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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 ?
NYC and LA are always going to be it cities. San Francisco I would also add 1960's with beatnik scene.
Not sure about the 70's.
1980's would be Chicago with all the movies set there like Risky Business and Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Miami Beach will always be it. Even the cocaine cowboys in the 1980s & 1990s couldn't keep foreign tourists away.
Nashville is ahead of Austin. While both have bars & nightlife, Nashville also has a plethora of museums and other tourist friendly venues. Rainey street has puddles of barf and food trucks. Not quite on the same level of entertainment. Plus TN is a lot more accessible to more local people than ATX.
To Black people, Atlanta Charlotte and Houston.maybe Raleigh
To White people, Nashville and Austin. Maybe Greenville.
To specific foreigners, it depends in the background. Pheonix never gets a due praise here.
“It” cities are not really universal. It depends on you. I don’t hear anyone in real life going bonkers over Nashville and Austin, I like Nashville, but I really only hear about it on this board. I say that to say it’s always good to get behind cultural lenses sometimes
Dallas is getting as much love as Houston is for black people nowadays.
Nashville is ahead of Austin. While both have bars & nightlife, Nashville also has a plethora of museums and other tourist friendly venues. Rainey street has puddles of barf and food trucks. Not quite on the same level of entertainment. Plus TN is a lot more accessible to more local people than ATX.
You know, it's so funny you say this. A couple weeks ago I was out with coworkers on Rainey Street, partying and eating/drinking, etc. We actually said to each other "what's with all these mud puddles everywhere," when we were on Rainey. LOL
Austin is ahead of Nashville with economy/tech employment/tech destination and just overall big brands moving there for jobs in white collar tech.
Austin gives a huge variety of bar/restaurant/entertainment. I did get a couple of key differences between Austin and Nashville overall.
*Austin has a younger, visible "heavy earning" tech/digital/creative demographic, single and in their 20s/30s looking to have amazing times.
*Austin has a scrappier, rustic sort of "backyard bbq with open beers, shots and band playing" vibe in many areas
*Nashville has the distinct "heavy tourist district" of lower Broadway and 2nd Avenue, and the head to shoulder crowds there is very unique and Austin does not have anything to match that
*Nashville has more of a "celebrity/hollywood/famous entertainer" brand and reality to it, and feels more LA, sort of, in that respect
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.
The word "IT" partially implies new and up and coming at least how it used. NYC hasn't been up and coming in a century it's been a well established city for a long time. 700K is nothing for a metro area of 20 million people. I can't see how anyone could seriously consider NYC for this, I don't know how to take your post I can't tell if your being sarcastic or no.
I feel like NYC was the original "It" city, and has arguably had many "It city" moments over the course of history.
If you go back over the decades even earlier, this is my guess of how it might look--
2030s projected: Raleigh, Tampa or Salt Lake City ?
2020s: Nashville, Austin
2010s: Charlotte, Las Vegas
2000s: Miami, Seattle
1990s: Portland, Dallas
1980s: Atlanta, Houston
1970s: LA, San Francisco
1960s: LA, NYC
1950s: NYC, Boston
1940s: Baltimore, Cleveland
1930s: NYC, Detroit
1920s: St Louis, NYC
1910s: NYC, Chicago
1900s: NYC
Just guessing here, approximately.
Any thoughts?
Yes I agree NYC was an IT city 100 years ago basically the original IT city in the US and maybe other periods too.
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.
Orlando I can't agree with. its basically unchanged in terms of what it is, just kid that's grown up, whereas, for example, Austin and Nashville have morphed beyond what they were 30 years ago.
As far as DFW, the downtown skyline has changed little but the post 1990s, the submarket just to the north (Uptown/Design District/Victory Park) has changed considerably. We're talking $10-$15billion development different.) In addition, the last ten years, Dallas is somewhat unique in that its a dual MSA with Fort Worth and now even Plano, TX. Y Since 2010, you've had huge developments from Chase, Toyota North America, Liberty Mutual, FNMA, Capital One, AT&T, the PGA, Charles Schwab, TD Ameritrade, and CB Richard Ellis, come to town. More industrial space built in DFW than maybe anywhere in the US (Amazon has a dozen fulfillment centers in DFW). The largest BMW dealership in the world opened in suburban Grapevine three years ago.
To Black people, Atlanta Charlotte and Houston.maybe Raleigh
To White people, Nashville and Austin. Maybe Greenville.
To specific foreigners, it depends in the background. Pheonix never gets a due praise here.
“It” cities are not really universal. It depends on you. I don’t hear anyone in real life going bonkers over Nashville and Austin, I like Nashville, but I really only hear about it on this board. I say that to say it’s always good to get behind cultural lenses sometimes
This cultural/ethnic take is spot on. I don’t personally know many black people moving to Nashville or Austin, for example, but have met or know of several folks heading to Atlanta, Houston and also Tampa. For black folks I would also add the DC area—especially for the college-educated. I think DC has become especially attractive to this demographic in the past few years.
Is there an “it” city for Hispanic people? And would it differ if those people were of Puerto Rican, Mexican, Dominican, Central or South American heritage?
This cultural/ethnic take is spot on. I don’t personally know many black people moving to Nashville or Austin, for example, but have met or know of several folks heading to Atlanta, Houston and also Tampa. For black folks I would also add the DC area—especially for the college-educated. I think DC has become especially attractive to this demographic in the past few years.
Is there an “it” city for Hispanic people? And would it differ if those people were of Puerto Rican, Mexican, Dominican, Central or South American heritage?
Miami obviously with South Americans. Central Americans are pretty much moving to every city in the US I think. Mexican immigration has slowed down and second/third generation Mexicans are well integrated into mainstream America IMO.
Regarding black people in Austin, a primary issue is that blacks are super underrepresented in high tech, which drives growth in Austin.
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