Great Urbanism Can Be Affordable (10 Underrated Cities)

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Walkability, bikeability, great transit, and reasonable housing costs — conventional wisdom says you can't have it all. Well, today we're going to have a few words with that conventional wisdom.

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Thanks to the folks at Dwellsy for the amazing rental dataset, as always!

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CityNerd background: Caipirinha in Hawaii by Carmen María and Edu Espinal (YouTube music library)

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[kevley]

I'm a simple man. When I see interesting tier list urbanist content delivered in a dry witty tone with google street view to accompany it, I click.

[jspihlman]

What I love about this channel is you don't just celebrate the best of the best cities in the US, you find ways to celebrate all cities in the US. You show us that every city has its issues, but every city has charm and things that stand out. Keep up the great content!

[bz]

Chicago (5:00) - Ranked #10
Dayton, Ohio (5:32) - Ranked #9
Salt Lake City (6:22) - Ranked #8
Milwaukee, Wisconsin (7:24) - Ranked #7
Minneapolis (8:09) - Ranked #6
St. Paul (8:55) - Ranked #6.5
Oakland, California (9:04) - Ranked #5
Cleveland, Ohio (10:04) - Ranked #4

Phoenix, Arizona (11:19) - Mentioned for upcoming visit, not ranked
Washington, D.C. (11:31) - Honorable mention
Detroit, Michigan (11:39) - Honorable mention
Carmel, Indiana (11:55) - Dishonorable mention
Cape Coral, Florida (12:11) - Dishonorable mention

Lancaster, Pennsylvania (12:27) - Ranked #3
Philadelphia (13:16) - Ranked #2
St. Louis (13:59) - Ranked #1

[gcvrsa]

As always, I will point out that the primary reason why Philadelphia remains relatively affordable among large cities is the property tax abatement program, which has led to healthy development and redevelopment. Land Value Tax works. Henry George was born in Philadelphia.

[lunogyt]

"running up credit card debt to live in new york" Ok I feel very called out rn

[liamhodgson]

Thank you for pronouncing Lancaster correctly! Fun facts: oldest farmers market in US, the county has most productive non-irrigated farmland in US, and the city resettles 20x more refugees per capita than US average

[nickfcarter]

The only person on the internet who is nice to St. Louis 🙏 we love you CityNerd

[lightlyshatgauchos]

As a lifelong st Louisan I was thinking “aw dang we didn’t even make the list” only for my jaw to drop at the end. Thanks CityNerd!

[b.rob]

Streetsblog Chicago has done interviews with People for Bikes over the last couple of years and the low ranking for Chicago is mostly based on the city's 30mph default speed limit which bumps every street in the city into the "high stress" category in their Bike Network Analysis model. I understand the posted speed limits might make Chicago somewhat less bike friendly than other cities, but they rank it 1, 635 out of 1, 733!? Unreal.

[Funkenstein]

I grew up near Cleveland and now live in Pittsburgh. Tossing around the idea of moving back there when I finish planning school next year. I just visited last weekend and found a three bedroom house literally right next to a metro station for $170, 000. And this wasn’t in some abandoned part of the city. It was like a ten minute walk to Gordon Square and 15 minute walk to Ohio City. Kind of unbelievable, really, but I guess that happens when the metro is as underutilized by residents as it is there.

[JayseabeeSTL]

As a 25 y/o St. Louisan, this is exactly why I want to buy my first home asap. I love our city and I think it’s going to grow a ton in the coming decades once everyone realizes how great and undervalued it is.

[chicitaco]

As someone who grew up in Madison, lived in STL for Highschool, and now lives in Philly, I feel constantly validated by this channel :)

[Dacode]

Philadelphia, crazy that they don’t have DC level cost of living. Super underrated.

[TheDocBooneSaints]

Hello from Cleveland! Thought I'd check out this video as I gear up to walk out my front door, walk through a leafy urban suburb, and catch the rapid transit train downtown to check out a new bookstore. Nice to see us make the cut!

P.S. Excited to see your Durham video. I'm in Cleveland because I just got aggressively priced out of Durham after living there for about 10 years 😢. Things changed there quickly!

[icpreston]

Lancaster! Wonderful city, love it. AND the proper pronunciation from CityNerd?!?! What a time to be alive.

[AverytheCubanAmerican]

St Louis's MetroLink is really good for what it is! Its Red and Blue Lines effectively act as a light metro thanks to great grade-separation left over from old ROW. The Eads Bridge that the MetroLink uses to cross the river was the first bridge built across the Mississippi south of the Missouri River, and since earlier bridges didn't survive, the Eads Bridge is also the oldest bridge on the whole Mississippi! The Eads Bridge was once briefly used by Amtrak trains between 1971 and 1974 (stopped on the year of Eads Bridge's centennial). So when they were constructing the underground stations downtown, the tunnel was already there, using the St Louis Freight Tunnel. On the Red Line, trains use the former Wabash/Norfolk & Western Railroad's Union Depot line that once brought passenger trains from Ferguson to Union Station. When the Red Line makes a stop at the Delmar Loop station, it is located just below the original Wabash Railroad's Delmar Station building! On the Blue Line, it follows a former Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis (TRRA)/Rock Island railroad right of way. When they were constructing Skinker and University City-Big Bend stations, they faced opposition because that section was gonna be street-running, so they opted to build them underground! So thanks to NIMBYs, they ironically made the Blue Line a better and quicker service through no street-running!

Another example of a North American light-rail system that mostly uses old rail right of way is the HBLR in NJ, a system that has helped revitalize the NJ waterfront with lots of TOD, bike infrastructure, and Vision Zero to complement it! The Bayonne and West Side Ave portions were once part of the CNJ, and the portion between Hoboken and Tonnelle Ave used to be the New Jersey Junction Railroad (part of NY Central), which was bought by NJT when it was under Conrail's River Line. When 8th Street station opened in 2011, its headhouse was built in the style of the original CNJ depot. Much of the HBLR is repurposed ROW, though the downtown JC segment was built brand-new. The repurposed ROW selected goes through dense neighborhoods, like the Weehawken Tunnel formerly used by New York Central trains is now used by the HBLR with an underground stop at Bergenline Ave in Union City! Jersey City was the first in NJ to have a bikeshare system when Citi Bike expanded there in 2015, with Hoboken joining in 2021.

[saulglist]

As an STL resident this really made my day. Tons of planning on the Jefferson Line north south light rail expansion that I’m hopeful will actually happen.

If you ever want a good primer on the racialized disinvestment and history of the city (more of a fun read than it sounds) check out Broken Heart of America by Walter Johnson.

[SmashhoofTheOriginal]

Carmel is good for biking because it has good trails and bike lanes, plus the roads aren't super wide or high speed. But it's so spread out that it's hard to walk places unless you live right downtown (a small area).

[kyleansel]

Wow... was not expecting to see my hometown on this list. Lancaster is a beautiful, charming city. Founded in 1730 its streets are narrow and lined with colonial rowhomes. Great walkability and urban amenities for such a small city. Amtrak is great for getting to Philly in just an hour without a car, and the city is ever-increasingly trying to improved pedestrian safety and bike infrastructure. I'm proud to call it my home. You should come visit sometime!

[BostonCycling_]

I’m moving to St Louis from Boston in like 4 days after being in MA for 30+ years. There are some pretty nice walkable neighborhoods close to everything good in the city.

We were renting in Cambridge MA at $2.50/sqft for an ancient apartment and in St. Louis that translates to $1.50/sqft in basically brand new construction in one of the most desirable neighborhoods in the entire metro with tons of walkability and amenities. A similar apartment In Boston would be, not exaggerating, $8, 000+ a month