Underrated Cities in States That Matter in 2024 

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Initially read the title as "Live Your Best Life in These 18 Swinger Cities" and thought, "oh my! Plot twist!

I need a glass of water. That delivery is so dry. And I love it. Never change.

Detroit is doing so much right: 1) literally a bike/pedestrian highway through the city that connects Dearborn, highland Park, hamtramck, all the way to various neighborhoods, downtown, Mexican town, bell Isle, etc 2) removing a freeway 3) strong emphasis on urban infill 4) road diets/remakes all over the city aimed at busses, bikes, and people 5) there are plans/studies to expand the people mover, the qline, to start adding brt, and potentially a train line they will connect directly to Canada

DETROIT MENTIONED!!!! I moved to the metro area from socal and Detroit (and Michigan as a whole) is this country’s best-kept secret. We need better transit but there is interest. The best part of Detroit is the PEOPLE. Midwest niceness plus big city open-mindedness.

Awesome Detroit shout out. The future is so promising for the city. There's so much open space to build and every year it just keeps getting better. Still a lot of work to do, transit and walkability wise, but the city is doing what it can with its limited resources to make it happen

i love how dry you are talking about politics 😭 never ever change dude you are funny as fuck and truly such a great channel

Just move to PA at this point lol, it is your destiny You really should do an extended PA city tour. You can do PGH, Harrisburg, Lancaster and Philly all on Amtrak, maybe some smaller stops too like Altoona. And while it's less great, cities like Reading, Scranton, York, Allentown/Bethlehem are accessible by intercity bus from the cities on the Keystone line

I’m genuinely really curious about Philadelphia right now. It seems a lot like a slightly smaller Chicago but with less harsh winters and is still affordable. Might visit sometime soon

YORK!? MY HOMETOWN MENTIONED!!!???? Im gonna faint

Concord NH is NOT the pick, speaking from personal experience living without a car there. There is a bus network (of like 3 lines) but it doesn't run on the weekend or after 6pm. Dover has the superior COAST bus network (funded by Maine) which is at least something and they have an Amtrak station. Living in Concord it is basically impossible to go anywhere else in the state without a car (except Manchester and Laconia which has been recently added to the CAT network).

Missing the good ol' days of 2008 when living in Missouri meant you lived in a swing state.

As someone who grew up in North Carolina, and split my time between Durham and Wilmington, I'll say that Wilmington is probably a good choice if you're downtown. However, transit is garbage (I can't recall the last time I saw a bus actually, do we have any???). It is fairly bike-able though. Outside of Downtown is full of stroads and so you'll likely need a car of some sort to get to other areas of New Hanover County. Culturally, especially in the more ritzy beach areas, it's basically like Orange County, CA with this conservative beach/boating culture. Lots of Trump paraphernalia everywhere. More liberal in the downtown area though. I'd also recommend Durham. Durham is walkable too, but you'll need a car to traverse the greater triangle-area. The triangle-area is politically more liberal-centrist. That said, climate/infrastructure policy aside, Joe Biden's foreign policy (i.e. Gaza genocide) doesn't sit well with me (and a lot of other Gen Z/Millennials especially). I temporarily live in Dublin, Ireland and lets just say most Irish people I've talked to have culturally dis-owned him for his "British" behaviour in regards to his stance on Israeli occupation. I'll let that speak for itself. I may still vote for Democrats on the state/local level, but it's a tough to vote for someone who is blind or ignores the blood spilled in Gaza. As a Queer Jew too, I do not approve of someone using my ancestral trauma to justify inflicting more trauma on another oppressed people. We do not punch down. Fuck that. Big up 🇮🇪🇵🇸 We're not even getting to heightened militarization of the police and internment camps of immigrants at the southern border, that white liberals told black and brown Americans would diminish if they voted for Biden. It's not a good look.

Every time Florida is no longer mentioned as a swing state, I die a bit inside.

I think I can competently make the case that downballot races are more important to the average person's life than the presidential race. It's amazing how people get so incised about the White House when their own city, county, or heck, even HOA and/or school board are run amok. Those are things where you can have an outsized impact on the results.

You probably pissed off the entire city of Lancaster with that pronunciation

Love the focus on Detroit. I'm over in Grand Rapids (which is also a fantastic place to live, would recommend), but even I can't help visiting the big D from time to time. Hope more people get to see our lovely state in the future.

I think you should stop using bike/walk score. It doesn't seem like a very good indicator how good the infrastructure there **actually** is. Percent modality by walk or bike for that city would be better because then it would actually reflect how much people bike and walk given the infrastructure.

I would really enjoy hearing your thoughts covering all of Arizona. Especially Tucson! This city is untapped content potential for Urbanist video creators. Our transit system is completely free for riders!

I find it interesting your mention of the typical political preferences of your viewers. Just want to say that though I may be in the political minority of your viewers, I still find your videos interesting and informative. Keep up the good work.

La Crosse is such an underrated gem. Having lived there, Madison, and the Twin Cities, I think La Crosse is actually better for biking, despite having fewer protected bike lanes. There's a good grid of quiet residential streets and the transit is better than average especially with the SMRT regional buses (but much room for improvement). Being on the Mississippi and in the heart of the Driftless Area makes for great scenery and recreational opportunities too. The city is slowly making progress removing commercial parking mins 2 years ago and just this month allowing ADUs.

For Georgia - Athens is a great choice for a small towns. Athens has a great Bus network, is cycling friendly, has a rapidly urbanizing downtown, the new firefly bike trail, and a good town/gown mix. Marietta is an absolute dumpster fire choice. You will need to drive everywhere. It will take you ~30 mins to travel ~5 miles during most of the day. It is not friendly to cycling, alternative transportation, or reasonable urban development. I would avoid at all costs.

Never thought I’d see my Milwaukee apartment building on a street view of a City Nerd video. But here we are!

In before Alan Fisher comments "why is Philly not listed as number 1 in the country?" :)

Milwaukee!! I’ve been living in Milwaukee for about 10 years now and it is a seriously underrated city. I currently live in the 53211 zip code. I walk to work at UWM. I can walk to the shops on Downer, including Sendiks where I do most of my shopping. There are nearby coffee shops and parks and a great movie theater (the oriental) all of which are just a short walk from my house. And the summers here are amazing. I basically spend the whole summer biking around town to a variety of beautiful parks and good coffee shops.

Ayo! Philly 19107 represent!

As a resident of Milwaukee for the last 8 years, Downtown (East/Juneau Town, West/Kilbourn Town, and Third Ward, sort of Walker's Point, too, depending on area) is a great place to live! There's a lot of new development happening, a huge influx of events since the Fiserv Forum (Bucks Arena) opened, and the summers here are amazing! Lake Michigan truly offers an incredible backdrop to any concert or other summer event! The Oak Leaf Trail that encircles Milwaukee County and the Hank Aaron State Trail (cuts west-east from the Oak Leaf Trail in west Wauwatosa to Lakeshore State Park in Downtown Milwaukee) are both excellent commuting and recreation routes by bike, board, wheel, and foot that also link many different neighborhoods together, to downtown, and the lakefront! Also, when the wind is just right, you get an excellent smell of sausages from the Usinger's facility on Dr. MLK Jr Drive (aka Olde World Third St before the name was correctly changed to honor Dr. King the entire way down the road). When the wind blows wrong, you get the smell of the Milorganite fertilizer produced at the Jones Island (not an island anymore) Water Reclamation Facility across the river/harbor entrance from Summerfest & Third Ward (smells of wet dog and money).

Honestly, as a fairly conservative Christian American, I hate conservative Christian American politics 😅. I wish we could be more loving and consistent in our pursuit of serving others and establishing places to serve others. When we push policies that prioritize sprawl, separation, and individuality over those that strengthen community and freedom of choice... I think we're missing some key points of the Faith. Like, if you want to live the American suburban experience, that's totally cool, to each his own. But why fight against an urban lifestyle? It's not immoral, in many measures it's more affordable, and you're not even the one living it out.

Back in early 2020 when it came down to choosing which grad school I’d attend , a big part of why I chose the school that I did was so I could live (and by extension vote) in AZ haha…the other schools I considered were in TX and TN. I now live in the Phoenix area and my vote is super important now! I regret nothing

Hey, I live in Marietta. I'll tell you right now, unless you live in the apartments in the Battery, all of our apartment complexes basically require cars since they're far away and disconnected from everything. Cobb parkway is one huge stroad that basically has all the businesses, and the bus stops are in the middle of nowhere most of the time. You can't even go grocery shopping without a car. It is definitely /not/ walkable.

I think you are wrong on the political leanings thing. Urbanists come from anywhere on the political spectrum except for the big truck MAGA range of the spectrum of it lol

Yes, you absolutely NEED to get to Detroit! I'm 1/2 mile south of Detroit in Canada and regularly surprise all my visitors for taking them across to the coolest city in the US. Everyone feels Detroit is an empty shell but that's based on ignorance. Get there soon!

I want to get an Urban Planning BS from Arizona State University in Tempe. It's so comforting to learn from a college in a location that's making so much progress so fast!

Detroit is truly an amazing city, and on the up!

Proud Wisconsin voter! We flipped the Supreme Court last April

Glad to see Michigan so well represented here! GR and Detroit are both fantastic cities. Michigan as a whole is super slept on. Traverse City and Marquette are two beautiful towns as well.

Really appreciate you not shying away from some political commentary, and found your approach to be witty and intelligible. We need more bravery like this from those with any kind of platform. Yay CityNerd :)

i never thought after growing up in york pennsylvania and desperately wanting to leave that there would later be an urbanist influencer selling other urbanists on york's... urbanism. i'm in shock. the numbers don't lie though.

Never thought I would see LaCrosse, Wisconsin on this list but I respect it! Btw it also has a top tier Oktoberfest (in the US) and an Amtrak stop on the Empire Builder

Other considerations: Crime may be worse than in blue states, and as we saw today at the KC Super Bowl Celebration (in a red state), every place is unsafe in the USA. Laws may be bad in some of these states if you are a woman of childbearing age; a member of the LGBT community, especially transgender; or a person of color. Laws seem to be getting worse in many states all the time. The weather in many of these states looks nothing at this time of year like the Google Street Views. I feel better in my blue state. I am trying to get back to Europe. The USA is f*ed.

I'd say do this for Canada, but we don't have quite as messed up an electoral system.

Only southeastern New Hampshire is really a Boston exurb. Concord is , relatively speaking, very small, I'd point people towards Portsmouth first then the southern counties (Cheshire, Hillsborough) if you still want to be kind of close to Boston. Lots of nice small towns but car travel will be frequent for most people. This state is extremely rail resistant, blocking any attempt to extend any Boston commuter rail lines into the state, even to the airport. Very little bus service anywhere. Amtrak mostly bypasses it except for some small towns near Portsmouth, but not Portsmouth itself, or if you're in the far western slice, there are a few Amtrak stops in VT and one NH town, if you want to go to New York (But not Boston unfortunately or even Burlington VT or Montreal!!)

Lets make sure we vote smart guys!! Turn off cnn and read some non biased news

Thanks for discussing the smaller cities for us strong towns type people. I do like those.

I would honestly love to know if there are ANY conservative viewers of this channel. And I don't mean conservative-leaning, small government types (who might very well hate all the gov intervention and policies that have led to our current terrible urban environments); but true MAGA culturally conservative "everything I hate is socialism" types. I'm sure some stumble upon this channel by accident, but I can't imagine any of them making it through the first minute of any of you videos lmao

Great video except for all the insufferable liberal snark. Try and keep it more neutral next time.

I just moved to one of your honorable mentions, Grand Rapids MI. I grew up in the south and this is the first place I've lived that isn't a southern hellscape entirely made up of stroads. Grand Rapids ain't Amsterdam, but it sure feels like it to me after where I came from. I am actually able to do quite a lot on foot and/or bike, and the city proper is well connected and situated relatively far from the sprawling/stroady nightmares on the outskirts. Plus, it has a halfway decent bus system. Although, carbrain is real here, and the bus system has been cutting back service due to running out of money. For now however I am loving it. I am less car dependent than I've ever been and it has done wonders for both my physical and mental well being.

If you were looking to be in a swing district within a swing state, Grand Rapids or Midland, Michigan (competitive for state and US reps seats) and Traverse City Michigan (competitive for state seats only) are great places to live.

Recently moved from safe-blue Illinois to hopefully less-purple Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 😎

You got integrity, CityNerd. I like it 😺

So where can my Jill Stein vote have the most impact haha

I'm still not discounting the idea of 60,000 or so of us dropping into Cheyenne Wyoming and starting our own urbanist utopia

Your viewers demand a deep dive on La Crosse! Well, this one viewer does. Great vid as always!

Milwaukeean here. More people need to lay the stakes out for this election as bluntly as Ray does. For those of us who care about America’s urban areas and their inhabitants, there’s no alternative to Joe Biden in this election

I live in 54601 (downtown La Crosse, WI) so I obviously love seeing that it made the “small city” cut. La Crosse is a great place to live! I only pay $500 a month for a really unique and good-sized studio apartment. Sadly, Wisconsin (Gerrymander-affected) laws prevent me from being able to vote due to a criminal offense from 24 years ago.

I’d be interested to know how many conservative people watch this channel.

Love the political angle! Keep up the meaningful work!

I love Detroit. The airport is one of the best in the country and they have great bars and restaurants. Their sports stadiums are awesome.. Also the dispensaries are the cheapest I’ve seen in the country and are very competitive. I’d move there if it wasn’t so cold.

They just happened to be vacancies in the Supreme Court during trumps term. Fully within his right, Biden would have done the same thing. That was a very charitable description of Biden you gave 😂

This is absurd. Politically engaged has never meant active voter, in this race or any other. Organize in the workplace, organize civil disobedience, boycotts, focus on local issues, etc. Building a network in this way is much more effective than voting will ever be, especially voting in the general election. There's a reason voting is so accessible. Real change is hard, but whatever narrow changes you can gain in the electoral process will be nothing. Besides, big political changes in this nation's history often occur from strong pressure by organized labor or national demonstrations- what changes are you hoping to get passed by a nation without unions or grassroots movements?

Please do not call the Gayborhood in Philly, “Midtown Village.”

lol atlanta median rent is not $1600, try $2200. and its all newly built crappy shoebox apartments. but omg you get to walk on a crowded sidewalk that goes to an expensive smoothie place

Prescott mentioned! Btw locals pronounce it like “presskit” like a triscuit. Haha

Politically Strategic Chosen Residence (PSCR) 🤣

As someone who has lived in NC, I approve. Other recommendations: Hickory/Morgantown - bigger than you think, with nice downtowns and right near the mountains, without Asheville prices Winston-Salem - amazing small city, formerly the state’s second largest, with tons of great early-mid 20th century urban fabric Burlington - not bad for a smaller town vibe Durham - better than the R city Asheville is nice, but expensive as hell. Hendersonville is okay. Overall, North Carolina has tons of great small cities that sprang up in the mid 20th century and mostly survived the great freeway growth. It’s almost a southern version of Pennsylvania. Just stay away from Raleigh.

Doylestown, Pennsylvania. It’s the county seat of Bucks County so you get a bonus competitive congressional district.

It's good to hear someone on RU-vid who realizes Detroit is coming back! Too many people ignore the dollar amount and importance of investments being made in Detroit. They range from Canada's $5 plus billion dollars being made in the Gordie Howe Bridge and supporting infrastructure, to the much smaller (but perhaps more significant) investments being made in small businesses. Keep up the good work.

It's sad we even have to think about this. We need to move to poplar vote.

This one hit me where I live(d) twice! I grew up in La Crosse, where there are 16 blocks to a mile, leading to a wonderful urban fabric. While in middle and high school, I rode my bike all over the town, and I never felt unsafe doing so (or perhaps that reflects the fact that I was a teenager at the time). The downtown is charming and lively, although a couple of my favorite buildings were torn down many years ago. And a former student of mine, Ann Pieper, was the first person to redevelop an industrial building into a residential building in the 3rd Ward. She was and is a visionary, and started the process of turning a rusty hulk of a neighborhood into a fabulous place to visit and, I imagine, live.

NH does have quite a few cute small towns. Portsmouth, Dover, Plymouth, Littleton. All are definitely to small to pop up on this list, but all have walkable downtowns, etc...

Grew up in PA. I'd highly recommend checkinf out Bethlehem and/or allentown. Bus lines to nyc and philly (boo ripping out the rail drom philly to scranton). Having lived in Elizabethtown, id definitely recommend Harrisburg over york/lancaster for vibes imo. Either way both lancaster and harrisburg have amtrak to philly (and from there, the rest of boswash). Also, wilkes barre is a great college town, reading is a bit 'blight-y' but omg cheapest ever, but at the end of the day, why bother with anything else when you have philly?

Currently living Car-Free in Grand Rapids, MI! Definitely cold, but it's very nice and actually do-able. Biking and running around, exploring the city is a great time, and there's lots of things to do. Can't wait for Summer when the city really thrives!

Minor quibble: Prescott isn't pronouced like the name. It rhymes with biscuit.

Thanks for single handedly moving the senate in the right direction in 2022. Please do the same in ‘24. Please.

I really don’t care for Biden or Trump, so I’ll just stay where I am.

I will say that I massively agree with Charlotte, as no other city in NC really has as much of a urban core like Charlotte. Uptown is surprisingly very easy to bike through, and the Rail Trail, and LSCG really make it connected well to the rest of Charlotte's core area. Wilmington, and Chapel Hill are my two smaller town choices tho!

Recommended: 1600 rental lmao

Hey! Conservative fan of the channel here. Felt like I owe an explanation. Although I may not agree with many of the policy prescriptions of democrats, one area I feel conservatives are missing the boat is urban fabric and community building. If we want to have a more patriotic, America first movement I believe it starts with making places we can come together to be Americans, not siloing away and spending our time away from 3rd places. Tempe is great btw, lived there for college can't wait for valley of the sun video.

Uh, Decatur GA slam dunks this over Marietta.

The driftless area of Wisconsin/Minnesota is beautiful too!

Huge shame you skipped over Tucson's downtown, or even near there like 85705.

La Crosse mentioned! Hell yeah, one of the coolest little cities I’ve been to. Not saying much but it gets better Amtrak service than San Antonio and Austin.

No mention of proximity to Cheesecake Factory, unsubscribed.

Nevada is too expensive now

I feel like you really passed over New Hampshire because there are two massive cities that you ignored over Concord. Manchester and Nashua are so much better examples of cities in a much smaller population region like yes they are small but if we put them in Massachusetts they would still be in the top 10 biggest cities in the state and have a good economy of their own

Oh, you want to live in a suburb of Atlanta? Forget access to transit then.

No time-stamps? Really? Not only does this provide a worse experience for your viewers, but it’s bad for the algorithm

Choosing Concord over Nashua or Manchester in NH is wild. Concord is a glorified small town with one walkable touristy street around that circus they call a state legislature. 2 miles away, it’s exurban sprawl and farms. All of 3 local bus routes. It’s about as “urban” as Conway. Manchester and Nashua are still way too car addicted, mainly because the state government is as reactionary as you’ll find anywhere in America, but at least they have largely intact urban cores from the Industrial Revolution, like Lowell and Lawrence. If not for the extremely toxic politics, we’d have trains to Boston and this wouldn’t even be a contest. The tracks are already there. Commuter trains ran regularly 30 years ago.

I got into urbanism to be a contrarian and I'll be damned if I'll vote for the incumbents!

Las Vegas is trash if you have kids, poor/middle-class, and not a complete degenerate. Outside of that, it's great.

Am I the only conservative guy that's a fan of urbanism?

You mispronounced Concord, Lancaster, Tempe, and Prescott. I may have out-nerded you.

Love this. Apathy is such a seductive thing, and saying, "Both candidates are the same, so it doesn't matter if I vote" at once makes you come across as informed and rebellious. When really, you'd rather not care.

You can tell this guy a) voted for Biden in 2020 and b) has no problem with genocide in Gaza.

@citynerd Can you address the limitations of walk score and bike score (like it is controlled by a real estate comapny whose motivation is to increase housing prices). I know it can have some gentrification implications that people are worried about.

I really don't like the fact that you make it seem as if conservatives are all anti urban design, walkable city's and public transit. Isn't the point of this channel to convince people of good city planning which does not have much to do with iether party's view points? I am a conservative that agrees with most of what this channel talks about and there are many other conservatives that do too (yes most don't but also most liberals don't really agree with your Chanel iether).

not sure if id recommend anyone to move to Arizona in good conscience

You are aware that your vote ALWAYS matters in EVERY state. If every Democratic voter in California stayed home assuming their vote didn't matter then the Republican Party would pick up 54 electoral votes and would likely automatically win the election. I'm tired of the insinuation that a person's vote doesn't matter because the state they live in always votes reliably in a certain direction. It votes reliably in that direction because votes matter.

Shout out Michigan and there are other great mini-urban centers that are very affordable besides Detroit. Lansing, Flint, Grand Rapids, all have so much potential.

Quiet please, stop telling everyone about how cool Detroit is. Everyone hated our city for so long I want locals to enjoy its rise without outsiders 😂😂. If you do visit soon I’ll personally give you a tour of the less known incredible neighborhoods. Thanks for the great content.