Most people who would answer what cities they love, dislike, and even hate… probably haven’t been to them? I’m underweight cities in Africa but have been all over the world and have strong thoughts on the places I’ve visited. Been to most major world cities several times. And I thought I’d take a stab at tentative, reductionist thoughts describing them.
It’s not enough to go to a place once and develop more than a contingent view. Every city has both positives and negatives, and you may experience more of one or the other on a given visit but that doesn’t mean you have a full sense of the place.
If you don’t like someplace, other than Chicago and Boston, you should probably go back! That way you can discover more about it, and find the things that are good there and that others appreciate.
Most Overrated U.S. Cities: Denver, Chicago, Portland, BostonMost Underrated U.S. Cities: Los Angeles, Falls ChurchMost Underrated World City: SingaporeBest World City: TokyoSaddest World City: Hong KongGreatest Flawed City: New YorkCities I Still Need To Visit: Ashgabat, Pyongyang, Tehran, RiyadhCity I Most Want To Live In: Austin
New York is badly run, and politicians make excuses blaming others for its problems. It’s too expensive to live in too little space. And yet it brings together large numbers of exceptional and ambitious people – a cluster that makes it where you want to be for the greatest shot at success in many industries. (Sure, the Bay Area still for tech, LA for entertainment, and Boston for biotech, but otherwise New York.)
New York City
New York City
Los Angeles isn’t underrated by the people who live there, they pay a lot to live there, in housing costs, taxes and regulatory expense. But is there a better city in the country for ethnic foods? New York is good for some foods, and so is Houston, but LA is rather unmatched.
Although if there’s a city in the U.S. that comes close for ethnic foods, surely it is Falls Church, Virginia – with its Eden Center (go to any Vietnamese restaurant in the interior corridors); Elephant Jumps (still probably the best Thai restaurant in the United States); and cluster of Korean places in nearby Annandale?
Elephant Jumps
Elephant Jumps
Singapore is also underrated because it’s too often derided as sterile, because English (Singlish) is spoken, and because it’s so accessible. But it too is one of the world’s great food cities at both the high and low end, and it’s incredibly well-run. The smartest people are often part of the bureaucracy there. Where else is that true?
Singapore Hawker Center
Tokyo, too, is one of the world’s great food cities. It has New York’s density and excitement. And as an outsider I’m always amazed.
With Takashi Ono at Jiro Roppongi
Sadly, Hong Kong is a place I watch slide from the perch on which I used to hold it as it turns to the mainland and squeezes the freedoms of its own people – jailing dissidents for speaking out about their city’s future with retroactive application of ‘national security’ laws that China committed would never be applied retroactively, and which renege on commitments the country made when Hong Kong was handed over by the British. “Do You hear the people sing,” by the way, is banned in China.
More than thousand HKers sing Les Miserables’ ‘Do you hear the people sing?’ at HK international airport with their calls for free election and democracy. Here is the Ground Zero in the war against authoritarian rule. That’s the reason for us never surrender. pic.twitter.com/1MkTp4BkVg
— Joshua Wong 黃之鋒 (@joshuawongcf) August 10, 2019
Denver is cold. Traffic is a nightmare. Food is overrated. The airport is too far away – and you’re too far away even when you reach the airport because you have to go through one of the worst security screening setups and take a train to the concourses that may not work and there’s no walking alternative. Have you ever stayed in the soulless Tech Center area? It’s far worse that the suburbs of the DFW Metroplex.
Chicago is colder still, what’s the line, that a bunch of New Yorkers said ‘Gee, I’m enjoying the poverty and crime, but it just isn’t cold enough. Let’s go west?” Meanwhile Boston has all of the downsides of New York and Chicago, but without the food.
On the subject of overrated, I haven’t ever really connected with ‘Major Western European Capitals’ although that’s probably not true of London which has become underrated while Paris and Rome are overrated and Berlin, which was underrated 20 years ago, is now probably properly rated.
Vienna is incredible, but I wouldn’t want to live there though I’ve been attached to it since Richard Linklater’s 1995 classic Before Sunrise where young American Ethan Hawke is traveling Europe and meets Frenchwoman Julie Delpy on a train. They disembark together in Vienna and spend the night talking, walking the city, and falling in love.
At the end of the film they don’t exchange numbers. Instead they plan to meet up again in Europe in six months, and the film ends leaving viewers wondering whether they actually do (a question that’s answered 9 years later in the outstanding Before Sunset).
I’ll suggest that Toronto is one of the most underrated cities in the world even though it is cold and that Vancouver is excellent as well.
Amsterdam is way too crowded in the summer but when weather is less pleasant and tourists clear out it’s fantastic, walkable, and one of the best brunch cities in the world. Surinamese-Chinese food is a thing there, and much better than you’d imagine (or as good as you’d imagine). And fish! Pickled fish! Meanwhile, what frequent flyer doesn’t love stroopwafels? But boy they are so much better when they are freshly made and not packaged.
Austin is where is dream of living… which is why I live here. I moved from DC after 18 years, having ‘done my time.’ We chose Austin became we like it. It was ‘too popular’ a decade ago when we made that decision, and has become more popular since. Things have changed somewhat, with New Yorkers and Californians bringing a reservations culture to restaurants (you no longer just walk into all the top places). Outside of barbecue none of the food is world class – but it’s the world’s best barbecue, and everything else is above average. While we have good North Asian food we’re lacking in Southeast Asian.
People complain about (3) things in Austin.
High real estate prices because it’s expensive for Texas. Zoning and cumbersome processes within the city limits make it expensive to build, and people want to live there. But it’s not expensive compared to the Northeast or to Northern and Southern California.
Traffic There are certainly streets that are busy at peak times, but nothing again compared to the Northeast. I moved here and thought the traffic was downright civilized compared to the 495 Beltway at the 270 Spur around 5 p.m. on a Thursday.
Heat in the summer but we don’t have super cold winters, and Austin is in Central Texas. It’s not humid compared to Houston or for that matter D.C. which is built on a swamp. I’ll take 100 in Austin over 90 in D.C. any day.
No place is perfect, but I chose to move to Austin because I found it the most livable. There are more days of sunshine and plenty of parks and outdoor activities. When I first moved here there weren’t a lot of ‘great’ restaurants outside of barbecue but everything was above average. And there was culture, too, in the form of music (for which it’s known) and experimental theater. I viewed it as being like San Francisco dropped in the middle of Texas with a compact downtime and all of the administrative benefits of not being in California.
When I moved here it seemed like ‘everyone was moving to Austin’ and Jon Stewart did his show from here for a week. He covered ‘the immigration problem’ and sent a reporter to the Austin border. One ‘man on the street interview’ subject remarked that Austin was nothing like it was when they moved here six days ago.
And yet it was still underrated. Now it is probably fairly rated, although problems are starting to show. High housing prices reveal political limits to housing construction that drive up costs, a City Council that meddles in the airport and slows development, and rhetoric that is anti-police yet offers some of the most egregious contracts to police in the nation (yet delivers poorly on service).
So what does it mean to be a great city, for more than just a visit? It varies by the individual and what they are looking for. But some that are important:
Food matters to many, but what kind of food matters will differ. Austin is a burgeoning food city but we’re poor in Southeast Asian cuisine.Weather matters, but are you looking to avoid too cold (like me) or too hot?Taxes matter if you have money, regulation matters if you’re in business or looking for a job. Texas is one of the more heavily-regulated states for occupational licensing.
Ironically for an energy-producing state, one of the top issues here in Texas is the electricity grid – which comes down to an increasing demand for energy that isn’t met by sufficient growth in supply (mostly a function of federal rules).
There are of course many cities in the middle! I am torn over what I think of Bangkok, I love much of it but it’s not among my top.
I enjoy my time in the Mideast but the cities aren’t my absolute favorites in the world. Doha is worth about 48 hours in my view, go see the Museum of Islamic Art.
There’s nowhere I fall in love with in Africa, but also nowhere I’ve spent enough time in for me to actually say I hate. Maybe I ‘hate’ Mumbai, for its slums, nowhere was I sadder or angrier than the time I spent there – angry at the policies that keep people in poverty.
One question I left off is where I feel ‘most at home’ and that one was tough for me, I’ve never quite felt like I fit in anywhere. I was torn between Northern Virginia (where I lived longest), Austin (where I’ve chosen to live now), and Sydney (where I’ve probably visited most, for family). Anywhere I go though I always feel a little bit like an outsider. I keep leaving to go other places!
Sydney
How would you answer these questions yourself, and which takes of mine do you think are most right or wrong?
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