10 Cities That Brim With Vitality and Why
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ต.ค. 2024
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Cities where your neighbors don't change all that much from year to year are...fine. But I like a place that has high demand, lots of turnover, and new people bringing energy to the city.
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Curses, you caught me.
Wouldn't this statistic just reward actively gentrifying cities?
You are still denigrating people who like to read and leave comments. I’m done.
@@neuswangeris this a joke?
Most people scroll down because this video says a number in the title yet has no chapters, so we hope someone saved probably thousands of dollars of peoples’ time by doing what you didn’t.
Kinda innovative to make a list of the cities with the most Cheesecake Factories!
Top 10 fine dining cities 😆
I swear there are so many Cheesecake Factories in Seattle...
Yeah no.
Extra points for good transit accessibility.
I don’t like cheese cake 😬
Minneapolis is definitely the western most Midwest city but it was never a rust belt city. Its early manufacturing base was grain and cereal products, something that never had the bottom fall out like coal or steel.
Minneapolis is like the Portland of the Midwest, but that description still doesn't do it justice. It manages to be similar to Portland on a superficial level, yet being part of the Midwest gives it a more distinctive character.
Shoulda put the Grain Belt sign in that segment
@@Michael-rr7umChicago? STL? Milwaukee?
This is on a very surface level comparison but I have seen people say Minneapolis and Saint Paul is where the split happens between the western cities and the rust belt/eastern cities which tracks to me because Saint Paul feels most comparable visually and size wise to Pittsburgh VS Minneapolis being a Portland/Denver like
Reality check: Minneapolis lost 30% of its population from 1950 to 1990. Most of the grain mills are long gone, as well as other major manufacturers like Ford. Minneapolis is very much a rust belt city.
What makes Minneapolis different is that it was among the first of the rust belt cities to begin growing again. It has a solid 30 year head start on places like Buffalo that seem to be turning the corner, while other cities like St Louis are still declining.
The issue is that the rust belt was more similar in, say, 2000 than it is today. Diverging fortunes have made these cities much less similar than they used to be. One has to wonder how long the rust belt moniker will remain a useful category in the present day, rather than describing a merely historical phenomenon.
Love the commentary on Minneapolis. There is a saying here that St Paul is the last city of the East and Minneapolis is the first city of the West
I grew up in California and spent most of my adult life in the North East. Moving to Minneapolis sometimes feels like someone took the best of both places and blended them together.
@@lizcademy4809 ................and then put it in a walk-in freezer.
@@jimmydee1130 The summer, late spring and early autumn, Minnesota is awesome…
yeah it’s like Fort Worth is called where the west begins and it’s generally that way all along I-35 at every latitude as the climate transitions from humid subtropical/continental to more semi arid west of there so it starts to feel more west even in the plains and of course when you start gaining elevation and transitions to high plains gradually then of course the lights from satellite view start getting more sparsely populated though if course not stark a constant like Korean Peninsula but quite a only 20% of the country live west of that line and that’s mostly within a couple hundred miles of the pacific and outside of Phoenix Las Vegas Denver Albuquerque Salt Lake metros and it’s less than 5% of population of nearly half the land
We say this same thing about KC and STL in Missouri
As a DC resident for 30 years now, I can attest that DC cannot build out due to the borders but what the city has been doing is redeveloping areas that were underutilized like the closed DC General hospital, the ancient water filtration area at pleasant plains, the old Walter Reed hospital, and other areas.
I remember visiting DC like 7 years ago and seeing how there were ambitious plans for redevelopment of the older industrial sites, how expansion of housing and expansion of greenspace can be balanced. I will say what also limits DC is the height limits and also just how difficult it is to enact popular policies in DC due to statehood
@@sheeperskipps I agree with getting rid of the height restriction. We need to build up as far as we can
@@genethrowe8205 Even Tysons is changing from suburban to urban
I have been in the DC area the last 15 yrs and the city’s growth up until 2020 was quite something to see. It has struggled since then between a real crime wave and the fact that the Federal Govt has stopped trying to get most workers to go back to the office, which has hurt a lot of neighborhoods in the central core.
The fact that anyone at any point thought legitimately that a 100 square mile area already mired 250 years of red tape could build out shouldn't have tongue privileges.
Yes, people in NYC do not move. I've met people who live in the homes that their grandparents owned and just passed the house down to the next generation. It's a smart move since these places likely have rent control ( I know a person paying $1,000 for a 1-bed in Harlem). I'm jealous lol
My family used to have a beautiful house in Brooklyn, but the neighborhood it was in became pretty run down and dangerous back in the 70s and 80s, so they sold it. That neighborhood has now bounced back tremendously well, and that house is probably worth a lot more as a result. Hindsight is always 20/20…
@@Westlander857 I would say they probably made the wise call. I mean if it was dangerous, either way you would be taking a chance taking a chance on your life everyday. They also would have had no way of knowing that it would have bounced back. Sometimes you just have to live in the moment and live with what you have.
I lived there awhile, but on my first day someone asked which train to take , and I asked where he was from and he said he grew up in Queens 😂 I was like bro this is your city.
Can’t blame them
I honestly expected NYC to be near the top of both metrics. There's always a ton of turnover, but also a ton of people who stay put forever.
#1 Seattle, WA
#2 Austin, TX
#3 Salt Lake City, UT
#4 Minneapolis, MN
#5 Denver, CO
#6 Boston, MA
#7 Washington DC
#8 Orlando, FL
#9 Tampa, FL
#10 Houston, TX
THANK YOU.
Miami
Interesting.
Where is Chicago?
I guess Portland will just tie or encompass Seattle. I've moved like 8 times in 10 years in Portland (No I'm not rich at all) because of the neighborhoods, job opportunities and now, I'm settled into Beaverton which is safer and blowing up 😎
5:44 Students make up ~20 percent of Boston’s population, so I don’t find this too shocking.
I thought it was like 11.6%
yeah there are neighborhoods where 5 bedroom apartments will rent for $6,000 a month and are all exclusively rented to students at nearby colleges.
Yeah this seems more than anything like a young people index
Probably not as dramatic, but UT in Austin and UW in Seattle also surely helped the numbers on the top 2.
Wow the before, and after view of Minneapolis is amazing !
Feel free to contradict me, but I’m of the opinion that car dependency is a HUGE barrier to social mobility.
Yes. My moving machine which makes it easy to live places without having to rely on the government to go to work is a huge barrier to me living wherever I want and claiming new career opportunities
@@mikalmandichak8328 Well, it's not a barrier for YOU who already owns one. It's a barrier for people who can't afford one and are stuck with bad public transport infrastructure. Letting that infrastructure rot can destroy lives.
@@mikalmandichak8328 "without having to rely on the government to go to work" can you enlighten us as to what privately built roads you drive on everyday? unless you're implying you built the entire interstate highway system and local roads you use? except you didn't, because that was all built by federal, local and state government.
do you also make your own gas? your expertise in refining oil could be utilized by fossil fuel companies since you clearly don't rely on the government to make sure gas gets to pumps near you at an affordable rate which is never low enough for you.
True. A lot of building typologies are far harder or even basically impossible if a bunch of parking needs to be crammed in. The effect tends to be starkest with micro apartments, ADUs, and historic conversions. In a city (an urban one), there will be a lot of housing options without parking, often at far better price points.
Had a friend who was upper middle class but lost her job and so was temporarily under financial strain.
She had a job interview in a place just outside the city with poor or nonexistent public transit but her car had broken down.
She ended up needing to take taxis to and from her job interview because she couldn't afford to repair her car.
She told me that it made her realize how sometimes poor people end up needing to spend more money than rich people for the same thing.
Someone with money would have a working car and would just need to pay for gas to go to an interview in that location.
Another example is poor people paying weekly to use a laundromat which surely must cost more than what a rich person spends washing their clothes at home.
Can you do a video on the strange urbanism of Atlanta? There's no planned urban design and lots of sprawl with lackluster public transportation, yet people continue to move there at record numbers and there's insane levels of new building all throughout the city. The Midtown neighborhood is completely unrecognizable from 10 years ago. I just think an in-depth look at Atlanta from your unique perspective would be interesting despite its rather poor urban design on a macro-level (though the beltline is cool). I mean Atlanta just seems so weird. Is there any other major city where the metro area population is so disproportionately larger the inner city pop? Atlanta only has 500K but the metro area has over 6 million. That's crazy to me.
I agree with you. Atlanta is very weird and interesting. Not much really like it around.
Boston is kind of like that - city itself has population of 600k; metro area is 5 million.
You do realize city boundaries affect population numbers, right?
I was just about to type "PLEASE talk about Atlanta in depth" in the comments! I moved to Atlanta not long ago (for a job) and it's such an interesting city. It's a powerhouse, but if it had a better train system and better transportation all around, it would be next level!
@@angusb99 True, but Boston has way better urban design and public transportation and walkability and density. So its urban design is more in-line with a city like that. Atlanta feels like it's its on unique case. Plus its the only major city that doesn't get state funding for its public transportation system, which lends into why the city struggles to expand it.
"I just get ideas for new videos while I'm in the middle of working on other ones." Creativity breeds creativity.
Yay! I went to Iowa State University. It was my first ever exposure to a bus system that worked for me. I’m not sure how good it is, really, but I appreciate that it had me thinking good thoughts about public transit as a young adult.
The focus of this video really demonstrates how a relatively neutral data set like housing turnover can show both a healthy urban area (where neighborhoods are stable and filled with families who've lived there for decades), or an unhealthy urban area (where people are trapped in their current living situations because moving would be prohibitively expensive). It shows how the same piece of data can mean different things in different contexts
An urban area where all of the people have lived there for decades isn’t a healthy one. It’s a very, very unhealthy one. People’s needs change over time, which is why people move. If people aren’t moving, it’s either because they can’t realistically do so, or because they’re preventing other people from doing so. It’s not normal for a young family to be forced to move 20 miles outside the city because all of the 3-bedroom apartments near the school are occupied by empty nesters whose kids moved out a decade ago.
Yup. Basically make any argument, and be right 😂
@@michaelimbesi2314 empty nesters in apartments 😂 that's some imagination. The vast majority of nesters own homes, not rent places as rental apartments are not where the demographic trends put family raising. If they rent a place it means they sold their home to a young family in the suburbs with good schools, parks, and safe streets... Or they sold to an investor that tuned it into a short term rental if the suburb is particularly desireable 😉 the idea of empty nesters flocking to urban areas is not supported by any data. They tend to downsize and leave for cheaper places lik Florida where they can join 50+ communities with shuttles and pilates 😂
Looking at Seattle specifically, it is clear why people don't move around. There is no point. Seattle is a tiny city. There is no benefit switching neighborhoods unless you're getting a sweet deal on housing... And yeah right, good luck with that in Seattle. If you move, you'd either move to Bellevue to be closer to work, or to the affluent suburbs with their top notch schools and manicured lawns... If you can afford it. You you cannot, then you're going to Tacoma 😂
However if you live in Seattle now, you survived the Jeff bezos displacement. Nothing is affordable and has not been for years. So unless you have kids and need to escape the crazy city streets, all jobs are basically identical so there is no reason to move. Specially in Seattle where so much work is full time or part time remote.
@@michaelimbesi2314 No empty nester needs to move because some young brat wants to live there. They'll get their turn in good time like everybody else before them.
@@laurie7689aggressive! the whole point is that a stagnant market keeps supply low and pushes prices up. Getting “their turn” is created by folks downsizing. Of course, there is nothing wrong with a forever home.
Not sure what data there is for this - it could be interesting to see a Top 10 on college towns with the least "brain drain". As in - which towns see the least number of students leaving the city upon graduation
Seattle does a pretty good job of making infill possible. There's tons of process and fees, but there's no veto process or politics at the end. The State requires all cities to plan for and accommodate growth (look for mass upzones throughout the region late this year!) So we add huge numbers of units. We also have a lot of new residents cycling through for their 20s before leaving to chase cheap lawns in their 30s.
Yeah right. California passed the same bill and nothing happened because fees means nothing affordable can be built. It's a flawed law like Californias. The law simply says you have to allow it, it doesn't force anyone to actually build anything or put caps on fees. See San Francisco for how middle housing failed.
We live in a detached infill - purchased last October - absolutely love the privacy. ADU’s rock‼️💪🏽
I love Austin always, but the fact that there's no train from the airport to downtown is basically crazy. This is a city with TWO major festivals a year.
We voted on a billion-dollar bond issue to extend the one light rail line to the airport. Then they wasted time for six years and said they don't have enough money to do that.
I think the "Rust Belt" label doesn't really apply to Minneapolis (that's more Duluth), but Minnesota is definitely the Midwest. It's just a Midwest city that has seen more economic opportunity in recent years (Columbus, OH is in this category too) and thus is defying the trend of other "rustier" Midwest cities
I would disagree respectfully of course. I see Minneapolis as having a dynamic that is similar to Denver, Seattle, Portland while St. Paul has a dynamic and feeling similar to Milwaukee or Chicago. The twist is that you sprinkle in some definite Canadian vibes as well.....voila....the Twin Cities.
I’d love a video where you talk about your process for deciding where to go in a city to “experience it” when you only have a day or two there.
If you take that Austin street view back to 2007 it is even more of a contrast. The only people who think falling home prices are a problem are NIMBYs that are about to retire and downsize. Our property taxes are so high in TX that any decrease in valuations is welcome by most.
Also great to start seeing some of the outrageous rent prices in Austin coming down a bit lately.
This is also the reason why California was so high on the NIMBY list, artificially low property taxes for long-term home owners means any incentive to relocate is outweighed by the cost savings in holding on to your existing home, and because so many of these people bought into suburban neighborhoods 30-50 years ago, the last thing they want is to see their neighborhood become more dense/urban and feel forced to move elsewhere to maintain their suburban lifestyle, since that would reset their property tax rate.
I don't think that Nimby's or other people concerned about falling real estate prices are necessarily older people about to cash in.
If a person has saved for a decade to finally afford a down payment on a home and then three years later real estate prices fall significantly and they realize that they no longer have any equity in their home and that the bank owns 100% of the home they will be very unhappy.
@@geofflepper3207 This. Buying housing is always something of a gamble. Falling housing prices aren't good for someone who will be significantly underwater, especially if they find themselves having to move, or if they are relying on home equity loans to do renovations, etc. Falling housing prices don't mean that your mortgage payment is going down. Interest rates matter too. Even if the price of property falls, if interest rates rise, the housing does not necessarily become more affordable.
4:39 Absolutely spot on observation (at least, for our situation).
We traded less space at home for more access to shopping/dining within easy walking distance and it's constantly proven to be a great decision for us.
Would love to see a video about best cities (big or small) for access to nature. Not only urban parks (which are great) but also bigger parks, national parks/forests, etc. that are easily accessible by public transit or walking/biking. I think there are some really interesting examples to talk about like the train to Glacier National Park or the Trailhead Direct bus in Seattle.
Moving to downtown Phoenix next week. Looking forward to your video!
Houston, Texas (3:01) - Ranked #10
Tampa, Florida (3:35) - Ranked #9
Orlando, Florida (4:23) - Ranked #8
Washington, DC (4:55) - Ranked #7
Boston, Massachusetts (5:42) - Ranked #6
Denver, Colorado (6:18) - Ranked #5
Minneapolis, Minnesota (6:58) - Ranked #4
Salt Lake City, Utah (7:33) - Ranked #3
Ames, Iowa (8:44) - Honorable mention
College Station, Texas (8:51) - Honorable mention
San Marcos, Texas (9:22) - Honorable mention
Detroit, Michigan (9:52) - Dishonorable mention
New York City, New York (10:06) - Dishonorable mention
Austin, Texas (10:22) - Ranked #2
Seattle, Washington (11:11) - Ranked #1
THANK YOU SO MUCH
thank you, the only thing i cared for was where orlando was placed💀
Where is Chocago. This is mind boggling that no one here is even talking about Chicago!
Thank you for mentioning filtering and displacement while you were discussing Tampa! Really great argument, more people need to hear it.
One day we'll get a video that includes Canadian cities again... one day. (Which Canadian statistics groups can we convince to give him data?)
Yes please! All of us getting priced out of TO/Van need data on undervalued Canadian cities asap.
I agree, many Canadian cities are very liveable, but my opinion is subjective although CityNerd has found statistics to prove this in past videos.
Midtown in Tampa is like a three block "urban" development in the heart of the city. The issue is that its literally an island surrounded by the most gross type of development pattern possible. I lived one mile from there and would not walk there, having to cross a minimum of 14 lanes of traffic to do so. Wishing Tampa the best, but with a strong nimby presence, and a mayor focused on looking liberal while also being responsible for implementing the "biking while black" policy. Just being outside of a car while you're black in the city earns you the right to be searched. Awesome.
Yeah, it’s hard to not also view these with a political lens now that everything is a culture war, but it can be important. A more progressive person would likely not favor Florida or Texas, while a more conservative person would likely not favor Seattle; regardless of how walkable/urbanist these places may be.
@@DaEcoSystem Agree with this too, and even comment above. Was just in Tampa for a few days and even people there complain about the nauseatingly confusing and erratic roads/stroads etc. It's one of the most poorly planned cities I've seen and I'm from Ft. Laudy/Miami. So many ridiculously large gated communities and lack of biking/walking/parks etc on outskirts and outside city too. Def a last place to live (in terms of major Florida cities) imo and getting worse.
With increasing storms/hurricane and flooding risks, West Coast Florida is poised to see even worse damages and issues (due shallow and long gulf coast continental shelf) and a lot of those cities like Tampa will soon see some major storms and erosions in coming decades--potentially worse than East coast (very different topographic/shelf plate underwater). I recommend central or North of Orlando or NE Florida, for future devs and to move to--if you gotta choose florida. Def NOT the South; SOFLA is a literal nightmare--in myriad, unending ways.
I think the point is that it houses more people than the parking lot that was there previously. Definitely not perfect, but good on balance.
Agree completely on Mid Town, was surprised he talked so positively about it, seems small but yes not walkable on Dale Mabry at all, tampa has some nice areas but very spread out, st pete is well planned with central ave, beach drive ,4th st
St pete actually has a BRT system and is well planned@corydaddydoras
Not only do people move frequently in Boston, almost all leases start September 1st timed with the school year. Can be a bit chaotic
Some of those Minneapolis pictures were in fact St Paul. People often forget that St Paul is its own city. I would love to see a video comparing and contrasting St Paul with its more upbeat neighbor.
Would LOVE a video on Denver! I grew up in the suburbs and was sad to realize, as I got into urbanist TH-cam, just how car centric the city can be. But it is a fast growing city and I think they are moving in the right direction. The areas you highlighted, all around Lodo has really been renovated. However, gentrification is also a problem
My comment said something similar.
I live in an old neighborhood near Capitol Hill, I focus on knowing those old buildings had lead pipes and every had to drink bottled water.
I love the 1800s one story brick construction, but they are neither safe nor an efficient density in a modern downtown.
Asbestos could be removed. Lead pipes, internet/wifi, and electric wiring are expensive upgrades.
Gentrification is definitely still happening, but construction decisions are often made by safety and replacement costs.
@@namehere1861 yeah it sounds like a complicated issue. I'd hate to see those old buildings get knocked down but it might be worth it. It's just also hard cause more new development isn't affordable or poor quality.
Agreed. I live down in The Springs and it is same thing happening down here.
i just got back from dc for july 4th and it always blows me away how walkable and bikeable whenever i visit
@citynerd since you brought it up . . . I would love for you to do a whole video on California Forever. I'm sure your first thought would be to criticize it, it would probably be more productive to do a "If I were in charge of building a California Forever city, this is what I would want it to have/look like"
PS love your content, keep up the good work.
You HAD to bring up the Texas Central HSR plan! All of their proposed station locations are terrible, but the absolute WORST is the Brazos Valley Station. College Station/Bryan (approx. pop. 270K) is FAR larger than Huntsville (approx. pop. 46K) and makes much more sense for the station location by EVERY metric. The original passenger station that gave College STATION its name used to be right across Wellborn Road from Old Main and the Amtrak station that was built much later was right across Wellborn Road from the athletic practice fields (about where the baseball stadium is now). They plan to build the new station in a location with a population of ZERO and force 300,000 potential passengers to drive 25 miles or more to get to it. That is as bat-guano INSANE as the 2001 Trans-Texas Corridor proposal and forces one to ponder whether the whole Texas Central HSR plan is as much a scam as the TTC was. Just build the station in College STATION and implement connecting bus service to Huntsville or it's going to crash harder and burn hotter than the 1993 Texas TGV proposal did. Good freaking grief!
Saint Paul is the westernmost Eastern city, and Minneapolis is the easternmost Western city.
@@ofsevit to way up north, those cities are more Canadian
Can´t these numbers reflect certain gentrification is these cities? Like, aren´t people moving a lot because rent prices keep increasing and forces them to find somewhere cheaper in the city?
Yes
Just anecdotally, the times in my life where I was moving more frequently (about once a year) tended to be much more stressful and financially difficult than those when I lived in the same home longer. Most people that I know move because they have to (changes in family situation, new job, moving to/from college) rather than because they want to move.
Would be interesting to see this data corrected for age, as that seems to be the primary factor influencing how often people move. A city where people move very often is likely just a city with lots of younger people.
Agreed.
I own and occupy a duplex in a very nice part of Minneapolis. Since I bought the place, I have never had a tenant stay more than their one year lease ... all of them are in their 20s.
That may make for a dynamic city ... but I have to pay for the tenant turnover every year. Also, the short-term tenants often don't want to invest in their homes, help maintain the yard, or even shovel snow. They're good people, they don't trash the place, but why sink time, money or effort in a place you'll only be in until next April.
Moving for a new job isn’t usually something people are forced to do. It’s something people do because they think they can do better for themselves at a different workplace. That is exactly the sort of social mobility that Ray was talking about
Seconding this! I moved every year the first five years after I graduated from college and that wasn't "seeking new opportunities" so much as trying to get away from bad roommates or not being able to afford rent increases!
Yeah I associate moving with not being able to afford rent or losing a job more than moving up in the world or finding just the right place. Maybe 20+ years ago it was different…
@@KellyClowers yeah I'm afraid being priced out may be some of these cities issues.
Another NYC factor besides rent control: broker’s fees! Cheaper to stay put than to move.
I can't prove this, and yes this is totally anecdotal, but as a lifelong Florida resident, and current South Florida resident, what I have sort of noticed is this area has become a haven for the ultra wealthy. People are either VERY wealthy (and not just rich, but like silly money), or Doordashing and working in food service.
While Orlando and Tampa have an actual middle class and seem to have more "normal" people, with a far more "normal" distribution of wealth. Now, I can't prove this, but this is very much how it feels. The fact that there is a functioning middle class in Tampa and Orlando makes these areas more appealing to me than my current location. The people there seem like regular human beings. People with a ton of money absolutely do not, and South Florida has become unpleasant because of the visible gap between the uber wealthy and the dirt poor.
As many others have already said, Minneapolis is viewed as the Easternmost Western city, and St Paul as the Westernmost Eastern city. I've also lived in Boston and Denver, and I very much agree with this viewpoint. It's very cool living in a metro area with so much variety, all very accessible and comparatively affordable. The value here is excellent.
People are sleeping on Minneapolis and the only reason I can think of is the winter.
Thinking of moving from SLC because it’s 2x as expensive.
Would miss the snowboarding but the cycling seems great.
@@Praisethesunson Winter is a big part of it. People move to the sun belt for sun. With global warming, places like Minneapolis, Cleveland, Chicago, etc. may become more desirable.
It’s a tragedy what happened to Detroit over the past 50 years, but when I visited last year I was surprised how it had “good bones” to graft an urbanism renewal onto.
I live in a very bikeable, carlessible area of South Minneapoli (I haven't owned a car for over 18 months), and I've been in this city essentially since 1969. I've lived in only six places in that time. 27 of those years was in a house I owned with my ex-wife, raising four children - located adjacent to the George Floyd site neighborhood (an 8 minute bike ride from that house we owned).
I think the desirability of Minneapolis is going to hinge greatly on what MDOT and the Metropolitan Council do with their plans for I-94, the stretch of it that runs between downtown Minneapolis and downtown St Paul. Major planning for it is now due because of its age and because of our current need for a massive shift to green energy. What's getting a lot of press right now is planning and proposal for a transit/park/bicycle/housing boulevard for the entire 10-mile stretch along with business development all along the way and in big circles around the downtown endpoints.
I think Minneapolis's future as a desirable place to live hinges on the decisions made for this corridor in the next year or so.
Unironically the news about DC now having 3D flyover on Google Earth made my entire afternoon! 😆
As a person who has lived in Orlando and the central Florida area for most of my life, graduated from UCF left the state and came back, I invite you to tear us apart. Central Florida has some of the worst planned cities in the country. Terrible transportation and roads (0 road hierarchy, you have to drive everywhere with tons of traffic). Tons of residential sprawl with no commercial anywhere creating food deserts. Crazy crime rate (look into our murders). All under the veneer of a "great city." Did I mention the increasing rent and housing prices being some of the highest in the country (probably due to the home insurance crisis created by climate change or big companies buying up all the properties take your pick.)
Even worse would be the cities in Volusia County, namely Deltona and Daytona.
Would love to hear an urban planers thoughts on how to "fix" any of these cities given our unique circumstances.
This is near and dear to my heart as I fight for policy change and improvements in this city.
no poiunt in living in central fl
Woah city nerd has 277k 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉 congrats been watching since about 14k I think. Easily one of the best channels on youtube, 1 million before you know it.
The fact that college towns would win all of your videos says a lot about how great they are. I live in Athens, Ohio and rent is cheap, I don’t need a car, there’s community and culture, good weather, surrounded by the Appalachian mountains…
What is so special about Athens Ohio that make rent so cheap
Me watching this video with no interest in the topic whatsoever just to see if Philadelphia is in it.
The whole state of Pennsylvania has no business on a list like this.
Most livable canadian cities with less then 500k population would be interesting as a Canadian viewer
I feel like that list would be Victoria + Halifax and everybody else in at a distant 3rd
@@hannahl6845 they would be near or at the top for sure. Cost of living would hurt them. Would be interested to see if he finds any up and coming cities or how places like London, Saskatoon, Moncton, Nanaimo, Kingston, and St Johns (NFLD) fair.
@@ericwalker6025ive never heard anything positive about London, so that would be an interesting list indeed. Canada has the unfortunate luck of being a North American country with the population of California.
There are plenty in the lower-mainland region, all just east of Vancouver. Some are definitely worse than others, but Burquitlam and Coquitlam are both solid and rapidly growing (thusly also getting drastically more expensive too though)
@@chrisbartolini1508 That's changing: Canada, 41m and rising, Ca, 38m and falling. Also, as a Fake-London resident, it really isn't that bad.
I got more excited now that we can see all of DC on google earth... if you’re not a map enthusiast, you wouldn’t understand…. I play cities skylines & love looking at the street grids and transformations for inspiration.
Minneapolis is a western Mid-West city... you gotta get West of the Missouri River before you feel like you're in the West. So Like mid-way across the Dakotas, Nebraska and Kansas... Not sure where it changes in the South.
@@MuddyRavine nope Minneapolis is too up north, it should be more akin to a Canadian city. Minneapolis is its own isolated island. STL and KC are centered and both of them show the stark contrast of east and west. STL on the Mississippi River and KC on the Missouri river
4:10 In theory, I agree - more supply =. more people who are moving into new buildings, and not buying property in old neighborhoods and thus pushing prices up. However, you can't overlook that a big proportion of people are doing both - buying apartments in new neighborhoods, AND buying up properties in older neighborhoods as rental properties. IDK what the solution is, but it's not quite as simple as 'if we build more houses then all the issues go away', even though that's *part* of the solution.
I mean, you watched the video right? Austin, a city that has built more housing per capita than any other US city, has seen rents decrease while almost every other city increases. Increasing supply is the number 1 way to make housing more affordable and it’s not close.
Video Idea: 10 Best places to build a new city from scratch. Land Prices, Proximity to landmarks and other cities, existing transportation, etc. should all be factors.
Hooray for 3d flyovers of DC!
Man, you've talked about SLC enough this year that you're practically required to make the quick plane ride over here. I'll slap down five whole dollars for the cause.
I would love to get his takes on Daybreak and “New Urbanism” type neighborhoods in general
those two new mid range skyscrapers (30+ floors) are all residential (save for those ground floor expected commerical spaces), and much like Tampa, the people moving in there are now not going to occupy a nice chunk of apartments that are theoretically in reach of more people. The rents here are spiraling upward insanely, and wages are doing nothing of the sort.
@@ZakhadWOW That's true of basically every city at this point
For the 8 millionth time, there is plenty of housing in the US. What there is not is affordable housing in places people want to live.
Though my wife's cousin who's a retailer has 10 homes under $150k available right now. In and around Lake Mills Iowa lol
NFW 😂
@@parkmannate4154 new Affordable housing is an oxymoron. It's like new affordable cars. If you want affordable, buy where nobody wants to live or buy something old you can fix. With so much environment regulation, you basically can't buld anything cheap or the climate nuts will come after you.
Is that actually affordable for the area? I travel to small towns for work sometimes where the housing seems very affordable to me as a Californian, but when I talk to people, it's still beyond the range that the average factory worker can afford these days.
For the 8th millionth time.... no one asked because we already know this.
What exactly is your revelation? That people don't want to live in shitty places? Extraordinary!
@@Wafflinson do we? Every time I hear "we need to create affordable housing...in (insert massively desireable affluent place)" it seems that the lesson isn't sticking. You cannot build affordable housing anymore than you can build an affordable new car. If you want a 500 dollar car, you need to buy a junker. If you want an affordable house, you need to buy something built long ago in a place nobody wants to be. You cannot just build new housing at current materials and labor costs in desireable places without basically free government money to pay for it...and that will NEVER happen in enough volume to solve the housing crisis.
Minneapolis is Western, St Paul is Eastern
Kansas City is Western, St Louis is Eastern
What is the largest city or metro you haven’t yet personally visited?
Good question - I hope he answers
For context...I grew up in PA, went to college in WV, lived in NC, OH (have traveled extensively)...and eventually made my way to Mpls- now I've been there 18 years and your comment is something I've used to describe the area to non-Minnesotans since I moved there. St. Paul (small town feel, insular, a bit closed off, older infrastructure, architecture) is the last (furthest West) of the East coast/midwestern industrial cities, ie. Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincy, Milwaukee and Mpls is the first of the "dynamic" cosmopolitan modern western US cities- ie, Denver, Seattle, Salt Lake, San Fran...etc. It's a pretty solid description to explain the dynamic between the two twin cities and an explanation of their place in the broader US. Love your channel, since finding a year ago...keep up the good work and hope to connect at some point. Bummed I missed your visit recently to Mpls to bike all around!
New pretty much means luxury. The marginal cost of adding enough niceties to make something “luxury” even if cheaply built is just too small to not do it. Affordable housing is thus naturally going to be older stock. This is one reason why affordable housing initiatives are mostly not affordable, they are subsidized which inevitably affects the market adversely and RAISES PRICES!
An apartment project near me is targeting affordability for 80-100% of median by going small and omitting parking--really beneficial--but it's being charged millions to subsidize other housing targeting
@@matthays9497 I’ve not yet seen any affordable housing program involving government which didn’t hurt things more than help. NONE. There might be some charities that get some small government grants that have something that works, but it’s likely in spite of, not because of government interference. The best government can do is make things better in the short term at the expense of the long term. Or, they make somethings better for a few people they can show as successes at the expense of many others who get harmed on the margins.
I’m one of those new people in Seattle. The water around the city does a good job of restricting sprawl to a healthy point where the city is still full of all kinds of people. It’s a little expensive but I really thought it would be more than what I have found.
I lost my industrial job in Minneapolis, with electronics, textiles, printing and metalwork slowing or disappearing. However Mpls has a diversified economy, not based on one thing but instead all over the map - food, retail, banking, mfg, health, law, tech, etc. It draws from 4 states - N & S Dakota, Wisconsin, Iowa with many now moving from Texas, New York, California. And it's not in the middle of the west, the mid-west, it's in the NORTH, or North Central region. I call it the Prairie Portland, but it's not the small Chicago.
The issue with "dynamic" cities is high turnover rates don't build community. In the house I grew up in, we knew all our neighbours, and there's something nice about that. It also is a sign that people actually like living in a place if they stay there. If they keep moving out, why? Is it because there's no community? Or crime is too high? Or it's too expensive to live there once you have kids? I'm not saying that a city should stay static, because that can also mean "stale". My point is that I think the best situation is to have some balance. Being somewhere in the middle seems ideal to me.
I am curious what percentage of new mixed-use/multi-story housing (ex. "5 over 1" style apartments) serve the well-off people who grew up in a metro area vs new members from outside of the metro area (or state or country) who moved there for school, work, tax purposes (ex. Joe Rogan, etc moving to Austin to escape California tax increases, etc)?
If the latter is greater (new/newer community that are rich), then many of the existing rich may still live in their original housing, which means that most of the new housing might not increase the supply by that much for us who have more modest budgets?
Or, if the former is greater (existing richer residents), is it enough so that poored existing residents fill the newly vacated houses and there is enough excess supply so that housing costs locally don't continue the same acceleration of pricing?
Housing in Orlando shouldn’t look like housing in Minneapolis or Salt Lake City. These apartments all look the same.
I'm surprised Atlanta didn't make the list. I'm curious how much housing we've built in the last 10 years but it seems like a ton from my perspective
Dude, no offense but Chicago didn't make the list and you think Atlanta should have been mentioned!!
@@ahmedzakikhan7639 well generally people are moving south from places like NY and chicago to places like atlanta. hence why northern states lost electoral votes and southern states gained them
@MrStrickland90 yeah but Chicago and NYC are the only dense urban cities (maybe Boston, SF, and DC too)left in USA that has proper public transport. So I am surprised Chicago which houses the second largest downtown in the country didn't make the list. Atlanta is still a car-oriented suburban metropolis. Most people in Atlanta live far away from the urban city.
Also Chicago suburbs are loosing population, not the downtown area of Chicago. Same in NYC - the population of Manhattan has increased - its the boroughs that lost population. You will see both cities are building residential skyscrapers and high rises to accommodate population in their downtown core.
@@ahmedzakikhan7639 didn't know it was the suburbs losing population but that makes sense. I'm biased since I live in Atlanta (car-free in fact) and I've seen a ton of new development here, but I do agree that Chicago is a great city brimming with vitality and with great public transit
@MrStrickland90 Established downtowns in big cities were growing rapidly before covid hit including Manhattan Chicago and Atlanta (more so in buckhead and uptown) as downtowns today are no longer filled with tall offices but place to live. Millennials and Jen Z are marrying late and prefer living in hip downtown areas - so you will be surprised to know that the Chicago loop was the fastest growing downtown among the major cities in the nation since last decade. Without the crime which mostly takes in certain immediate suburbs - Chicago could have turned into a top top world class city - sadly, it has failed to live up to its potential due to bad governance.
I live in Olympia, WA and have loved all the Seattle mentions. I would love your in-depth analysis of Seattle sometime and/or more Seattle content! It's a very interesting city!
He already has a video devoted to Seattle--just go through the list..
@@massvt3821 Exact quote from him: "I don't have a holistic video based on Seattle." That's kind of what I was referring to
Denver is honestly popping off like crazy, cranes everywhere in the core these days. The Golden Triangle neighborhood in Denver is adding nearly 5,000 units with a majority of them opening for lease this summer. RiNo is also growing like crazy, and LODO is probably the biggest transformation the Denver core has seen. I'm still very biased towards Capital Hill which is probably the most vibrant and walkable neighborhood in Denver, with lots of longtime residents just moving around the neighborhood year to year.
DC isn’t very surprising, there are a lot of government people moving in and out.
I lived right off 6th S in Salt Lake during my grad school time right before the pandemic. It was baffling how quickly things were growing, and probably the best US example I've seen of really fitting new public transit and housing into prime walkable areas. The sprawl of the valley kind of takes away from the ultimate appeal, and the streets are still FAR too wide, but I almost never had to take a car during my time there.
Your methodology could be argued with but those charts at 5:26 comparing building permits for Washington DC and San Jose is an absolute indictment of San Jose
San Marcos: spent 11 yrs there, great college town.
Austin: current, rent has def come down the last 12-15 months. And of course the city has it's charms.
So, a little note about Denver (where I live): the "River North" (RiNo) district used to be called Five Points, and was the heart of a thriving Black community back in the day. Then it fell into decline, and then the real estate developers got ahold of it and ... here we are. Not everybody is happy about what's happened to the neighborhood.
Nothing stays the same
Denver has had a super successful housing program to help the unhoused get back on their feet. people are down to live in a place that cares about its people for sure !!
4:10 I see this argument often in defense of luxury housing construction--that the people buying them would have otherwise been in competition for more reasonably priced housing elsewhere in town. I don't fully disagree with it, but I also wonder if it's ignoring something important. Could it not be possible that the construction of luxury housing itself brings *more* demand for housing into town, from people who wouldn't have otherwise even considered it there? For instance, I seriously wonder if all those luxury apartments near Central Park are being bought all because the buyers would've found something else in New York otherwise, or if they're bringing in "tenants" (more like "investors", in that case) that weren't searching for anything else. If these buildings bring enough of their own demand, I feel like they're no longer providing the same benefit for housing in the city overall as is being suggested. I suppose we'd need some data on this, but in any case I still feel strongly that any building of new dense luxury housing needs to be accompanied with the building of dense affordable housing.
we need dense housing that is just normal, not just luxury, not just low income (we should have that too), just something the average resident can afford.
Right when you were discussing how Minneapolis sits wrt its geographic cultural category you literally showed a location in St. Paul. This is ironic because historically St. Paul as been called "the last city of the east" and Minneapolis "the first city of the west."
Definitely come to Denver if you can. If you have a speaking invite for one of the local organizations I'd definitely go.
I wasn’t sure about how you determined vitality by calculating the average number of Cheesecake Factory’s per household but you definitely convinced me by the end
Was sure ATL would make the list finally. We never do.
Ask #27 for a featured episode on ATL.
How about the most COCOCOLA-ist city...... in the south.... in Georgia.... Bigger than Savanah and Macon.
Maybe somehow we will make the list
"more luxury condos = good, the invisible hand of the market will make all housing cheaper!" really reminds me of "just one more lane bro"
Dense housing with lots of amenities and access to good transit must also induce demand, no? I've certainly lived in cities which built tower after tower of luxury condos, and yet the median rent price just kept climbing much faster than inflation or the CPI.
And yeah, Seattle is one of those cities. The rent for our apartment doubled after we moved out, and it is now renting for just shy of $2k, over 3x what we paid. This is in a super shitty building built for the world's fair in 68, with mold in the ceilings, a noisy viaduct right next door (the entire building bounces when a truck drives by), and no good access to transit.
@@bjf10 Seattle housing production hasn't kept up with demand. Population growth has been massive inside city limits--50% growth since the late 80s. Until production outpaces population growth, even those crappy units from 1962 (the actual fair date BTW) won't get cheap very quickly.
@@matthays9497 "JUST ONE MORE LUXURY CONDO TOWER BRO"
Minneapolis was one of the worst gentrified cities I had ever fucking seen. Dynamic indeed when your residents have been kicked out and kicked out again by the ever rising tide of housing prices. A 20 dollar counterfeit bill snowballing into entire areas of the city being laid to ruin was the best thing to ever happen to that place. Certainly what the city deserves. But hey, what do we care? The people priced out don't matter to city developers, only higher value units.
"Minnea city Minnea city how awful was her fate. First she burned and then exploded now their story we relate! Of the white phos in Atlanta, how she burned right to the ground. Of the great fire in Chicago and the dead lay all around."
I have a video suggestion...Cities with the best/worst government support (state or local)
Living in Texas is like living in hell. San Marcos is probably the nicest out of the Texas cities you listed. I do agree with Seattle being number 1.
Alternatively, “10 cities where nobody likes where they currently live”
It’s always nice to see my adopted home, Minneapolis-St. Paul given recognition as a cool city that is also a good place to live.
Great insight on the housing markets in Houston and Austin, and how the “busted Austin housing bubble” is really just the economy recovering from inflation. Love to see you in Denver some time!
Been in Denver for 10 years. RiNo's transformation has been insane. Great neighborhood.
FDJT, U & MAGA 🤡🤡🤡
Texas Forever +1. Billionaires should also fix the weather. Maybe good insulation so AC doesn’t have to run non-stop
Minneapolis is a wonderful place. I went for a work trip with low expectations, but was very pleasantly surprised.
The urban dynamism Ray mentioned gives rise to social mobility. It used to be one of the defining features of American cities in the late 19th and early 20th Century, and is a very big part of why the USA used to be known around the world as the Land of Opportunity. It’s good to see that it’s starting to come back.
Can you make a video rating NY hudson Valley towns on access, bikability, amenities, and walkability? I would love to know where is the best hudson valley town to live in for someone who's used to the city. Even a video on best neighborhoods in the NY boroughs outside of Manhatten would be so cool.
The onslaught of five-story buildings with soulless retail on the first floor is kind of depressing. It looks the same in every single city.
I swear there is one architectural plan and it is getting passed around like a Metallica track on Napster. They all look the same in every single city.
@@texaswunderkind / They do. With no regard to local and regional architectural history. When they first came out with these, I actually kind of like them. Boy do I feel differently now. They are better than slums, but that's about it.
With this information you can probably also make „the most gentrified cities“, adjusting it for price and population growth, i.e. counting the number of people who were likely priced out
I'm surprised Los Angeles isn't among the lowest-turnover. There are huge suburban tracts within city limits full of homeowners who bought years or decades ago protected from being priced out by the Prop 13 property tax caps.
Texas is currently experiencing the same devastating issues LA did decades ago with quickly rising property taxes due to increased home values. People, especially seniors, are being priced out of their homes. Texas has much higher property tax rates than California because they don't have a state income tax.
@@mrxman581property taxes should be based on land area not the value of the land.
Denver resident here: I hope you get a chance to visit soon. Both areas you mentioned are mostly filled in already.
If you visit, the area from the convention center to the Mint and south along Broadway is where recently major projects are. I had an 8 block walk from my 2021 new building and there's about two dozen buildings of similar size either finished since then or under construction.
Wide mix of price ranges but buildings are full city block 5+2s or 20 story concrete and steel.
Denver is also using parking lots for bungalow style housing and converting large office towers.
The 16th street mall district heating and RTD summer maintenance will be done. I can't speak for the suburbs, but downtown Denver seems to be planning things out correctly with infill and renovation.
I am in Denver but my parents just moved up here from Texas to a town east of Castle Rock. It is insane how much building is going on here in the general Denver area.
Who they hell in NYC can afford to move every few years with as much as owners want. 2 months rent plus over 3g's in Manhattan and Brooklyn over 2 g's in the other boroughs just for studios. Rent control doesn't dominate the market as much as people believe
You can move to Queens or Staten Island lol
San Marcos is popular among people wanting unlimited access to weed. (Two offspring have lived there.) It's an awful place to get to via I35 but once you're there it's nice.
Minneapolis feels like a west coast city seed dropped in a Midwest biome
san diego, iowa is how i describe mpls
I'm interested in you maybe going to more obscure Cites, how they use transit, and what they need to do to improve there urban form. some cites i'd like to see are Lincoln NE, Jefferson city MO, new bedford MA, and Bismarck ND.
New York's long occupancy rate is less about rent control and much more about boomers in the outer boroughs who bought single family houses for $3500 in 1979 that are now worth over a million
As a resident of Toronto, I have to wonder how it compares to these cities, considering our serious housing crisis.
With the addition of College Station TX i'm now just 1 "city" from a bingo of five places I've lived showing up on these lists. (And I didn't go to TAMU, I moved there for work!)
Somehow I don't think any of the remaining random minor places I lived have any shot at it, but then again I didn't think College Station did either.
(I got 3 hits in this video alone.)