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Austin. This has been the case for the last decade, but somehow seems even moreso now. And even though Nashville is much closer to NYC, I'd estimate the "weekend trips" to Austin from people I know here are probably 3-5x that of Nashville. Which is all anecdotal of course.
Lived in TX for 10 years and SO from the Austin area so I'm familiar with the warts that maybe aren't seen by visitors who spend all of their time downtown (insane traffic, sprawl outside of the core, summer heat, hype, etc.) But there's a compelling story for why people keep moving there.
Dallas is more of the "living legend" now compared to being the "it" city back in the '70s and '80s. Its larger and although there's still a big sprawl problem, it has a much better freeway network than Austin and is more primed to urbanize its core, and like other cities its size, is focusing better on developing suburban edge cities so that they become less of a bedroom suburb.
Las Vegas was basically the "it" city of the '90s, '00s, and in some ways, the '10s. It's pretty much transitioned into "living legend" status now like Miami, with Tampa/St. Petersburg sort of FL's "it" city right now.
I'd say for the North (Northeast & Midwest), Columbus, OH comes closest.
This is a "thing" that ebbs and flows over the decades.
I feel like these were the "IT" cities in the past, by decade, leading up until today:
1970s: LA, San Francisco
1980s: Atlanta, Houston
1990s: Portland, Dallas
2000s: Miami, Seattle
2010s: Charlotte, Las Vegas
2020s: Nashville, Austin
2030s projected: Raleigh, Tampa or Salt Lake City ?
I'd substitute Dallas and Portland for Orlando and Seattle for the '90s. Nickelodeon Studios, the Disney Renaissance, lots of media love as well. Seattle of course had grunge, Sleepless in Seattle, Microsoft's big boom, the launch of Amazon, and Starbucks becoming a household brand. The majority of the top ten buildings from Dallas' skyline were built in the '80s, and a certain TV show helped to really prop its imagine. SF was more of the '60s "it" city, and I'd replace it's '70s position with Houston, which benefited greatly from the energy price booms in the '70s. Outside of Walker, Texas Ranger, I don't really associate much with Dallas from the 1990s; most of the development that decade in the metro was all about McMansion/strip mall runaway sprawl.
Portland belongs more in the 2000s IMO; until late in that decade, Seattle had a bit of a period of relatively stagnant growth, and a lot of the culture in Portlandia was based on that decade's vibe.
Cities can have multiple "it" periods for different things. To use Seattle, each decade has felt like an "it" period in some way. The 90s brought our main cultural impacts (music and coffee), but all decades since the 80s at least have brought emerging tech, Downtown growth, and rising prominence.
I'd call Seattle an "it" city of the 10s too. That's our biggest infill boom, it's when we got expensive, international passenger traffic doubled...
Maybe I'm disagreeing with the idea of "an" it city. Austin might be #1 in some ways, but really the role is shared among several or many.
This is a "thing" that ebbs and flows over the decades.
I feel like these were the "IT" cities in the past, by decade, leading up until today:
1970s: LA, San Francisco
1980s: Atlanta, Houston
1990s: Portland, Dallas
2000s: Miami, Seattle
2010s: Charlotte, Las Vegas
2020s: Nashville, Austin
2030s projected: Raleigh, Tampa or Salt Lake City ?
Looks good, but to me it seems like NYC should be in there somewhere. It added nearly 700,000 people not just once, but twice in the three most recent decades. And unlike most on the list above, it added people without adding land area. Maybe Phoenix too based just on growth. Although no one gets too excited about it, they move there nonetheless.
Looks good, but to me it seems like NYC should be in there somewhere. It added nearly 700,000 people not just once, but twice in the three most recent decades. And unlike most on the list above, it added people without adding land area. Maybe Phoenix too based just on growth. Although no one gets too excited about it, they move there nonetheless.
It's probably just too big to ever have been an "it" city, but if you had to pick a period for NYC it would undoubtedly be in the mid to late-90's. That era took the city out of the dangerous street crime era into the modern era, but before it became a playground for the nerdy bankers, management consultants and tech workers that it is today.
In the 90's, it was still a global center for cutting edge art, music & nightlife. And there was still some danger to be had if you went looking for it. Pricey, but not enough to fully price out the artistic class. There's a fantastic book written about this period called "Meet Me in the Bathroom", which focuses more on the wild music & nightlife scene of the city during that period.
Most would agree 9/11 was the line of era demarcation, although others would place it slightly earlier with the election of Giuliani.
Whatever city Pennywise is terrorizing these days.
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