Undervalued Cities

Which places should we be thinking about?

I saw this social media post recently, and I think this is a really good question:

One answer from someone else: Baltimore: “Baltimore is undergoing a phase change in its levels of crime and disorder. Seems on the path that NYC, DC took like 30 and 20 years ago, respectively.” (Shared with a graph showing the murder rate steeply declining.)

Some other answers to the original post: Bolzano, Nanjing, Montreal, Vancouver, Lyon, Philadelphia, Nuremberg, Minneapolis, Providence, Milwaukee, Sacramento, Keelung, Albuquerque. Go check out the post and replies.

This is not just a good question in a trivia sense, or in a “Let’s appreciate all the places that aren’t top 3/top 5 metro areas” sense. It’s a good question also because it reminds us that places change; stars rise and fall. It’s easy to associate a city’s troubles or successes with the place itself. As in the Baltimore example, Baltimore has spent so long as “Baltimore”—murder capital of America, The Wire, etc.—that you can forget those are not inherent characteristics.

Every city that fell on hard times was once a lot more successful; many cities that fell on hard times have come back a lot. Many places desirable and well-loved today were once written off. People don’t think of New York City as Escape From New York anymore, but at one time they did. At one time Old Town Alexandria was a rundown, outdated district that seemed ripe for urban renewal. Etc. etc. There’s a call to imagination and humility here, in seeing the potential of a place, its past and future, it’s possibilities.

On some level this is uncomfortable. We tend to read the current state of things back into the past, and imagine they must always have been like that. But things really do change; judgments made in different times really may have been right, or seemed right, and seem wrong only looking back.

The answers, as noted, are all over the map—literally—from different countries and continents. But my knowledge is mostly of the United States and really mostly of cities I’ve seen or been to or driven by.

One city that comes to mind for me is