overestimate walkability and especially bikeability, not under-estimate.
love to see Oakland getting some recognition! it (and its immediate neighbors Berkeley and Emeryville) punch way above their weight, especially when you consider the higher wages you can get in the Bay without spending all too much more than Chicago prices. can’t beat the weather either :3
Born in Salt Lake City, but haven't lived or visited in a long time. Every time it makes a top 10 (which is surprisingly often) the itch to move there permanently gets kickstarted.
I'm not sure how well it gets captured in the Bike Score data, but Dayton is somewhat interesting among smaller cities in that it has a direct, grade-separated bike trail between the MSA's two major employment centers (Downtown Dayton and the Air Force Base). It's primarily a segment of the larger, 300+ mile recreation trail network, but it gets a decent number of daily commuters, especially from folks who live downtown or in the old streetcar suburb of Oakwood. And the city of Dayton itself has been taking strides adding new cycle tracks (with proper curbs separating bikes from traffic, not just plastic bollards) along major corridors into and around downtown.
Any CityNerd video that dedicates a full minute to Salt Lake City is a great one for me. I know there's lots of obligations and choices out there, but I think a CityNerd SLC function would be met with open arms. The NIMBYs are losing out more and more every year here, it's actually encouraging to see. Every time this city touches a street, it reclaims some car space and gives it back to people outside of cars. 2100 South through Sugarhouse is our latest undertaking, and you would like what we recently did to 900 South near TRAX.
Philly’s trolleys are back! They go from Port Richmond to West Philadelphia. They’re soooo cute!! Look them up and visit Philly to make a video! Go Phillies 😊
@CityNerd you’re one of my favorite creators on YT. This video in particular is helpful as I consider my next home base. Tbh, loving Denver after my recent visit. I know it’s not a star player under several urbanist analyses, but I just really liked how it felt. Do you have any positive or optimistic takes on the denver metro? Or is it a doomed experiment for peds/cyclists?
Cleveland is a great town. FABULOUS arts scene. Cleveland Symphony and Severence Hall are WORLD class. and the Art Museum is also world class. Good hard working town. Great food. I love it…
Dayton's downtown really does close down at night outside of the 3-4 blocks of the Oregon District and a bit around the University of Dayton. But it's so much better than it was 20 years ago. It's still a city with a lot of problems (pretty much all directly related to either white flight or general deindustrialization), though.
Is that only on the weekends or in general? This is very high on my to visit list, because it does have fewer people. I love my Chicago, but dang is it busy in the summer.
Lots of comments from my fellow STL friends so I will keep it brief. STL gets slammed all the time on crime, but I have lived in North city for 7 years now and STL is just great with amenities, housing, and friendliness. Thanks CityNerd!
The area around Dayton’s ballpark is really building up! Also they saved “the Arcade” which is one of the most impressive buildings in Ohio. I chose to move back to my hometown over Chicago when moving back from Asia and while it’s too quiet for my taste, I’m very excited and plan to stay.
It's nice reading the comments and getting a national perspective on St Louis. The locals in the region shit on the city so much. Its good to hear that I'm not crazy and I see the potential that St Louis has.
I'm also glad to see St. Louis on the list. There's definitely better days ahead with Great Rivers Greenway, airport, and north south metrolink expansion. There is an aggressive plan in place to rejuvenate Downtown that will be great in a few years. No new glass buildings though. But thats okay. Great cities are built from the ground up.
There’s been two new high rise “glass” buildings built since 2014 and one new mid rise glass building downtown. Most of the construction is retrofitting right now though.
always happy to see philly getting some good representation. philly for being such a big city is super affordable, you can get literally everything you need from a northeastern city but it’s so much more affordable than nearby NYC or DC
I live in Lancaster! You pronounced it right, by the way. We aren’t the English. I will admit, the city actually isn’t all that bad. It’s definitely walkable/bikeable, and in comparison to all the other options on this list, it’s definitely on the cheaper side if you want to live here. However, what people end up discovering is that there just isn’t that much to do around. We have The Stormers, an Atlantic league Baseball team, a couple halfway decent bars, and a couple nice places to shop for novelty stuff. The city school district, SDOL, is definitely nicer than most city school districts(I plan on teaching there when I graduate). The city itself is definitely minority friendly, though the county has a lot of rural idiots. If you like the Amish, Lancaster County itself has the second highest population in the country(you WILL get them confused with Mennonites). While living without a car is definitely possible, I’d consider it limiting for what most urbanists want. I really don’t think Lancaster should be considered for this list, even if it fits the qualifiers.
Yeah, Dayton!! I grew up about an hour to the southeast of Dayton and I still have family in the area so when I visit I always wind up staying a few nights there. While having a car is still almost obligatory (sigh), the recreational biking network is amazing. The downtown core also has some pretty sweet little bars. And just off the beaten path is the up-and-coming neighbourhood (that's white person for gentrification btw) of South Park. Houses with good bones and great walkability for under 400k, along with the best coffee house in town and the best cocktail bar in town (Ghostlight & Silver Slipper, respectively!) Honestly, if I didn't feel so landlocked in the Midwest, especially in Ohio, Dayton would probably be where I'd choose to actually take the dive and buy property. Just wish they had a train station!!
Next week, whem you're in Phoenix, make sure you have a decent amount of water on you, both to drink and to pour a little on your body, for the sake of evaporative cooling. If I remember correctly, in Arizona, it's illegal to deny someone water because it's necessary to survive outside. Also, light rail stations have public drinking fountains, which will be convenient. Also, your visit to Phoenix is probably a good time to talk about challenges regarding summer heat, as the city is infamous for it, and you're visiting at one of the hottest times of the year. Some public school districts in the valley start school in the middle of July. Also, a bus stop thay is quite possibly one of the weirdest ones in the country exists in Phoenix. The southbound stop along 7th Street at Tapatio Cliffs Dr is in the middle of an intersection. It's along bus route 7, in its 30-minute service zone.
I briefly lived in Philly, for maybe just 18 months, but it heavily influenced my desire to live car-free. Growing up in SoCal, I never would have imagined that, but Philly did it. It’s a wonderfully walkable city.
I have lived in St Louis most of my life with 3 years in Minneapolis. This past winter I was riding my bike almost every other day. Something not possible in MPLS and I really enjoyed that town.
People in the upper midwest think "omG alL the MidWest iS the SamE." They have zero clue how much warmer places like STL are than their weird, windy, wintery states. They are not the same. They want it to be the same, but they arent. Southern Missouri is MUCH warmer than the great lakes, Especially evident in winter and March.
I've lived in Philly and am currently living in Lancaster. Lancaster is basically 50% the price of Philly for everything with 10/10 scenic views and friendly people.
Back in the early 1990s, my then husband and I were checking out SLC. There *was* a bagel shop. We went in, I asked for an everything bagel, got a blank stare. An onion bagel? The clerk looked disgusted. "Our blueberry bagels are really nice, especially with strawberry cream cheese". Cross SLC off the list. And heaven knows what she would have said if I asked for lox! Or a bialy!
great video, I knew St. Louis would be your number one. just the other day I tried to convince my wife to move to St. Louis, I wasn't serious about it, but I told her we can get a lot of real estate for less money in Missouri.
the hidden gems of urbanism are not entire cities, but particular neighborhoods within certain "bad" cities. Consider doing a video on great places within cities with bad reputations.
We see and hear so much about the ugly bad problems in certain cities. I’ve been to some, and just as a visitor, I thought it was pretty easy to stay away from the bad parts, and there plenty of nice places still there. I don’t want to be totally naive, but the old chestnut about every town has bad neighborhoods you don’t visit, and don’t need to, seems to have a lot of truth. Several friends been to San Francisco in last few months. They loved it, said not nearly as bad as they feared. Of course they stayed away from some areas, but went pretty much where they wanted and it was fine. They did lock their cars, and didn’t leave anything in sight inside, and did fine. They did hear a lot of others had car break-ins, but they left all their stuff out in view. I mean, you still need to think a little.🙄
Great suggestion for a CityNerd video! Walkable gems within cities with bad reputations, which could be defined as falling population and/or higher crime rate. I foresee a lot of rust belt cities making the list, which I am 100% here for.
Selling a good razor and then making the razor blades crazy cheap - what a wacky idea for a business model! Eagerly awaiting launch of the Henson inkjet printer. Anyway, go to hensonshaving.com/CITYNERD and enter "CITYNERD" at checkout to get 100 free blades with your purchase! The only thing better than cheap razor blades is free ones.
Also, Pittsburgh was #14. I'll be taking no further questions
I tried the code and it didnt work :(
Lol this was the best sponsor spot I’ve ever seen. I love the way you totally nerdified the selling points of the razor 😂
@@CityNerd Maybe an answer to why you hate Baltimore so much?
Several years ago I picked up a 1960s Gillette from eBay I still use. I only use disposables if desperate.
I may try the Henson just to see what I may be missing, thanks.
I'm a simple man. When I see interesting tier list urbanist content delivered in a dry witty tone with google street view to accompany it, I click.
I’m a simpler man. Once I pop, I can’t stop.
@@silverXnoiseI pop and lock. What does that make me? 🕺
Based
His commentary is sooo great!👍😁🙏🙏
And I will keep on clicking
What I love about this channel is you don't just celebrate the best of the best cities in the US, you find ways to celebrate all cities in the US. You show us that every city has its issues, but every city has charm and things that stand out. Keep up the great content!
CityNerd hardly celebrates "all cities". There are a number of cities he obviously has disdain for. Hell, he trashed two cities in this video!
A lot of my favorite cities are ones that are regularly skipped over or derided so it’s really nice to see City Nerd acknowledge them positively.
That's kind of how I choose my topics. "What city have I not talk about yet/or in a long time," and that's what I make a video about
That's what propaganda is about........
Chicago (5:00) - Ranked #10
Dayton, Ohio (5:32) - Ranked #9
Salt Lake City (6:22) - Ranked #8
Milwaukee, Wisconsin (7:24) - Ranked #7
Minneapolis (8:09) - Ranked #6
St. Paul (8:55) - Ranked #6.5
Oakland, California (9:04) - Ranked #5
Cleveland, Ohio (10:04) - Ranked #4
Phoenix, Arizona (11:19) - Mentioned for upcoming visit, not ranked
Washington, D.C. (11:31) - Honorable mention
Detroit, Michigan (11:39) - Honorable mention
Carmel, Indiana (11:55) - Dishonorable mention
Cape Coral, Florida (12:11) - Dishonorable mention
Lancaster, Pennsylvania (12:27) - Ranked #3
Philadelphia (13:16) - Ranked #2
St. Louis (13:59) - Ranked #1
This comment should be pinned to the top
All Dangerous?
St. Lious downtown is dead. If you want a true urban area that is affordable I would recommend Mexico City, Mexico. Very easy to get to, English is used enough to get by, and I can ride a bicycle or public transit essentially anywhere.
@@jetpark3743dude exactly i’d like a crime or safety metric in the next video please
Real MVP
As a lifelong st Louisan I was thinking “aw dang we didn’t even make the list” only for my jaw to drop at the end. Thanks CityNerd!
Streetsblog Chicago has done interviews with People for Bikes over the last couple of years and the low ranking for Chicago is mostly based on the city's 30mph default speed limit which bumps every street in the city into the "high stress" category in their Bike Network Analysis model. I understand the posted speed limits might make Chicago somewhat less bike friendly than other cities, but they rank it 1,635 out of 1,733!? Unreal.
Also posted speed limit really doesn't matter that much because road design matters more for how fast people drive
Agreed. Personally I think walkability matters more to urbanism than biking. Chicago, with its decent public transportation system is pretty walkable compared to other Midwestern cities.
Yes! I came here to say this! If the 25 MPH ordinance passes in city hall, Chicago will be bumped way, way up on the People for Bikes list in future rankings.
plus chicago walkability is unbeatable!!!
@@walktheearth7878Maybe there could be actual traffic stops for drivers speeding, blowing red lights & stop signs, etc. What difference does a speed limit make when literally never enforced? This could make a real difference in safety.
As always, I will point out that the primary reason why Philadelphia remains relatively affordable among large cities is the property tax abatement program, which has led to healthy development and redevelopment. Land Value Tax works. Henry George was born in Philadelphia.
Also doesn't hurt that large swaths of Philly are open air drug markets.
@@Swiggityswaggerthat's true of many cities these days though, and yet they remain expensive
@@Swiggityswaggerjust couldn’t help yourself could you?
yeah but the crime in Philly is high. You can't ever ride the metro unless you are insane. At night time, you have to stay indoors.
@@lukeyznaga7627lmao. Philly might be less safe than other cities but that’s just not true
I grew up near Cleveland and now live in Pittsburgh. Tossing around the idea of moving back there when I finish planning school next year. I just visited last weekend and found a three bedroom house literally right next to a metro station for $170,000. And this wasn’t in some abandoned part of the city. It was like a ten minute walk to Gordon Square and 15 minute walk to Ohio City. Kind of unbelievable, really, but I guess that happens when the metro is as underutilized by residents as it is there.
A halfway decent 1-bedroom in Cleveland, with convenient transit links, goes for approximately $900 a month right now. Yes, you read that right. I had a great time living car-free there for a few years: Among other things, you can totally take transit to the points of high culture, like Playhouse Square and the art museum.
@@thexalonSounds a lot like Baltimore, which I consider the most underrated city on the East Coast. Even in the most trendy neighborhoods where crime rarely occurs, you can easily find 1 bedrooms for very cheap. I recently saw an apartment in Highlandtown (great neighborhood) for $1,300 a month total….with over 1650 square feet and three floors. Unreal.
The whole city has to deal with the “murder capital” label, which actually keeps the safe/trendy/walkable neighborhoods free from dramatic housing cost increases.
As someone who grew up in Madison, lived in STL for Highschool, and now lives in Philly, I feel constantly validated by this channel :)
STL High School? Which one? That is our favorite question. You don't have to answer. It just made me chuckle.
BTW: I went to McCluer North.
Yay McCluer North! @@daltontf
The only person on the internet who is nice to St. Louis 🙏 we love you CityNerd
Hey what about Nelly? He seems to have kind things to say about the place 😂
St. Louis seems like good value city, but I'm worried about the crime. I get that crime isn't spread across a city equally, but I have a feeling the safer areas would either be on the outskirts and more suburban or very expensive compared to the rest of the city. Would love to hear your thoughts
@@antonioiniguez1615Think of it another way. With the money you save by living in St. Louis you can live in one of the safest neighborhoods for the same price as a dangerous neighborhood in a more expensive city.
My brother lived in St. Louis while he did his PhD. It's a great city. There's two problems that ensure that I personally would never want to live there, though:
1. crazy hot, humid summers.
2. You have to live in Missouri, with all the red-state politics that entails.
But if you can deal with those two things it's a great place to live.
@@antonioiniguez1615 st louis crime isnt bad outside of northside and some pockets of the south side.. cwe and midtown are crazy value (you can find 1200 1 bd apartments in a very walkable area) however like a comment said, we get crazy hot humid summers (like minimum of 100 degrees for AT LEAST a week straight but past few years its been getting worse like we had temps of 114 last year) also we get really cold winters (to me) like we regularly get temps below freezing for at least 2 months out of the year if not longer and with windchill it can easily be below zero sometimes
"running up credit card debt to live in new york" Ok I feel very called out rn
I'm not even saying it isn't worth it
@@CityNerd if Baltimore had made the list I would be moving back home, but since it didn't I might just need to go broke here
Dont worry, NYC is wonderful and I love visiting there. If I didn't have lots of local family obligations I could def love living there. Life is an experience and enjoy it.
As a 25 y/o St. Louisan, this is exactly why I want to buy my first home asap. I love our city and I think it’s going to grow a ton in the coming decades once everyone realizes how great and undervalued it is.
Also your age and thinking of at least living in STL for a while. In Denver right now, originally from Indianapolis. I visited a couple times and thought it was really neat. Which neighborhoods would you say would be great for people our age? Definitely don’t want to do suburbs like St Charles, Chesterfield, etc
@@DangerouslyFast My family is originally from north STL but moved out to the burbs when I was in middle school. Now my partner and I currently live in Maryland Heights, which is a great suburb of STL located in west St. Louis County. One thing you'll learn about quite quickly in STL is the unique City-County divide. We honestly love it here in Maryland Heights, but just want to be closer to friends, work, events, etc. in the city proper so are looking at neighborhoods all over the south parts of the city, mostly at the neighborhoods near or between Forest Park and Tower Grove Park: Central West End, The Hill (my partner grew up there), Southampton, Tower Grove South, Hi-Pointe, Bevo Mill, etc. and some other places further east like Soulard and Benton Park. In general, you want to avoid the neighborhoods in the northern part of the city, for now, until programs to reduce crime have some more time to take effect. There are still nice areas to be found in north STL, especially if you don't mind being in an area which may have significantly higher crime rates and gang activity. As always, use best judgement. I do hope you come to STL and enjoy it!
@@DangerouslyFastmoved from STL to Denver! The Hamptons are nice, but Central West End or Tower Grove/Shaw would be ideal imo for the most urbanist experience.
@@DangerouslyFast Central West End, The Hill, Tower Grove South, and Southampton are where we’re looking the most. Also looking at places a bit further east like Soulard and Benton Park. In general most places in south city are fine, some are just more desirable. In north city you have to be more careful picking a spot, depending on how comfortable you are being near an area with more crime and gang activity. We’re currently in a smaller suburb in STL County, but we want to move to the city to be closer to friends, work, things to do, etc.
I hope you move to STL and love it!
Dogtown is really safe but I didn't care for it's architecture. Dogtown is mostly suburban feel. The Grove is really neat. My brother lives in the north part of Marine Villa. It's basically Benton Park but maybe a little cheaper.
Thank you for pronouncing Lancaster correctly! Fun facts: oldest farmers market in US, the county has most productive non-irrigated farmland in US, and the city resettles 20x more refugees per capita than US average
Yes! We are proud to host refugees here. I love LAN-LISS-TER. So many different cultures in such a small space makes for a wonderful town.
that's a real accomplishment! y'all have a lot to proud of
Alexandria, Va would like to have a word
@@kyleansel1021 he made it sound like lane-kiss-ter
@@xavierdomenico how is that one said?
Lancaster! Wonderful city, love it. AND the proper pronunciation from CityNerd?!?! What a time to be alive.
That Lancaster is pretty much the opposite of the one in CA, which has made a bottom 10 CN video, with good reason. Also, the accent on the CA one is on the 2nd syllable. Crazy how these things go.
LOL
St Louis's MetroLink is really good for what it is! Its Red and Blue Lines effectively act as a light metro thanks to great grade-separation left over from old ROW. The Eads Bridge that the MetroLink uses to cross the river was the first bridge built across the Mississippi south of the Missouri River, and since earlier bridges didn't survive, the Eads Bridge is also the oldest bridge on the whole Mississippi! The Eads Bridge was once briefly used by Amtrak trains between 1971 and 1974 (stopped on the year of Eads Bridge's centennial). So when they were constructing the underground stations downtown, the tunnel was already there, using the St Louis Freight Tunnel. On the Red Line, trains use the former Wabash/Norfolk & Western Railroad's Union Depot line that once brought passenger trains from Ferguson to Union Station. When the Red Line makes a stop at the Delmar Loop station, it is located just below the original Wabash Railroad's Delmar Station building! On the Blue Line, it follows a former Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis (TRRA)/Rock Island railroad right of way. When they were constructing Skinker and University City-Big Bend stations, they faced opposition because that section was gonna be street-running, so they opted to build them underground! So thanks to NIMBYs, they ironically made the Blue Line a better and quicker service through no street-running!
Another example of a North American light-rail system that mostly uses old rail right of way is the HBLR in NJ, a system that has helped revitalize the NJ waterfront with lots of TOD, bike infrastructure, and Vision Zero to complement it! The Bayonne and West Side Ave portions were once part of the CNJ, and the portion between Hoboken and Tonnelle Ave used to be the New Jersey Junction Railroad (part of NY Central), which was bought by NJT when it was under Conrail's River Line. When 8th Street station opened in 2011, its headhouse was built in the style of the original CNJ depot. Much of the HBLR is repurposed ROW, though the downtown JC segment was built brand-new. The repurposed ROW selected goes through dense neighborhoods, like the Weehawken Tunnel formerly used by New York Central trains is now used by the HBLR with an underground stop at Bergenline Ave in Union City! Jersey City was the first in NJ to have a bikeshare system when Citi Bike expanded there in 2015, with Hoboken joining in 2021.
Hello from Cleveland! Thought I'd check out this video as I gear up to walk out my front door, walk through a leafy urban suburb, and catch the rapid transit train downtown to check out a new bookstore. Nice to see us make the cut!
P.S. Excited to see your Durham video. I'm in Cleveland because I just got aggressively priced out of Durham after living there for about 10 years 😢. Things changed there quickly!
What's your 1-10 rating of the Cleveland experience? Research from a Texan
@@c_rob1 At the risk of sounding ridiculous, my lifestyle and happiness have improved dramatically since moving to Cleveland. 9/10
@@c_rob1 Been in Cleveland a year--previously was in LA for a decade and NYC for nearly a decade prior to that. Cleveland punches way above its weight. There is a lot of suburban sprawl, but you're engaging with this channel so I'm assuming you'll steer clear of those parts and live in the urban core (somehow still affordable). You can live your car-free urban dream easily here. Getting more bikeable all the time, rapid transit exists but can be frustratingly infrequent. Overall value for money, transit, walkability, and culture/stuff to do 8/10.
@@TheDocBooneSaints2 not ridiculous at all. Feel free to expound if you'd like, but either way thanks for the response
@c_rob1 because you asked, some sketches and thoughts
-Cost of living here makes me question why people pay 2x or 3x for similar lifestyle. I live in a historic, stunning home on a beautiful street surrounded by kind, interesting people. This home cost significantly less than a modest mill house in Durham
-I have excellent commercial districts in walking distance from my front door. There are nearly zero chain/corporate business at these locations. Are they swagged out, instagrammable hot spots? No. I see this as a good thing
-People here are extremely kind and easy going. People are not competitive with one another. Everyone minds their own business while showing interest in their neighbor. Very cool
-Regionally, there feels like there is much to do. Northeast Ohio itself is packed with smaller towns and cities that offer stuff to do. Additionally, Cleveland is surrounded by many other excellent, formerly magnificent cities that require many visits to take in (Detroit, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati)
-Cleveland has a remarkable super power: Everyone assumes it's terrible. This keeps things real and local. It feels like this city is truly for the people who live here. Seems to keep predatory investment away. Like a little secret. I probably shouldn't even be talking about it strangers...
-In my year here I've been out and about quite a bit and I feel like I've seen maybe 25% of the city.
-People will tell you the weather is terrible. They are incorrect. The last winters have been incredibly mild. The spring, summer and fall all feel like platonic ideals of each season. No excessive heat, no annoying bugs. There is immense natural beauty. The moisture from the lake encourages massive plant growth across the city. The well funded parks system is world class and beyond charmed. The lake provides a marquee feature that defines the city in a nice way.
I've had about a dozen different visitors since moving here and every single one of them now keeps an open mind about moving to Cleveland. Ok don't tell anyone.
Wow... was not expecting to see my hometown on this list. Lancaster is a beautiful, charming city. Founded in 1730 its streets are narrow and lined with colonial rowhomes. Great walkability and urban amenities for such a small city. Amtrak is great for getting to Philly in just an hour without a car, and the city is ever-increasingly trying to improved pedestrian safety and bike infrastructure. I'm proud to call it my home. You should come visit sometime!
I also was psyched to see Lancaster on this list! I love taking Amtrak into Philly too :)
How do you get groceries though? I'd love to live there car-free, but that's a big stumbling block for me.
@@blueveins295 There are several grocery stores in the central city that carry most things you'll need. Beyond that there are bus routes that have stops directly outside several grocery stores in the suburbs.
The Twin Cities are fantastic!!! Glad to see StP getting a nod along with Mpls.
City Nerd is gonna single handedly drive up demand and real estate prices in the metro thanks to the popularity of his videos 😅
They're not affordable at all. Idk why he included them
@@Dinkhole He gave the criteria and sources before the start of the video.
I’m moving to St Louis from Boston in like 4 days after being in MA for 30+ years. There are some pretty nice walkable neighborhoods close to everything good in the city.
We were renting in Cambridge MA at $2.50/sqft for an ancient apartment and in St. Louis that translates to $1.50/sqft in basically brand new construction in one of the most desirable neighborhoods in the entire metro with tons of walkability and amenities. A similar apartment In Boston would be, not exaggerating, $8,000+ a month
stay safe! and leave those car doors unlocked 😂😅
Willkomenn zu St. Louis.
It is cheap, but the choices you'll have in your day to day life will be much less. You'll have to take crime much more seriously than in Boston.
I'm sitting here having lived in st Louis for over a year still looking around for all this crime I'm supposed to be experiencing...
After you’ve been there for a month please give an update on your thoughts! I work remotely and I’ve been considering St Louis as an option to move to but on the fence.
Just got back from the Twin Cities and Milwaukee.
Very little litter. The Twin Cities have the most bus shelters of any city I have been to.
The trail along the Milwaukee River is an added benefit in Milwaukee.
Philly has a lot to offer. The amount of litter is shocking.
The Barnes Museum is a must see.
Lived in Salt Lake County for nine years. The State Legislature in Utah is about control. Be careful about air quality.
the amount of litter what kept it affordable lol
While COL has definitely increased a lot in the past few years, Richmond VA where I live is actually still pretty decently affordable to have the level of urbanism and walkability it has compared to other cities in the South. I live in a nice two-bedroom apartment in the largest Victorian Historic District in the US (the Fan) for $1,795 a month and drive less than 4k miles a year. It's an easy 12 minute bike ride downtown to work with a protected cycle track to get me there or a 10 minute bus ride on the BRT Pulse line which is free. Whole Foods, Aldi, and Lowes all within a 15 minute walk as well as dozens of restaurants, bars, shops, and even a couple of local grocery markets. The Museum District, Church Hill, Oregon Hill, Jackson Ward, Scott's Addition, Carytown, Carver, and Monroe Ward all just as great. The city eliminated parking minimums last year and has been installing speed tables, raises crosswalks, separated bike lanes, etc at a rapid pace. Whole neighborhoods like Manchester have been upzoned to TOD-1.
Philadelphia, crazy that they don’t have DC level cost of living. Super underrated.
I moved from Seattle to Philly recently and it's wild how much less I spend on everything, especially rent. The culture is also a much better fit for me.
They do have the crime level though. This list is full of super dangerous cities.
It's a great city, if the obvious crime problems in much of the city improve, it would be NYC expensive really fast
@@r.d.9399Philadelphia is not especially dangerous. Baltimore is still not safe.
@@r.d.9399 Like any city there are less desirable/dangerous areas in Philadelphia. Outside of those areas it is a reasonably safe city and provides an excellent urban lifestyle. I’ve lived in the Twin Cities (Mpls. & St.Paul) and they are delightful as well.
if you ever visit oakland, i highly recommend staying in uptown, old oakland, rockridge, or temescal. there are many other great neighborhoods, but the ones i listed are the most transit friendly and walkable (imo)
Carmel is good for biking because it has good trails and bike lanes, plus the roads aren't super wide or high speed. But it's so spread out that it's hard to walk places unless you live right downtown (a small area).
I’m from Carmel and concur with this comment
Roundabouts
It’s also isolationist. No transit between Carmel and Indy, even though they’re neighbors, because they do not want to be associated with them one bit.
Carmel is likely the best place to live in this list for a family. Great schools and low crime.
I’ve been to Indy once, Carmel not at all, and I knew all this from reputation (I’m a roundabout fan). IDK why CN didn’t just say it.
Cincinnati, OH is undermentioned. 80-90% of restaurants are local businesses, closest starbucks is on the UC campus, not even a Taco bell until you cross route 75. Only one streetcar running N/S through the middle of the city, which definitely has room for expansion, but the city isn't really that big in terms of walking/biking. Metro bus routes reach for miles outside downtown. One bedroom can be found for $700-1300/mo average, parking runs for $65-$150/mo. One of the, if not the largest amount of parks per sq/m within the city limits, with one within walking distance of anywhere in the city. Great value overall, and down the highway from an international airport
CityNerd has little good to say about Cincinnati, even though he claims to like the place. I think it's the freeways. The thing is, they are not as big a barrier as he seems to think. For example, Fort Washington Way does not cut the riverfront off from downtown, because the freeway is sunken and there are plenty of ways to go over or under it. We're also at the mercy of our geography, with all the hills and rivers.
And you are right, we have a great park system, especially if you include the county parks. We have some of the prettiest architecture anywhere, and many neighborhoods have lots of tree cover. We don't really have stroads; even the main drags have sidewalks, lights, and crosswalks.
Moved to Cleveland a year ago after spending nearly two decades in Los Angeles and NYC. It may not be as cosmopolitan, but my life here is much more walkable, bikeable, and urban than it was in my last two homes in LA (and I technically live in a suburb! [Cleveland Heights]). I, in fact, spend more time outdoors here than I did in LA. For anyone flirting with the idea of moving to Cleveland from a bigger metro or a small town, pull the trigger. You can live your dream of living car-free in a happening urban core that has amazing parks, architecture, and cultural institutions for a fraction of the price of its counterparts. Transit can be frustratingly infrequent, but if you compliment the RTA with a bicycle and the occasional rideshare, you're golden. We need more people with urban values advocating for density. Steer clear the sprawling 'burbs! See you soon!
Caveat--despite popular belief amongst Clevelanders, Cleveland is a part of Ohio. This is a negative. The state government is antagonistic to cities and especially aims to hamper the urban agenda of the the most liberal metropolitan of Ohio, Cleveland.
Crazy to see my hometown of Dayton on any kind of urbanism list. The Oregon district is great for late night bar crawls, and catching a ball game with the Dayton Dragons is always a good time.
Yeah. While Dayton has a lot of things going for it, I wouldn't call it an urbanism dream. Most of the best parts of the region (most of the metro parks, Yellow Springs, Miller Lane, Austin Landing, Scene 75, and Wright Patt) are pretty much only accessible by car (or very inconvenient bus routes). Sure the theater district and Oregon districts are nice, but without a car, you are missing out on most of the employment opportunities and much of the amenities. Also one of the greatest things about Dayton is that it is just an hour away from Cincinnati and Columbus and 90 minutes from Indianapolis. I love the Dayton region and think that it could be overhauled into a more walkable region. Building a mixture of light and heavy rail would help connect the suburban job centers better with downtown. Also a high speed rail (or even a regular train) to Cincinnati and Columbus would be a game changer. However Dayton as it currently stands requires a car to live a full life.
@@jonathanbowers8964unfortunately you pretty much need a car if you want to get anywhere else outside of where you live in Ohio. (Unless long distance bike trails are your thing) You may have some cities or neighborhoods with pockets of walkability in places.
Please tell me Thai 9 is still there. 🙏🤞
I went to school there for one year before transferring to a school in TX that was a better fit for me but while I was in Dayton, I was in a sorority, and I think we celebrated a sorority sister’s birthday at Thai 9 about 1.5 times a month, on average. I remembered my Thai 9 order until probably a few years ago. OMG AND MILANO’S?!! AND TIM’S?!!!!!!!!! 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 What was the pizza place…
OMG COUSIN VINNY’S! 😭😭😭
@@apersonwiththoughts it looks like it is still there
I live/have lived in two places that get a lot of CityNerd love: Madison, WI and St. Louis. I’m constantly recommending both places to people. The latter always seems to come as a bit of a surprise to the listener. The day that stops happening is the day that I’ll know the “secret” of St. Louis is finally out.
Madison looks like the best small city in America, by the numbers. If ever I had to leave Australia for America, I would choose there. Milwaukee is an extension of Chicago, but Madison is true Wisconsin. Lovely people from there.
I take St Louis. It's my favorite N American city, it's just fantastic. I've lived there for years and was very sad to get a job that forced me to move out. There's so much stuff to do, and its bikable downtown feels endless as it extends 7 miles from the river westward, and 4 miles southward. North is the incredible Chain of Rocks bridge.
It's all gentrified now. Even the Delmar Divide is kinda gone, with housing property shooting upward. Houses in Tower Grove that were 80K ten years ago are now 400K...and that just gets you the right to repair an older house. The higher housing cost does mean the city is flush with cash.
Madison might have been affordable pre-pandemic but not anymore :/ Major housing crisis now. $400K+ starter homes and triple digit rent increases every year are pushing a lot of people out now.
@@LacticAcid672 It's gentrification. And it's shocking how affluent and educated the people who now live in those St Louis neighborhoods are.
I have moved a few places around the country. If I had to leave St Louis I'd be very, very sad. Thank you, CityNerd ❤
Glad to see Cleveland on the list. I have family in a certain Florida city you mentioned, and every time I visit there, I find the area so depressing - concrete and strip malls galore.
I must say my partner just got back from Calgary, and the cycling infrastructure there was unmatched she said! And we live in PDX
Try riding here outside of the 4 months of good weather lol
Hi! 👋 Pdxer here too
@@Will140fexactly. Should have just put the money into memorial drive or crowchild trail. Total waste of money
@@Will140fsome do, and they succeed. It’s not complicated.
@@thenexthobby it’s complicated because they do not plow the bike paths for days or sometimes weeks after a snowfall. I’ve tried to keep cycling through the winter and stopped because I don’t want to be crushed to death by an F-150
I live in the state capital of Harrisburg, just 40 minutes from Lancaster in a bigger metro area. I’m constantly blown away by how Lancaster does pretty much everything better than Harrisburg. I don’t know if it’s the presence of nearby colleges or proximity to Philadelphia, but as an urban environment, Lancaster beats Harrisburg in almost every category.
Yes Lancaster has a little cute downtown, but Lancaster is a smaller town! Like Harrisburg and York. But for some reason, he's including it with other cities of over 500,000 people! The county is not the city.
No Pittsburgh this time... It is a shame that our prices have gone up so much we are no longer the bargain we used to be. The first video brought alot of people here.
Median rent is still a good deal cheaper than other cities on this list. I wonder if the bike metrics might have hurt it. They keep adding more bike stuff, but a lot of the city is hilly and has narrow streets. So many neighborhoods outside of the east end and lower north side just aren’t built for biking.
I bet it's our transportation that did us in. PRT is one of the only systems that saw a decline in bus ridership
No Baltimore EITHER list...
I won't be surprised if Philadelphia gets the same treatment in the future...
@@johnakey924Everywhere saw a decline in ridership after the pandemic, though recovery has differed from place to place. That’s just the nature of remote work taking over. Though I guess we’re falling behind the average recovery. One source I saw has us at 64% of pre-pandemic ridership, though the average is 79%.
This list is great news to me. I'm moving to Minneapolis sometime in the next 9 months, but it was for completely unrelated reasons. I've visited 3 times now, and the bus network was honestly really impressive to me (as someone who lives in a place with terrible transit and sprawl, mind you, but an hour's drive from DC so transit isn't exactly foreign to me). Good to see that it stacks up as much as my deprived mind thought it would!
As an STL resident this really made my day. Tons of planning on the Jefferson Line north south light rail expansion that I’m hopeful will actually happen.
If you ever want a good primer on the racialized disinvestment and history of the city (more of a fun read than it sounds) check out Broken Heart of America by Walter Johnson.
Also if you ever do a city visit I’d love to be one of your post industrial urbanism guides :))
It was a good book if he could have stuck to facts
Me too! When we first moved here, we landed in Fenton (yuck!). It didn't take too long to move to Central West End, sell my car and either taking the Metro, public transportation or just walking! Loving it!!
Just got done reading that book a few months ago. Great book overall! Should be a required read for St. Louisans.
I wasn't impressed with St Louis when I visited in April, there's hardly anything to do, despite smaller cities being more vibrant. St Louis is a dying city riddled with crime.
You gotta visit Philly one day. I absolutely fell in love when I visited briefly for a conference. Not a great way to get the vibe of a place, but it was enough to get me interested. I've been back just once and still STILL need more. And I am speaking as a St. Louisan. The two cities just feel like they have so much in common.
Philly is a great sandwich town. It should be known for that.
It has a lot of social problems, but maybe no worse than any other big US city.
The parkway to the Art Museum is nice, and the Schuylkill trail along the river is my favorite.
Plenty of parks and green spaces. Tons of restaurants, affordable housing, bike friendly, extensive public transportation, what more can you ask for?
I'm so happy that SLC is getting a little bit of positive recognition lol
It's really changed so much in the past 15 years and I'm super excited to see how it's gonna look 15 years from now! Especially after hopefully getting the winter Olympics in 2034 🤞🏽
Yup. 2002 Olympics completely reshaped the area.
Really hoping 2034 turns it into a truly world class city. It really isn't that big of a jump.
Isn’t there an impending water crisis?
As much as I don't want anyone else to know about Cleveland, thank you for mentioning us! I recently moved to St Louis but I was born and raised there. Beautiful city. So underrated. I will return someday but I had to escape the winters for at least a little while 😆
I just visited on my way back home to a Milwaukee from where I live now, Boston, and I was SHOCKED by how cool it was. I stumbled upon Tremont on a Friday night and it was very much my scene. Feels like where I used to live outside of Milwaukee, Bay View, and where I live just outside of Boston now, Somerville. Couldn’t believe how lively downtown was either! That sh*t was POPPIN’. Tbh Milwaukee is dead as a doornail in comparison, and Boston shuts down early + people were so happy out in Cleveland, making convo with everyone no matter whether they knew them, and you will NOT see that in Boston.
@@apersonwiththoughts it's a great community. I'm telling you it's underrated.
I think we’d all like more Detroit content, sir. Interested in hearing your ideas and forecasts about what sounds like a positive future for the area
This might be the best video you've done. Simple but extremely relevant methodology, yielding a mix of predictable and unpredictable results - well-explained in both cases.
I'm in the market for a future (for now) home city, and Philadelphia is really increasing in odds to be that.
Yes! St. Louis! I am moving there this summer and I specifically chose it because to me it seemed like the best mix of walkable/bike-able/good transit and affordability. Thanks for doing the research and showing quantitatively that what I was thinking was true. So excited!
I haven't watched the video in its entirety but I'm a fan of Grand Rapids, Mi. Although it doesn't have light rail the bus system is pretty good, several vibrant pocket neighborhoods for a city it size, 6 institutions of higher learning, beautiful architecture, and about a 30 minute drive to Lake Michigan.
If we can get the Rio Grande Plan put in for Salt Lake City it will punch even more above it's weight class. Especially with the new Amtrak proposed network of preferred routes map they released recently.
The STL love is real! I love this city as if I grew up here
I’m moving there next week (FPSE)
One thing people dont often mention about STL is the beautiful architecture. There are tons of stunning public and private buildings that are increadible. The neighborhoods have just unbelievable historic homes and business buildings that are so charming. We let half of the city just go into ruin over the last 70 years with white flight (North side) but that means there are a lot of rehab and new building possibilities also. I live in a house from 1896 and I love it and my neighborhood.
Dayton made a list, woo! I love it here. I'm 36, recently bought a renovated house in walking distance to downtown, am getting back into my childhood and college hobby of bike riding because I'm near several bike paths. I grew up in the burbs here but have seen a lot of progress in the downtown area and nearby neighborhoods. Slow progress admittedly, but then again fast progress leads to problems like in Columbus and Austin. Dayton is still in recovery from decades of industrial decline but it never fell off near as bad as bigger Midwestern cities. In this case, "middling" is key, because while our success is middling our failure is also middling and that's not a bad problem to have. Overall, it's just really easy to live here. Even when I drive, which I usually do, it's very easy. I'm a car guy, of course I'm going to drive around town, and I can literally get anywhere throughout the burbs within 20 minutes.
Just went to STL for the first time and was blown away. Great city!
it feels so unexpectedly nice to finally see my hometown getting some genuine love. Go team St. Louis! (from a guy that also wants to move to ABQ)
Dayton has trolleybuses! Yup, one wouldn't expect a city in Ohio to have trolleybuses, but Dayton stands out! They've operated trolleybuses since 1933 (streetcars between 1888-1947) and their trolleybus system had a ridership of under 2 million in 2022! Impressive in a city that had just under 136K in 2022! Theirs is the second-oldest trolleybus system after Philly, and Dayton's been continuously operating an electric transit service of some kind since 1888, longer than in any other city in the US! And I feel like there should definitely be an honorable mention for Newark, NJ because it's affordable, it's very walkable around the Ironbound, Seventh Ave, and downtown, the Newark Light-Rail is mostly a legacy system with great grade-separation including a downtown subway and it goes where people wanna go like NJIT, it's on the Northeast Corridor thanks to Newark Penn Station and besides NJT trains and Amtrak, it's a big hub for many local and intercity buses as well as the light-rail, there's Newark Broad Street station too, there's great entertainment downtown with the Prudential Center and NJPAC, and of course when you're in downtown, you're pretty close to EWR.
The Newark Light Rail has two different sections, with one being the Newark City Subway that has four stations (Penn, Military Park, Washington St, Warren St/NJIT) underground and if you only travel between those downtown stations, it's cheaper than the regular light-rail fare. The line then continues up towards Grove Street in Bloomfield (which was extended from Branch Brook Park in 2002), hugging Branch Brook Park which has the largest cherry blossom collection in the US. The City Subway line opened in 1935 along the old Morris Canal right-of-way, from Broad Street (now known as Military Park) to Heller Parkway (now replaced by the nearby Branch Brook Park station). From 1954 to 2001, this line used PCCs bought from Minneapolis/St Paul. The other section of the system connects Newark Penn to Newark Broad Street Station with NJPAC along the way. It branches off the older City Subway using the existing junction that had led to the former Public Service terminal. The former Public Service terminal was a three-level streetcar station that served as the terminus for streetcar lines from as far as Trenton. This was demolished in 1981 and became PSE&G headquarters. The Broad St extension opened in 2006 and was originally meant as the first phase of the Newark-Elizabeth Rail Link, but the rest of it wasn't built. The artwork at the new stations has a common theme, "Riding with Sarah and Wayne." It is a tribute to Newark-born jazz greats Sarah Vaughan and Wayne Shorter, and includes the lyrics to Vaughan's signature song Send in the Clowns
Thank you for focusing on the urbanism metrics and skipping the crime/school district stats in the methodology. They can be so subjective after all. I found the way you analyzed the data really helpful.
I subbed on Nebula via the lifetime offer, but still enjoy coming here to see the comments :)
Love that you zoomed in on Citypark in St. Louis. Taking the metro to a soccer game is my absolute favorite thing to do in the city.
Born in Philly metro region, moved to Pittsburgh, and then to STL for work. STL has been great to me so far! Biking experience hasn't been great, but rent is AMAZING in comparison to many cities + the metrolink is incredibly efficient for urban travel (for county you would definitely need a car though) and talk about the green line going North/south is super exciting too. I think people have an understandable fear of the crime reputation STL has but it's good to keep in mind:
- Most crime in very concentrated in only a few small neighborhoods (mostly north city, and maybe a couple spots south around the Gravois/Dutchtown area). Yes, you will hear gunshots and depending on the area, you will hear them often. But the likelihood of an unrelated attack is extremely low compared to shootings due to gang/organized crime involvement
- Our crime stats are influenced by the St. Louis city/county divide and crime from East St. Louis, IL (yes, that's a different city)
- Everytime the city tries to do anything to help with the crime (via gun control or etc) the state blocks it or heavily guts it
- The metro PD is severely understaffed and functionally useless for any incident short of severe bodily injury, and IMO also under very poor leadership
Otherwise, just be reasonable and keep your head out of any escalating situations. For the rest of the city, your biggest worry is probably going to just be car break-ins, aggressive drivers (there's basically no enforcement on car registration/plates so the highways are a wild west), and mediocre pizza. I lived in CWE at first but then settled in Dogtown and haven't even experienced a break-in tbh, though I hear it can be more common in the TGP surrounding areas and Soulard/Downtown region. And for better or worse, since the pandemic lots of stores now close earlier which reduces your risk of being caught in a bad place at night. There's a lot of great things here (we have a HUGE and amazing metro park with lots of FREE(!!!) activities), local markets and vendors, and a lot of great change happening to many neighborhoods right now. The people I've met have been really nice too.
And whatever you do, don't let them trick you into liking provel.
Yeahhhhh Cleveland! Surprisingly good transit and very good value. And props for including Dayton, too.
As a Chicagoan, StL is one of my favorite places to visit.
So refreshing to see the Saint Louis love!!! I’m born and raised in STL and have lived in other big cities like LA and Atlanta and recently returned home and there is so much value and potential here in The Lou!
Wow, I’d never thought I’d see my hometown of Dayton on a CityNerd top ten list! I can confirm that due to the city grid it’s very easy and safe to bike almost anywhere. And there is a great network of trails…you can even get to Columbus or Cincinnati by bike without ever riding on surface streets. And Dayton punches above its weight when it comes to the arts. You made my day, Ray!
Glad to see my adopted home of Minneapolis (and our little brother of St. Paul) still on this list.
Id love to see a real in-depth analysis of light rail costs vs BRT, because light rail has cheaper operational costs but higher construction costs. My argument is essentially LRT breaks even vs BRT much sooner than most people think it does, because of the increased operational costs. So how much daily ridership is needed before LRT is the better option?
Oakland is a beautiful place to live. Incredible weather, redwood parks in the hills, diversity in cultures.
Edit: i appreciate how much CityNerd graciously and intentionally lauds cities for their successes without the predictable, and unnecessary, cautions about crime. It’s wild how many viewers cannot allow me to celebrate what I love about my city without shrieking about crime. I live here and I know there’s crime. Can I just say what I like? Jfc
I guess it's just that is unaffordable
You left out A LOT of real problems but I agree with you about the good weather.
Hell yahh even as a hobo way better then most
Oakland is shit to me. That's why i left and all the sports teams left too
Oakland is super gross. It's what sensationalist media portrays San Francisco as.
I applaud the effort, and as a Pennsylvanian am willing to accept Philadelphia not being first (though it obviously should be with what I'm about to say). You have the term "value" wrong. Higher value is getting more for what you're paying and, to use your top two as an example, compare incomes in Philadelphia to St Louis. Being low price isn't equal to value. Being cheap is often a function of low demand AND purchasing power. So I think you need to make an adjustment to rents based on median incomes within the city centers.
I also think your need a better resource for walkable. Ain't no urbanist in Lancaster who will say it's more walkable than Philadelphia. It's nice (West Chester PA may be better), but for every one thing you can walk to in Lancaster, there's 20 that you can walk to in Philadelphia. Also Lancaster really shouldn't be on this list for population. The Census Bureau just defaults to the county population is MSAs, and that's where your 550,000 people come from about half of those people aren't in the contiguous urban area of Lancaster. If you go to Lancaster, which you should, you'll see it's really quite small. Reading and Allentown of bigger urban areas by a lot.
If St. Louis would do something about their transit system, they would be unstoppable. And I've been living in STK as a non driver for 3 years
OMG please give the 70 bus s dedicated lane
Not surprised to see STL at #1. It's not just the downtown, but so many of the surrounding cities in the county have great urban cores. And to top it off it still has a lot of the public spaces funded by industry of 100 years ago (free zoo, great parks, etc).
Moved from NYC/Newark to Philadelphia and it is as good as these lists make it out to be. The difference from NYC in cost of living is truly game changing.
Im genuinely considering that right now. Grew up in Brooklyn but now live in NJ and thinking whether to spend the money in NYC or try out Philly. Still a more or less quick Amtrak ride to NYC so if needed I can even keep my job in the city. How long have you been there and how do you like it overall?
@@yuriydeebeen here about a year and lived in south philly and fairmont. I love nyc, and it took me a bit to adjust, but the city has really grown on me. It is worth considering, especially if you live in NJ just to afford to “live” in nyc.
I'm in Philly right now for work and my company bought me a rental car that I took from the airport to city center and then parked for a week and haven't touched since. Literally everything you need in a 5 sq mile radius and SEPTA is dirt cheap and always on time.
Lancaster is great! It's much better than you might think. A lot of PA cities/towns have dense residential areas.
DAYTON finally getting a shoutout on this channel! Affordability is already great and there’s tons of new housing and hotels going up in downtown. I just wish our transit was a bit more robust.
Honestly, Salt Lake City is indeed underrated and is doing almost as much as much bigger cities but no one talks about it. After all, if it can earn itself an RM Transit video that is not criticism (seattle, los angeles, and many others have still not managed), it's probably doing something right
I'm wanting to move out of my texas suburban hometown after college and I've been really interested in SLC.
We really are. I hope CityNerd finds his way out here somewhat soon. 2100 South Sugarhouse, 900 South, 300 West, every street reconstruction project we do takes car travel lanes away and gives them back to people outside of cars. It’s looking like the TRAX orange line is also going to happen as well.
But SLC is very specific. You have to deal with Mormonism. They're a specific group of people and tend to be a closed of circle.
@@brostoevsky22 What's wrong with Mormons? In my experience, they're extremely nice people.
@@antonioiniguez1615 They're fake nice. They're nice to your face and talk shit behind your back. It's very in-group/out-group here.
I'm sure that roadrunner at 4:20 was very happy to see you and not a certain coyote! There are two species of roadrunner, the Lesser roadrunner and the Greater roadrunner, with the Greater roadrunner being the ones native to the southwestern US (as well as northern Mexico) while the Lesser roadrunner is found in southern Mexico and down to Nicaragua. Greater roadrunners can run at speeds up to 26 mph, easily outpacing a human. Roadrunners have evolved a range of adaptations to deal with the extremes of desert living. Like seabirds, they secrete a solution of highly concentrated salt through a gland just in front of each eye, which uses less water than excreting it via their kidneys and urinary tract. Moisture-rich prey including mammals and reptiles supply them otherwise-scarce water in their diet. Both chicks and adults flutter the unfeathered area beneath the chin (gular fluttering) to dissipate heat.
Roadrunners don't "Meep meep". Females give off a number of up to twenty-two short, low-frequency shrills, resembling coyote squeals, which can be heard 300 m away. Both male and female roadrunners emit a series of five or six chatters accompanied by groaning, loud enough to be heard 200 m away. This sound is the roadrunner's most common vocalization during the incubation period and the rearing of chicks. Greater Roadrunners eat poisonous prey, including venomous lizards and scorpions, with no ill effect. Roadrunners can also kill and eat rattlesnakes, often in tandem with another roadrunner: as one distracts the snake by jumping and flapping, the other sneaks up and pins its head, then bashes the snake against a rock. Roadrunners hold a special place in Native American and Mexican legends and belief systems. The birds were revered for their courage, strength, speed, and endurance. The roadrunner’s distinctive X-shaped footprint, with two toes pointing forward and two backward, are used as sacred symbols by Pueblo tribes to ward off evil. The X shape disguises the direction the bird is heading and is thought to prevent evil spirits from following.
the alumni and studentbody of UTSA would like to have a conversation with you about harshing their beloved "Meep meep" meme :P
St Petersburg is an urban gem in crazy car centric Florida, new BRT line doing well, long way to go but much more cohesive than Tampa
Lancaster is a nice town, but to find good work, you'll most likely be commuting (the largest employers are a hospital, insurance company, and supermarket chain). SLC is really trying its best, and I haven't owned a car since I moved here 10 years ago, but the housing prices alone make it unreasonable at this point. Last I checked, the home price in the county was $620k, and it's nearly impossible to find an empty apartment unit anymore.
I see rowhomes going for 175k in Lancaster quite consistently, and in good parts of the city too. Just saw a 6bdr Victorian rowhome in chestnut hill go for 350k?!! It’s definitely still affordable
@@pjflynn5978 Yeah, it is affordable, I was just commenting on the lack of good-paying jobs. Maybe it's changed since I moved west (10 years ago) but at the time, if you lived in Lancaster or York and wanted a good career, you just commuted to Hbg or Baltimore
@@za_wavbit oh yeah i bet that’s the truth. I plan on working in urban planning/historic preservation, and my fiance in education, so hopefully we’ll be able to walk to our jobs that way while living in Lanc
How do you find living in SLC without a car? I bet as soon as you leave the city it’s nearly impossible to commute comfortable without a personal vehicle
If you enjoy Minny-St. Paul, Cleveland and Lancaster, you will probably also enjoy Des Moines, IA for its affordability, walkability and bikeability as well as Erie, PA which has fewer of those things, but Presque Isle totally makes up for it.
Has Des Moines gotten more walkable/bikeable in the past few years? I went to college in Iowa and back then (about 6 years ago) there was no bike infrastructure I could see, and it wasn't particularly walkable. It scores pretty poorly on walkscore, too, which in my experience tends to overestimate walkability and especially bikeability, not under-estimate.
Love Presque isle and gentrified Erie!
love to see Oakland getting some recognition! it (and its immediate neighbors Berkeley and Emeryville) punch way above their weight, especially when you consider the higher wages you can get in the Bay without spending all too much more than Chicago prices.
can’t beat the weather either :3
Born in Salt Lake City, but haven't lived or visited in a long time.
Every time it makes a top 10 (which is surprisingly often) the itch to move there permanently gets kickstarted.
I'm not sure how well it gets captured in the Bike Score data, but Dayton is somewhat interesting among smaller cities in that it has a direct, grade-separated bike trail between the MSA's two major employment centers (Downtown Dayton and the Air Force Base). It's primarily a segment of the larger, 300+ mile recreation trail network, but it gets a decent number of daily commuters, especially from folks who live downtown or in the old streetcar suburb of Oakwood. And the city of Dayton itself has been taking strides adding new cycle tracks (with proper curbs separating bikes from traffic, not just plastic bollards) along major corridors into and around downtown.
Any CityNerd video that dedicates a full minute to Salt Lake City is a great one for me. I know there's lots of obligations and choices out there, but I think a CityNerd SLC function would be met with open arms. The NIMBYs are losing out more and more every year here, it's actually encouraging to see. Every time this city touches a street, it reclaims some car space and gives it back to people outside of cars. 2100 South through Sugarhouse is our latest undertaking, and you would like what we recently did to 900 South near TRAX.
Philly’s trolleys are back! They go from Port Richmond to West Philadelphia. They’re soooo cute!! Look them up and visit Philly to make a video! Go Phillies 😊
Came here to see where my hometown sat on the list.
Was not disappointed.
STL baby!! Please go visit the ‘Lou at some point Ray.
As someone who lived near Philly and been through there enough and lives in Lancaster currently, both great cities
Lancaster is not a city.
@@jonathansykes4986 Right. I would call it a burg.
@CityNerd you’re one of my favorite creators on YT. This video in particular is helpful as I consider my next home base. Tbh, loving Denver after my recent visit. I know it’s not a star player under several urbanist analyses, but I just really liked how it felt. Do you have any positive or optimistic takes on the denver metro? Or is it a doomed experiment for peds/cyclists?
Cleveland is a great town. FABULOUS arts scene. Cleveland Symphony and Severence Hall are WORLD class. and the Art Museum is also world class. Good hard working town. Great food. I love it…
Dayton's downtown really does close down at night outside of the 3-4 blocks of the Oregon District and a bit around the University of Dayton. But it's so much better than it was 20 years ago. It's still a city with a lot of problems (pretty much all directly related to either white flight or general deindustrialization), though.
Dayton got hit hard from the closure of GM, Delphi, and NCR in 2008/2009
St Louis is a great city to visit, too -- very clean, attractive, artsy. It is sad, tho, that there are not many people out and about
Is that only on the weekends or in general? This is very high on my to visit list, because it does have fewer people. I love my Chicago, but dang is it busy in the summer.
Lots of comments from my fellow STL friends so I will keep it brief. STL gets slammed all the time on crime, but I have lived in North city for 7 years now and STL is just great with amenities, housing, and friendliness. Thanks CityNerd!
I absolutely love Philly, NYC, and Chicago too!
116º this weekend in Phoenix. Next weekend should be the same.
The area around Dayton’s ballpark is really building up! Also they saved “the Arcade” which is one of the most impressive buildings in Ohio. I chose to move back to my hometown over Chicago when moving back from Asia and while it’s too quiet for my taste, I’m very excited and plan to stay.
It's nice reading the comments and getting a national perspective on St Louis. The locals in the region shit on the city so much. Its good to hear that I'm not crazy and I see the potential that St Louis has.
Me too. I am a local that has high hopes for an STL revival.
I’ve lived in St. Louis city since I was 20. If I move anywhere, it will be NYC or Philly. Thank you for appreciating our city 🏙️
Just visited Salt Lake City for the 1st time last month. Was shocked at how nice and walkable the downtown was!
The landscapes of this world are truly breathtaking, with each corner offering a unique and mesmerizing view.
I'm also glad to see St. Louis on the list. There's definitely better days ahead with Great Rivers Greenway, airport, and north south metrolink expansion. There is an aggressive plan in place to rejuvenate Downtown that will be great in a few years. No new glass buildings though. But thats okay. Great cities are built from the ground up.
There’s been two new high rise “glass” buildings built since 2014 and one new mid rise glass building downtown. Most of the construction is retrofitting right now though.
always happy to see philly getting some good representation. philly for being such a big city is super affordable, you can get literally everything you need from a northeastern city but it’s so much more affordable than nearby NYC or DC
I knew Lancaster would be on there! You’re overdue for a trip. Would love to show you some recent active transportation improvements!
I live in Lancaster! You pronounced it right, by the way. We aren’t the English.
I will admit, the city actually isn’t all that bad. It’s definitely walkable/bikeable, and in comparison to all the other options on this list, it’s definitely on the cheaper side if you want to live here.
However, what people end up discovering is that there just isn’t that much to do around. We have The Stormers, an Atlantic league Baseball team, a couple halfway decent bars, and a couple nice places to shop for novelty stuff.
The city school district, SDOL, is definitely nicer than most city school districts(I plan on teaching there when I graduate). The city itself is definitely minority friendly, though the county has a lot of rural idiots.
If you like the Amish, Lancaster County itself has the second highest population in the country(you WILL get them confused with Mennonites).
While living without a car is definitely possible, I’d consider it limiting for what most urbanists want. I really don’t think Lancaster should be considered for this list, even if it fits the qualifiers.
Yeah, Dayton!! I grew up about an hour to the southeast of Dayton and I still have family in the area so when I visit I always wind up staying a few nights there. While having a car is still almost obligatory (sigh), the recreational biking network is amazing. The downtown core also has some pretty sweet little bars. And just off the beaten path is the up-and-coming neighbourhood (that's white person for gentrification btw) of South Park. Houses with good bones and great walkability for under 400k, along with the best coffee house in town and the best cocktail bar in town (Ghostlight & Silver Slipper, respectively!)
Honestly, if I didn't feel so landlocked in the Midwest, especially in Ohio, Dayton would probably be where I'd choose to actually take the dive and buy property. Just wish they had a train station!!
Next week, whem you're in Phoenix, make sure you have a decent amount of water on you, both to drink and to pour a little on your body, for the sake of evaporative cooling. If I remember correctly, in Arizona, it's illegal to deny someone water because it's necessary to survive outside. Also, light rail stations have public drinking fountains, which will be convenient.
Also, your visit to Phoenix is probably a good time to talk about challenges regarding summer heat, as the city is infamous for it, and you're visiting at one of the hottest times of the year. Some public school districts in the valley start school in the middle of July.
Also, a bus stop thay is quite possibly one of the weirdest ones in the country exists in Phoenix. The southbound stop along 7th Street at Tapatio Cliffs Dr is in the middle of an intersection. It's along bus route 7, in its 30-minute service zone.
I briefly lived in Philly, for maybe just 18 months, but it heavily influenced my desire to live car-free. Growing up in SoCal, I never would have imagined that, but Philly did it. It’s a wonderfully walkable city.
I have lived in St Louis most of my life with 3 years in Minneapolis. This past winter I was riding my bike almost every other day. Something not possible in MPLS and I really enjoyed that town.
People in the upper midwest think "omG alL the MidWest iS the SamE." They have zero clue how much warmer places like STL are than their weird, windy, wintery states. They are not the same. They want it to be the same, but they arent. Southern Missouri is MUCH warmer than the great lakes, Especially evident in winter and March.
Just bought my first house in a downtown neighborhood in STL. It really is an excellent place to live, the hype is real
I've lived in Philly and am currently living in Lancaster. Lancaster is basically 50% the price of Philly for everything with 10/10 scenic views and friendly people.
3:08 crimes against bagels
Back in the early 1990s, my then husband and I were checking out SLC. There *was* a bagel shop. We went in, I asked for an everything bagel, got a blank stare. An onion bagel? The clerk looked disgusted. "Our blueberry bagels are really nice, especially with strawberry cream cheese".
Cross SLC off the list.
And heaven knows what she would have said if I asked for lox! Or a bialy!
I can't unsee that. 😩
*sobs in Jerseyan*
That’s a sure indicator that it tastes like a loaf of bread.
I was too distracted by the Skyline Chili to notice 🌃
great video, I knew St. Louis would be your number one. just the other day I tried to convince my wife to move to St. Louis, I wasn't serious about it, but I told her we can get a lot of real estate for less money in Missouri.
the hidden gems of urbanism are not entire cities, but particular neighborhoods within certain "bad" cities. Consider doing a video on great places within cities with bad reputations.
For instance, the Central West End in St. Louis has quite good urbanism, though you will pay for it relative to the rest of the city.
We see and hear so much about the ugly bad problems in certain cities. I’ve been to some, and just as a visitor, I thought it was pretty easy to stay away from the bad parts, and there plenty of nice places still there.
I don’t want to be totally naive, but the old chestnut about every town has bad neighborhoods you don’t visit, and don’t need to, seems to have a lot of truth.
Several friends been to San Francisco in last few months. They loved it, said not nearly as bad as they feared. Of course they stayed away from some areas, but went pretty much where they wanted and it was fine. They did lock their cars, and didn’t leave anything in sight inside, and did fine. They did hear a lot of others had car break-ins, but they left all their stuff out in view. I mean, you still need to think a little.🙄
Hasn't he already done this video?
@@szurketaltos2693yes but prime central west end is still cheaper than the shitty apartments in Boston. You can live like a king comparatively.
Great suggestion for a CityNerd video! Walkable gems within cities with bad reputations, which could be defined as falling population and/or higher crime rate. I foresee a lot of rust belt cities making the list, which I am 100% here for.