Which cities have done the best job of maintaining their local flavor through booms and gentrification?

[Tex?Il?]

Originally Posted by Min-Chi-Cbus

Chicago's working class is largely in the suburbs, not the city.

Not really. The city of Chicago is much more than the South Loop to the South, Lincoln Square to the north, and Logan Square to the west.

Beyond these boundaries Chicago is generally more working class (or working poor) than the suburbs taken as a whole. (DuPage, Lake, and Northern Cook are the majority of the suburbs).

[citylove101]

Originally Posted by eschaton

I actually think NYC is a pretty good answer. I mean yes, Manhattan has gotten very wealthy and changed a lot. But because the city has such a large supply of public housing, rent control, and properties in the outer boroughs passing down through families, there are so many places left where a "lifer" (or a middle-aged transplant) can hold on. Much of the gentrification seems to have displaced relatively recent arrivals - the people who always tended to have a stint in NYC from age 22-35 or so and then moved on.

Agree with this. Outside of Manhattan and the trendy brownstone Brooklyn neighborhoods there are wide swaths of the NYC that don't feel very different than they did a generation ago. And it's not just the poor in the PJs. Even in some neighborhoods where there have been big ethnic changes, the sensibility is still working-class (or middle-class) New York -- just in a different flavor.

[Noccidoggo]

Providence hasn't done too bad.

[Mutiny77]

Boston perhaps?

[Needahomefast]

Great thread. I'm in the middle of possibly relocating and would love to hear more about cities that have maintained their identity. There are lots of jobs for me in the south. And the home prices are attractive but gosh I dislike the generic feeling that comes with fast growth.

[ckhthankgod]

Probably any Rust Belt city, due to the fact that the gentrification or revitalization that occurs in such cities really occur in select areas of those cities.


Where I live, it is essentially Downtown, the University Hill area, the Franklin Square/Inner Harbor area and to a lesser degree, outer city neighborhoods like Eastwood, Tipperary Hill and perhaps the inner North Side along North Salina Street and around St. Joseph's Hospital. I guess the northern portion of the Near West Side neighborhood as well.

[bjimmy24]

Originally Posted by Mutiny77

Boston perhaps?

I disagree. The gentrified areas of Boston are really about as locally flavored as any other yuppie neighborhood across the country.

[Mutiny77]

Originally Posted by bjimmy24

I disagree. The gentrified areas of Boston are really about as locally flavored as any other yuppie neighborhood across the country.

I was looking at the city as a whole versus specific neighborhoods (which, as you say, have diluted local culture everywhere), but okay.

[Chico210]

For what it's worth, I doubt San Antonio will ever gentrify.

[l1995]

I also say New York.