Various cities' heyday/prime. (middle-class, crime, houses)

[goillini8]

Name a city you love and then give your opinion on when you that that city was at it's peak. Not necessarily simply financially/developmentally, but everything that encompasses what you personally loved about that city - culture, diversity, affordability, the presence of a certain "scene", parks/open space, development or lack of development, and all other aspects you appreciate about the city.

[Natural510]

San Francisco's heyday was probably the 1970s-80s, when you had people of all backgrounds who could afford to live there if they wanted, and plenty of music scenes developed in that time.

[gladhands]

NYC peaked around 2000-2003. Crime was low. Early-stage gentrification brought some cool things to formerly sleepy neighborhoods. Mexicans had just arrived, so you could finally get decent Mexican Food. Yankees AND Mets were good. Hypergentrification hadn't priced the middle-class out of the city, and it still FELT like NYC, as opposed to the ultimate 24hr yupsterville.

[SPonteKC]

Kansas City.

Heyday: 1920-35. KC was basically the Las Vegas of Prohibtion-era America.

Culture: a new city, shaped largely by 3 ethnic groups, the largest being the Irish and African Americans, but with an outsized cultural contribution from it's small, tight-knit Sicilian community. Between the 3 of them, the city was corrupt almost beyond belief, rife with vice, and filled with fun. It was open, free, dangerous and wild as hell.

Scene: Jazz, born in New Orleans, had it's adolescence in KC, where it evolved into more than just dance music, to become a real expression of American identity and freedom and inventiveness, but before it lost it's gutbucket soul.

[PatDJohns]

Originally Posted by gladhands

NYC peaked around 2000-2003. Crime was low. Early-stage gentrification brought some cool things to formerly sleepy neighborhoods. Mexicans had just arrived, so you could finally get decent Mexican Food. Yankees AND Mets were good. Hypergentrification hadn't priced the middle-class out of the city, and it still FELT like NYC, as opposed to the ultimate 24hr yupsterville.

Sorry but NYC did not peak then at the turn of the century. Honestly, NYC had a lot more international influence 1900 - 1970. That, to me, is when NYC peaked.

[BostonBornMassMade]

Boston is probably in its HeyDay now and the last time its been this booming was the 1920s.

Personally however, I liked Boston Circa 1996-2002. For much the same reasons glad hands said New York City. It was not ultra gentrified. There was tons of support for the grassroots community organizations that cleaned up Boston. Boston's old racism had waned greatly (was still much whiter and less inclusive than today). Neighborhoods like Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, South Boston and the South End, which make up some of Boston's most urban neighborhoods in terms of form, grit and diversity, were just beginning to gentrify but still had tons of character. the city ws less congested and Boston still felt like Boston and less like the Northern Terminus of BosNyWash (even though it was). There were more diverse clubs downtown and Downtown Crossing was still for the everyday Bostonian.

[gladhands]

Originally Posted by PatDJohns

Sorry but NYC did not peak then at the turn of the century. Honestly, NYC had a lot more international influence 1900 - 1970. That, to me, is when NYC peaked.

That's great for C-D bragging rights, not necessarily great for livability.

[bumblebee2]

I would say NYC peaked in the late 90s, when crime was going down, it was still a vibrant and super diverse city, before 9-11 hit and made everything feel so different.

[Cleverfield]

Cleveland itself peaked between the late 1800s and early 1900s. In 1910 it was the 6th largest city in the country. We were the silicon valley of our time, with more patents per capita in 1900 than any city in the country. We had the second tallest building in the world outside of NYC. We had Millionaires Row, home to the likes of John D. Rockefeller, Charles F Brush, the Gliddens (paint), Sherwin, Williams, and other titans of industry. We were so prosperous at that time that we had our own stock exchange. Then the depression hit, taking Cleveland's industrial might with it. We saw a resurgence during and after WWII, and then we saw the development of suburbs, white flight, and the emptying of the inner city, followed by industrial decline with globalization in the 80s and 90s.

Unlike other cities who experienced similar fates, we managed to save many of our cultural treasures. Playhouse Square, now the 2nd largest theater district in the country, comprised of ornate vaudeville era movie houses, was almost turned into a parking lot. The Art Museum survived and recently completed a $350 million expansion. The Cleveland Orchestra is still widely considered one of the best in the world. The Grand Arcade, funded by Rockefeller, the nation's first indoor shopping mall, is one of the most beautiful structures in the country. The ornate bank lobbies designed by the likes of Tiffany, that once served the wealthiest corporations and individuals in the country have been converted to restaurants, a grocery store, and event halls.

Now, with the in-migration back to the city center, we are finally bringing our city's treasures back to life. People would be amazed at the opulence, wealth, and beauty that can be seen around Cleveland from a previous era, that are now being brought back to life.

[goillini8]

I loved Chicago when I lived there from 1991-1999, but don't a long enough history in the city to really know if it was a heyday/peak time. It was till very affordable for a big city (if you know where to look), not SO violent (still violent in the bad parts, but less so, and less spillover), more cool/funky neighborhoods that still had some edge and weren't yet totally gentrified (for example, Wicker Park was far from reaching Lincoln Park No. 2 status).