Your city in 1992 vs 2022. (state, better, crime, compared)

[Fountain-of-youth]

Has your city transformation been for the better or worse,or is it still the same city it was 30 years ago?

[Shakeesha]

Nashville has been better in every way. Highways and infrastructure are worse since then.

[MDAllstar]

Originally Posted by Fountain-of-youth

Has your city transformation been for the better or worse,or is it still the same city it was 30 years ago?

Some people think DC isn’t better. Personally, I think the city is way better. They can have the open air drug markets and crack heads on every corner with boarded up houses from 1992. DC is cleaner, safer, and more vibrant in 2022.

[TheTimidBlueBars]

Seattle I think really has lost something special from the early '90s, and not just grunge. It was just a more independent, less polished, less corporate city back then.

I'd still rather live in 2022 Seattle, though. It probably wasn't great back then for LGBTQ+'s, nonconformists, etc. outside of certain scenes. And I'm only even here because of the tech boom, there wouldn't have been a lot of jobs for me 30 years ago.

The city would've felt a lot smaller back then too. Belltown was a mostly non-vertical neighborhood full of warehouses and bars. South Lake Union was just an industrial site. 65th and Roosevelt was a quiet neighborhood intersection. Light rail wasn't even being discussed. The idea of Northgate Mall and Bellevue being mixed-use transit hotspots would've sounded satirical.

[Stylo]

I was just a kid in 1992, but NYC has completely transformed. For good and for worse. It’s lost some character but feels a lot more safe. The increase in wealth there is just crazy.

Same thing with the nearest city to me now, New Haven. I remember it being a dump. Even the Yale areas like Broadway seemed grungy. Now the city is gentrifying and tons of new construction. Lot more foot traffic too.

[Vincent_Adultman]

In 1992 Seattle was the center of the music world.

In 2022 it's the place where Amazon is from.

[whereiend]

Austin in 92 was radically different.

The pros:
- much more affordable in every way
- mostly the same natural offerings as today with 1/3 as many people using them
- still has UT and the state capital and everything that comes with that
- much less traffic than today
- very unique "slacker" vibe with a surprisingly big music and art scenes in fairly small and quite affordable city
- much less corporate, people didn't talk much about work
- while nightlife scene was much smaller it might have been wilder. Better conditions for raves and whatnot

Cons:
- no walkable mixed-use / urban areas
- much better downtown overall today, particularly in the daytime. In 92 nightlife was good but it was a dead business park in the day time.
- much smaller overall, harder to find different types of people and easier to run out of stuff to do
- less diversity, particularly in national origin
- incredibly mediocre job market compared to today
- not as many bike lanes and less transit (though still a decent bus system)
- no freeways outside the city center.
- the other side of the "affordable" coin: large swathes of the city were rundown areas that people with means avoided
- suburbs/exurbs became very conservative much faster than today
- no pro sports teams and SXSW was the only event somewhat relevant nationally
- didn't get a lot of national touring acts
- very small airport

The same:
- Progressive/Hippy capital of the state
- casual business environment relative to other cities
- young, fit city with friendly people that like to party
- better scenery and outdoor options than other cities in the state
- lots of weed
- crappy state government

[mjtinmemphis]

I sure did hate St Louis in 92. It was definitely more of a local inward thinking town. Very very segregated and was proud of it. Many areas in south city where all White. No gentrification. Washington Ave was just a thought. People seemed run-down and mean and horribly racists.

St. Louis had a MSA population of 1.9 million and opened its first Metrolink line. The city felt unsafe at that time.

In 2022, St. Louis feels a lot more liberated and it seems more transient. South city is more integrated. Since moving back to the city it feels a lot friendlier. Many new neighborhoods that are full of flavor and are vibrant. Washington Ave is totally different in a good way. As a Black man I can't recall feeling the outward tension that I once felt but it is still here.

[MarketStEl]

mjtinmemphis: Glad to hear that about St. Louis. While I'm sure you're very familiar with the cross-state rivalry between Missouri's two biggest cities, I sure didn't want to see KC overtake St. Louis by having St. Louis shrink so much. I hope that the North Side gets redeveloped along the lines of everything to its south.

Now, on to Philadelphia, which I've called home for 39 years.

The Philadelphia of 2022 resembles the one of 1992 in physical form, but in just about every other respect, it's a dramatically different city than the one of 30 years prior. That city was just learning how not to die at 5 pm thanks to a program launched by a recently formed business improvement district that encouraged both city residents and workers from the 'burbs to "Make It a Night" on Wednesdays. Now, Philadelphians "make it a night" just about every night but Monday on the streets of Center City. COVID put this scene into a coma, but people responded pretty quickly: the city allowed restaurants to set up tables in the streets and sell cocktails to take out. And now that we don't have to mask up and stay six feet apart from everyone else, the old scene has made a comeback.

Then there's the incredible redevelopment of eroded, bombed-out neighborhoods on the Center City fringe, from Graduate Hospital in the southwest to Francisville and Northern Liberties to its north. Ridge Avenue in the former was all empty shells and empty lots back then; it's now almost completely lined with three- and four-story condos and apartment buildings with shops on the street floor. I expect that 10 years or so hence, that street will hum with activity on the weekend the way Manayunk Main Street — another dead commercial corridor when I moved here in 1983 that now jumps — does today. And that wave of redevelopment is now spreading beyond what's now called "Greater Center City" (which wasn't a thing in 1992).

Not everything is roses in today's Philadelphia: our politics remain very corrupt, the current municipal leadership is inept, opioids still ravage parts of East Kensington and the River Wards, and (as is the case in almost every big city post-COVID) crime has spiked. But on the whole, I'd still rather be in this Philadelphia than that one.

[Borntoolate85]

I'd say slightly worse for Baltimore. On one hand, Harbor East, Canton, Locust Point, and now Port Covington have really made strides. However, the Inner Harbor has certainly lost its vibrancy, in particular Harborplace, which was still in its prime as a nice shopping center. Little Italy still felt very Italian before becoming downsized like most other Little Italies have nationwide. Now dangerous neighborhoods near areas like Lake Montbello as well as Liberty Heights were still decent. Although past its peak, downtown still had more stores/restaurants than what you'll find today. Some things haven't changed, like Oriole Park at Camden Yards (opened in 1992), the ghettos of East/West Baltimore, the relative safeness of most "White L" neighborhoods (Fells Point, Federal Hill, Mt. Vernon, Charles Village, et. all), and the overall local culture, which still seems to retain its brand better compared to DC due to its vast gentrification.