Why the best place to live in the US will be the Rust Belt 

Detroit sitting there like: c'mon baby, daddy needs a new pair of people..

I always thought I was attracted to neighborhoods like this because of the old architecture. That may be true, but a huge reason now is because they're walkable and human-centric. Not sterile and designed for cars. I hope zoning laws change and we can go back to building these types of neighborhoods.

For once I’m actually glad to live in the rust belt. You know it’s funny all the people leaving Southern California and they just pick up and go to another desert city. When will people learn not to build cities in a damn desert.

I also think it's nice that Chicago, Toledo, Cleveland, and Buffalo are all connected by an Amtrak route. Not as fast as a plane, but I think it's a chill way to travel. Have dinner and drinks in the diner car while watching the scenery go by. I mean c'mon who wants to drive if this is an option?

Abandoning Phoenix would do our society wonders

I'm from Colorado and I'm used the sprawling layout. However, this year I moved to a rural town in south korea where everything is built close together with easy access to public transportation. As much as I miss the freedom of driving a car, I also love how everything I need is a 10 minute walk away at most and I don't have to pay for fuel, loans or insurance on a car. I get more exercise and it's better for the environment. I just wish I could have my beautiful colorado mountains here too.

Interesting...I always thought we were called the rust belt because our economies (directly or indirectly) were base on the steel and car industries and since those industries were closing and rusting away, so it looked like we were. With some changes to transit made to our city in the past year and a half, I decided to use it for work and other errands (as much as possible). I lost 30 lbs in less than 3 months and leveled out at a healthy weight. There are more benefits than you think to the rust belt.

Just came back from Chicago, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Seriously thinking of moving my family out of Cali to Pittsburgh PA. Never thought much about Pittsburgh until me and my wife visited and surprisingly fell in love with that little city by the rivers in the mountains. Very underrated town and going through some changes for the better.

I lived the Midwest for 10 years, after moving from Asia. I really appreciate the people there, very hard working ,honest and proud of their culture. Did face some racism, but these were some bad apples.

I live on the west side of Lake Michigan and I’ve always commented on how “safe” we are from climate change. No fires, earthquakes, hurricanes, major droughts, or floods. The winters aren’t as bad as they say either.

As someone living in the Rust Belt for over two decades, I can say I've hated it here for a long time, but I stuck it out for so long because I want a head start on ensuring I have a sustainable place to live when the proverbial shit inevitably hits the fan. My brother spent everything he had to uproot his life and move out to the West Coast and insists that my family must do the same. And as beautiful as I think the West Coast is, I'd rather live in this godforsaken place than in a place that's constantly catching on fire and will likely someday be in the ocean, no matter how beautiful it is in comparison.

I was born and raised in Traverse City, Michigan and every summer our population goes from 15,000 to like 115,000. Just because the rich buy up all the housing up here for their summer homes. We have almost no middle class here and it’s hitting hard with businesses now. Businesses can’t find enough workers because of how ridiculous our housing situation is and my city could care less as long as they get more tourists (money). It sucks being in a city that cares more for the tourists than the actual citizens.

This is exactly why I think cities like Detroit located in the rust belt region will eventually make a comeback. I also think that since I’m from Boston, more and more people will flood west/north of Boston because of climate change/ higher sea levels.

I like how Alan labels Mississippi and Alabama as "Racism West" and "Racism East"

As a Chicagoan, thank you for being one of the few giving us a good name. All people ever hear is the crime issues which... I don't feel it's any worse here than any other major city. The likelihood of you getting robbed, stabbed, shot, or beaten seems the same here as any other sprawling major city and depends where you are and how you protect yourself and mind your surroundings. People are completely overlooking how beautiful and welcoming the city of Chicago and it's people actually is. Chicago is a big, architecturally stunning northern city with a sprinkling of southern hospitality. As a tourist you'll have a great time, and as a resident you'll become proud to live here.

I live in the Akron, Ohio area and frequently work all over Cleveland. I really love Cleveland. It has it's issues, but it has heart & soul. The people are great, the architecture is incredible. It's always felt welcoming in Cleveland

As someone who grew up on the Great Lakes, this is something I've regularly talked to my family about. We have a house on Lake Erie and my parents have considered selling it several times- so glad they didn't! It'll be the American Riviera of the latter half of 21st century as the rest of the country (and world) goes up in flames...

I moved Phoenix to Cleveland within the last year. I've made a point to explore as much as I can, and I can tell you, this city is one of the most culturally dense per capita in the world, between the museums, orchestra, parks, industrial history, sports... Plus, I park my car in a garage and take the train to work every day, and walk nearly everywhere (bars, beaches, museums, grocery store, etc.). It actually makes me a little bit sad thinking about how much has been lost over the past 60 years because of the dramatic population loss and not having resources to preserve some of the incredible amenities.

This channel has it all: Responsible Urban Design, Climate Awareness, Trains, and most importantly ~funk music~

Believe me, the best cities in the world are the ones with walkable neighborhoods and good city planning is so important. I've been to many cities, I think London and Paris do it best, but America could catch up if it wanted to. When I lived in Los Angeles I would take the Metro only a few times a year when I went to special events in the city to avoid traffic or parking issues, otherwise I took my car. Even then I would drive to a remote station on the Gold Line and ride down to the event to save on parking and to get to experience the Metro. I'm going to a festival at the Rose Bowl next weekend and I'm trying to decide how to arrive because by car seems inefficient. And it's safer when more people are out late if they're drinking to be on public transportation than driving cars. The best thing though is if you can walk out your front door and walk to a coffeeshop, pub, cafe, convenience store, bodega or whatever without having to get in a car at all.

Give these other cities some credit: Harrisburg, Rochester, Syracuse, Scranton, Erie, Detroit, Saginaw, Lansing, Philadelphia (you could argue it’s a rust belt city), Mackinaw City, Columbus, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Minneapolis/St Paul, Michigan City, Port Huron, Grand Rapids, and South Bend. Give each of these cities an electrified regional rail connection, and either a metro line with a robust bus network or a few light rail lines, and they’d be golden. The rust belt would prosper if people just gave it some love.

Canadians in a few decades: "We need to build a wall on the southern border! It's gonna be beautiful, believe us, eh?"

Just throwing this out there not as a correction but as an addition, but Tampa's growth post-WWII - like much of the growth in Florida's big cities and that of cities in other hot climates - is very much tied to the invention and later mass production of AC units, which really took off after the war. It's not just an interesting fact about how a simple appliance can have an enormous impact of the growth of cities but also is important given the topic of climate change. AC is both a vital commodity for hundreds of millions of people in hot climates AND a major source of greenhouse gasses. It's a potentially deadly mixture, as anyone who has read Kim Stanley Robinson's "The Ministry for the Future" knows. The reliance on AC is baked into the lives of a huge portion of people on earth, but they also contribute to the global warming that is heating the planet and could overwork power grids, leading to the shutting off of power to these units and subsequently leading to the overheating and death of millions of people in a short time.

If I hadn't been so angry at Ohio when I was 18 I might have stayed and ended up in Cleveland. It is a pretty cool place, all things considered. But I ended up over in PA instead. Its pretty similar at least. I originally wanted to get out towards DC because all the jobs I really want seem to be in the DC area, but I quickly realized that I'd never afford it. I get paid $20 an hour now and was able to buy a house this year near Pittsburgh. In DC those dream jobs want me to get a Masters so they can also pay me $20/hr. But the cost of living there, even an hour out from DC proper, is 3 times what it is here. I would like a more fulfilling job but I also currently like being able to live independently. Soo. All in all things have been turning out ok.

As a Youngstown, Ohioan I already knew this before watching the video 😂 We have all four seasons and we rarely get devastating natural disasters. You may get a mild tornado or a flood here or there, but no crazy big tornados, earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, or dust storms.

Speaking as someone who has lived in Chicago for years, I think you VASTLY overestimate the efficiency of the area. Downtown and the neighborhoods directly around it that you'd visit might have the type of infrastructure you're talking about, but once you get outside of there, it's just as guilty of urban sprawl and inefficient, car centric design as any of your other examples. Not to mention the highway system is HORRIBLY designed and far too heavily relied upon. While there are some main lines to bring commuters in from the Metra, there isn't anywhere near enough intermediate transport to get people from their homes to the Metra stations to make it viable as a primary commuter system, even if the system was upgraded to have more trains with better rolling stock. It's possible some of these issues might be tackled, but it needs a LOT more work than I think you're letting on.

A little disappointed you didn’t mention Milwaukee. Although it has a lot of issues with segregation (like Detroit and Chicago), the city has a lot of untapped potential and infrastructure ripe for renovation. It’s incredible to see how the industrial buildings here can get transformed into beautiful living spaces and workable environments. And to your point about Chicagos socialist mayor… we in Milwaukee had the first socialist mayor in US history, and had the longest string of openly socialist mayors as well. A very vibrant and welcoming city I think.

So, speaking as a geologist, there's a significant piece you're missing: the Rust Belt cities will all be vulnerable to *more* extreme cold w/ climate change, even as global avg temps rise, b/c the increasing instability of the jet stream overwhelms the lake effect. E.g. why Chicago got down to -60F (edit: it was actually 60F below freezing, or -27F) a couple years ago, & winters will likely keep getting even colder even as extreme heat becomes an increasing problem in summer. You're gonna see massive (>150F) seasonal swings in local temperature, which is going to make keeping all these cities livable a more energy-intensive & maintenance-intensive proposition. Also, if you want to see a Sun Belt city which is in the middle of rapidly retrofitting its sprawl into sustainable density, come check out Phoenix. Our per-capita emissions are already lower than those of cities w/ comparable density *specifically b/c* our local temps never get cold, & we're densifying faster than nearly all other US cities.

Something to note for Cleveland in terms of transit: They were the FIRST city in the Western Hemisphere to offer direct rapid transit service to its airport. Cleveland has one heavy-rail line, three light rail lines, and three bus rapid transit lines...it may not be perfect but it's definitely better than nothing. As the song goes, at least they're not Detroit...with its pathetic touristy People Mover

Hey everyone, long time no see. This one took longer than I would have liked too make because of classes restarting and because of dealing with health stuff. Hopefully there won't be a big gap like this again. Anyway enjoy! Also this video only covers the US, mainly cause I don't have enough time in this video to talk about Europe, but that can be the topic of a future video... Edit: small correction at the end. I'll have the normal RU-vid ads, but I won't ever have In-video ads (sponsorships). I'm not gonna shill for some dumb VPN or whatever.

There are two Chicagos. The South/Bottom Lake is “rustbelt”. The Core “Loop”, surrounding neighborhoods, much of the entire N/NW, and suburban ring is a different world. Unfortunately, like any large city, there are some violent pockets. Culturally Chicago is amazing. Hamilton ran here for almost 5 years, within months of Broadway. There’s a reason it’s known as the 3rd coast. Chicago takes hits politically, it’s highly Democratic in a Red Sea. Illinois itself is dysfunctional with ridiculous taxes. But the TOTAL cost of living here is lower than the US average. Undeniably, there are political corruption issues….but I will take that many times over the cruel, opportunistic politics of much of the sun belt.

I was lost during the transition but it made total sense after you explained. Great video.

the same people who can’t get over their obsession with suburbs and cars are probably the same people who travel to europe and rave about how beautiful everything is, not realizing it’s beautiful because of the fact it’s transit oriented and pedestrian friendly

Chicago is one of my favorite US cities. Cleveland is likely the best city in Ohio. I’ve lived in Buffalo my entire life and can confirm that it’s very underrated by many; that might be changing though.

Cleveland should do with its lakefront airport what Amsterdam is doing with IJburg! Extend the blue line light rail line through the middle of the reclaimed land and build TOD and missing middle density housing around the line! And also turn some of the lakefront into a park like what Chicago did with Northerly Island.

Walton isn't mayor yet. She won the Democratic primary, but there's a big campaign to get people to write in Brown (the incumbent) on election day.

"Wage Cage" is my new favorite term

I’m studying to be a civil engineer and I gotta say, I wasn’t sure about it at first, but your videos TREMENDOUSLY helped me enjoy what I’m learning, I’m thinking about going into the Transportation field, thank you!

the "wage cage" LMAO never heard that one before. i love it

Speaking as someone living in Michigan, yes, extreme weather events are rare, and natural disasters are almost unheard of here. One of the only things we have to deal with is heavy snowfall. Rarely, there can be intense snow and ice storms. Climate change will make those worse (more water vapor in the atmosphere). I am expecting that more people will migrate up here to escape extreme heat, drought, and hurricanes in the future. However, keep in mind that if you're anywhere east (downwind) of the Great Lakes, you'll have to deal with heavy, and occasionally extreme, snowfall. So places like Buffalo, NY have to deal with this as well.

The regions around the great lakes and Saint Lawrence river are clutch as hell. Harsh yet stable and safe climates and some of the most vibrant, beautful (albeit greatly misfortuned) cities, Montreal, Chicago, Toronto, Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Kingston, Minneapolis

Seeing this man talk so well about Chicago (my home city) filled me with some rust belt pride. Anyone else from Chicago understands Edit: people should really do their research. Sure Chicago is dangerous but it’s not even in the top 50 most dangerous cities in the us. By violent crimes per 100 people Chicago ranks 73rd. (WOW) so yea Chicago gets bad rep for being dangerous but other cities like Milwaukee, Cleavland, Washington DC, and Houston are more dangerous than Chicago but don’t get as bad of a rep for it. So in summery, yes Chicago has a lot of crime, however the chances of being a victim of crime in Chicago is very low. Especially if you stay out of the worse neighborhoods, and you have a higher chance of being assaulted in 72 other US cities, plus every city has its bad neighborhoods it’s not just Chicago. And if we include all the US cities with over 100,000 people (349 us cities) Chicago escapes the bottom 25 percent of most violent cities. I’m not saying Chicago is the best city in the us (Far from it) but I just think it gets a bad rep for no reason

As a guy who grew up in northern Ohio and moved to the east coast for college and work- I can say that people wildly undervalue how unique it is in world geography to have that many inland deep freshwater lakes. Sure it gives us Lake Effect in the summer and winter, but damn if having this many massive lakes in one place isn't unique in the world. The rust belt is there to begin with for a reason. I can't wait to move back. People don't realize how unique and special of a geographic feature it is.

As a Yinzer (Pittsburger), I love my city and think, like other “Rust Belt” cities, it is highly underrated and a great place to live

I was glad to.stumble onto this video. I’ve been telling anyone who’ll listen that if you want to escape the effects of climate change, move to the Great Lakes. We’ve lived in southwestern Michigan for a couple of decades, and it is one of the most beautiful places in the country - for 7 months out of the year. If you like snow, then it’s one of the best places, period. Temperate summers, beautiful autumns, late-but-wonderful springs….and horrible, long, gray, snowy winters (oops!). BUT, here’s a tip to avoid a lot of the snow and “perma-cloud winters”: move to the WEST side of the Great Lakes (Illinois & Wisconsin). Stay away from the south and east sides of the lakes. Why? Because the constant stream of cold Canadian air over the relatively warmer waters of the Great Lakes creates almost constant cloudiness and snow on the east and south sides of them. And depending how close you are to the lakes, you could get a snow squall line setup that stays over you for a day or two that dumps feet of snow on you in relatively narrow corridor. But that doesn’t happen if you’re west of the Great Lakes. You may get the odd snowstorm or two, but it isn’t a constant, weeks long event. The weather is a little colder, but the extra sunshine you get helps keep the wintertime blues away. Or do like we finally did when we retired - keep the place in the Great Lakes and buy a small house in Florida to “snowbird” away the winters. Before you yell at me, I put solar panels and energy storage batteries on our place in Florida (live off the grid!) and our car is a Tesla EV (drive on sunshine). It’s perfect!

I was shocked when you held up Chicago as an example of a well-designed city. As a tourist, I tried to take a commuter train from some kind of suburb to The Loop but it only ran like 3 times a day in each direction. We had to drive on. Very disappointing (I'm from the Netherlands). Also, rush hour is terrible, especially around downtown. But you're right, there's all this infrastructure that could be amazing if utilized fully. It shouldn't be that hard as long as the political will is there to make changes. The existing metro system is great but could be expanded much more. And perhaps higher capacity for rush hour.

What bugs me is I live in Vancouver. It's so weird. Parts of Metro Vancouver are designed in a way where you never need a vehicle at all while other parts are very much urban sprawl with lots of corridors designed around individual car use. It's so weird how there isn't a more unified design. More recent development seems to be going more for compact design with more of a focus on pedestrians but there's a lot of push back against that as well.

As someone who grew up in Pennsylvania, then lived in Houston far too long, I can attest to the constant soul crushing realization that Dystopian society was already upon us. The complete lack of trees and grass, just solid unbroken concrete for 100 miles in every direction is when I think our neurobiology definitely rejects the environment we built.

I've been telling people for years that Michigan is in a very strategic part of the country for the coming decades. Now if we only had more walkable cities...

really thrilled that pittsburgh is the first city in vid. i visited some friends there a few years ago and had a blast, its legit my favorite city in this county and im from nyc

I have lived near Cleveland most of my life and have felt in recent years that it really is the sweet spot when it comes to climate and the lack of natural disasters. Buffalo gets tons of snow! I feel so sorry for them every winter. I live in a rather rural area several miles from Cleveland, in the so called snow belt, and I feel like we get less snow every winter. Cleveland has its problems but we also have great cultural attractions (Cleveland Orchestra, Rock Hall of Fame, Cleveland Museum of Art), the lake, parks, and the second biggest theater district in the country. Oh - top rated hospitals like the Cleveland Clinic too.

Joke's on you, I fully intend to be a wild mountain man in the Rockies.

I really like both Chicago and Buffalo, definitely 2 of my favorite cities. Unfortunately a lot of the rust belt is in a similar situation to somewhere like Houston because the downtowns were hollowed out and turned into parking lots and post war development was mostly the same unsustainable suburban sprawl. It's depressing to see old photos of a city like Rochester since now so much of the historic walkable vibrant downtown is gone only being slowly reclaimed from cars.

Cleveland is ABSOLUTELY one of the most underrated cities in the US. It has its problems, but it’s culturally rich in a way people who’ve never been simply don’t understand. One of the best foodie scenes in the country, strong immigrant traditions, unique festivals, underrated natural beauty with a national park just 30 minutes away, lots of beautiful Art Deco buildings, world-class institutions like the Cleveland Clinic and Cleveland Orchestra, not much traffic, and the people are so kind, community-oriented, and determined to work together to make the place they call home a great one in spite of hard times. I loved my day in Cleveland and it’s one of the US cities I’m most interested in going back to revisit.

Houston used to have a dense downtown. It was destroyed by urban planners in the 50s

I think the issue with looking for a “climate haven” is that there isn’t one. Everywhere on Earth will be effected by climate change one way or another. All across the country from New York to LA, Miami to Chicago, will all be worse off in the coming decades. Granted some places will be better than others but for the most part that will be negligible. Granted these cities are still great places to live and definitely better than Houston or Tampa. But I wouldn’t bank on being able to move to Cleveland and be completely safe.

The answer is... Don't Actually Move to America, but I guess Cleveland is a good second choice.

When I was able to move away from Montana after a year and a half, where I lived through a brutal summer of unbreathable air due to forest fires, I considered a) moving back to Wisconsin/Minnesota or b) moving to the PNW. Both are places where I have friends and family, but I chose air and moved back to the Midwest, the ACTUAL most based region in the US. We got no hurricanes/storm surges, almost no forest fires, bearable heat waves, and actually somewhat-affordable housing.

My wife and I move to Cleveland in 2 weeks. This video is totally what planted the idea in my head

Applying to a few colleges in the rust belt (Illinois and UMichigan) and I’m very glad that their cities are walkable and made for people. I love taking public transit, biking, and not having to use a car. Cars are expensive, and not needing one for college means more money in my pocket for like…. Food and water lol

I've been a southwest Michigan resident for my whole life and I must say that this narrative around the rust belt being a "climate haven" is actually hilarious. You're definitely going to avoid most earthquakes, tornadoes and wildfires but if you're migrating from the western US where it is typically dry, then you're in for an awakening. We get lots of rain, snow, severe storms and COLD. It's conducive for living in but it has a lot of drawbacks. In my experience, it's cold and cloudy a majority of the year. If you have a pool or a boat, you're only using it for 3-4 months out of the year and the rainy, snowy climate doesn't do you any favors. Everything exposed to the elements deteriorates much more quickly than it does in drier, warmer conditions, and that is definitely the case for the roads (which often need to be reconstructed every 4-10 years).

Something I'm only recently learning about is the drying up aquifer(s) of the Great Plains (the area stretching from South Dakota to Northern Texas). So there is also potential for a water crisis in these places despite not being located in a desert. A sad reality but another W for the Great Lakes region.

I'm a lifelong Cleveland area resident but I have lived in Lithuania, California, Chicago and Cincinnati. I've also been around the world several times in my 40 years in business. As retirees, my wife and I are very happy living in an inner ring Cleveland suburb within walking distance to shopping and 15-20 minute access to virtually all the major cultural resources. After considering Lake Erie to be a cesspool most of my younger life, the Lake has really turned around with kayaking on the once flamable Cuyahoga River and commercial fishing making a comeback. Many Great Lakes area cities are very nice but , oddly, I think Cleveland has the most moderate climate.

As someone who has lived in Cleveland all my life, and have lived elsewhere in the States, I can say that Cleveland is an underrated gem.

Spent most of my adult life in Seattle, not a perfect transit system, but you could reasonably walk anywhere and they have a pretty good bus system. Live in Chicago now and my car failed emissions because I never drive it (passed after driving it a bit). Grew up in Houston, can’t go anywhere without a car, it’s virtually impossible.

Worth noting that no one in the world will "escape" the ecological collapse, food insecurity, human displacement, and extreme weather of climate change even if they are in a far inland zone with fresh water.

As an Akron Ohio citizen I gotta say Cleveland is pretty cool, the rail transit is good it has some spread out suburbs but the rail connects them (to an extent). The Amtrak service is hopefully getting an improvement, as I have heard rumors on it. Also I liked your maps

“Being able to walk down the street to the local bar and getting blasted with friends.” Preach, this is why I loved my college town so much.

I lived in the East End of Pittsburgh for 4 years. I literally never needed my car. I could walk everywhere locally. If I needed to go outside the city center, I could just take a bus or the "T" (the light rail transit system). Between the bus lines and the light rail system, you could make it pretty much anywhere in Allegheny County. In fact, I used my car so little, the battery would be dead when I needed to use it and had to get a jump to get it started.

The RCR impression was hilarious and watching you, Not Just Bikes, AND RCR among others is just a slice of every piece of great content I like.

I also feel like that, especially the dry southwest will have some serious issues down the line, I mean they already do but It'll only get worse. So much water is being wasted towards agriculture and the people there don't exactly live a typical desert lifestyle, with golf courses, and green lawns in their front yards. Once the water supply gets seriously limited, everybody will run for the hills (for example the rust belt region).

Correct. Enjoy the Dust Belt and Swamp Belt while you can (my chosen names for the southwest and southeast, respectively). - The Rust Belt was also because it was between the Minnesota iron and Appalachian coal - ideal location for American steel industry. - I did read an interesting article pointing out how much danger Chicago is in - the Great Lakes will actually have much more extreme variations in water levels than the sea (due to increased variation in rainfall). Chicago will definitely need to invest into flood control. - Michigan's big problem is that the utter domination of the auto industry for the last century has gutted public transit. We will need to deal with this but are making small steps forward - improved higher-speed rail links to Chicago, for example.

Man, this drum has been getting beaten hard since the oughts. Folks saying "Austin will be uninhabitable by 2020, buy a house in St. Louis!"

Shoutouts to Milwaukee, too. We've stroad-pilled ourselves rather hard in the 70s, but a lot of these 4-lane divided highways we shoved into midtown could easily hold streetcars, and in some cases *did* before we tore them out and threw another car lane in there. Waukesha County though, is unsalvagable. Oconomowoc is an utter nightmare that only the most depraved of masochists reside in.

The great lakes are a serious candidate for most geographically blessed place on earth.

Zoning laws are the biggest problem when it comes to walkability. The reason why most people don't have a convenience store near them is because zoning laws banned businesses from opening up in residential areas. This isn't freedom at all

Tatsuro Yamashita music in the intro? Already perfect.

Good video. I'm a Clevelander who moved back here from LA 12 years ago. Best move I've ever made. Lower cost of living, good restaurants, corner bars, and all the amenities that LA had less the billionaire BS: sports (NBA, NFL, and MLB teams), museums, a world-class orchestra, a very good theater district, a stop on most big-name music groups' world tours, etc. I never stopped to think that the reason I feel so comfortable here and uncomfortable in LAt is because of urban planning: Cleveland is designed to human-scale, while LA is built for cars. As a PS, I've also lived in Pittsburgh and Chicago for work. Loved both cities as well. Probably because, like Cleveland, they're built to the human-scale I'm used to.

I live a little north of Pittsburgh, went to Cleveland for the first time a few months ago and have to agree, very nice and underrated city

Wouldn't it be great if ALL moderate and progressive Floridians moved to Ohio, Michigan, and West Virginia, to secure non-conservative presidencies and 6 US senate seats FOREVER?

Holy shit, I’ve never seen someone talk about Buffalo’s city planning in a good light! I love it here and want to move back into the city. The biggest problem is that my entire family lives in the suburbs so I’d still need a car. Also, sadly, Byron Brown won the mayoral election. Fella hasnt done shit in years

as a European the only American city I could see myself living in (unless i was rich enough to live in New York or Boston) is Montreal

Well reasoned. The South West is becoming so hot and populated that the reservoirs cannot hold on to water. Desalinating and moving sea water will make water bills as high as property taxes, and the cities will still be uncomfortable five months per year. Not good.

Nice opening song choice of "Sparkle" by Tatsuro Yamashita, Japanese city pop legend. I live in Japan so thanks for that nice touch.

Walkability is the one thing that unites hamlets, villages, towns and cities. Even here in my million-ish population city I want to be able to walk to the store to get my food. I don't *want* to have to drive to do this thing that I have to do so frequently.

Have been planning my move back to Cleveland for a couple months. Will be there no later than spring.

St. Louis is up there too. Most of the problems here would be largely helped with more capital in the city which would come from more people. We are having more and more rainfall every year so drought isnt a big worry for us and our hilly geography keeps flooding to a minimum. If you like hotter summers and less cold winters compared to other rust belt cities (although it still gets down to zero degrees sometimes) its a great place.

Man I hope you're right about this. I been living in the rust belt for 20 years and it's been pretty stagnant.

This sunbelt migration has endured for more than 50 years. I feel it is time for a 180 reversal. I live in Austin and have noticed that the number of 100 degree days have stretched to nearly 60 each summer whereas up in michigan the number of days when it is biting cold below 25 have been greatly reduced. I used to live near Detroit. I hated to move but had no choice due to lack of jobs. Also their is an abundance of fresh water up there and people have underestimated the value of water until they have to ration. We are grooming a new class of professional workers who can work from home and generally live anywhere they want to. Over time they will chose areas where homes are affordable. They do not need to live near huge tech hubs anymore like Si Valley, Phoenix, and Austin. Young males will generally want to live in areas where there are more single women and tech hubs in the sun belt are not where its at.

I agree with you about Cleveland. I had the pleasure of attending a conference there several years ago and found the city to be very beautiful.

The Canadian version of this is kind of like my migration pattern - I was born and raised in Alberta (just north of Montana, Idaho) and moved to the west coast of British Columbia 8 years ago (beside Washington state). I can see Washington from the beach where I live. We are always living under the threat of a massive earthquake and torrential rain/flooding. Admittedly hurricanes and tornados are not much of a thing, at least. Sometimes I wonder if we will end up right back in Alberta one day, where the wind hurts our face but we probably won’t have a magnitude 9.2 earthquake. Mostly, though, people are moving to my home town of Calgary AB for the relatively affordable housing compared to places like Vancouver and Toronto. That being said, the urban planning of those Calgary suburbs is awful. They have so much sprawl and even built a “ring road” that goes around the ENTIRE gigantic city for your car. At least here in Victoria BC people tend to walk and bike more, there is more density. We still have plenty of car dependency unfortunately, though.

This video is basically everyone's immediate thoughts after watching a few Not Just Bikes videos.

I live in Vegas. I've been thinking of moving to Milwaukee, Chicago, Minneapolis. But now you've put Cleveland on my radar.

I love how you did the WInga Dinga voice!

Its crazy how unwalkable the USA is. It's almost criminal. From an European stand point, even Cleveland feels quite unwalkable. USA needs to up their game and kick regulators out who are allowing this car-centric type of urban planning.

Visiting Chicago as someone from Maine was so cool, I’m not in any way a city person but I really liked Chicago a lot. Aside from just being an overall interesting place (shout out to Myopic Books, the coolest bookstore I’ve ever been to) I was jealous of the public transportation. I don’t really know how you’d use that kind of service in Maine when our biggest city is pretty walkable and has a small population for a city (68,000 people), and when 61% of the population lives in rural areas. But you have to do so much driving in Maine, nothing is close together and, while I like a good drive through rural areas, it gets really old and alternative transportation would be really cool.

I was so happy you decided to highlight Houston’s unsustainability; I’ve lived there for basically my entire life, and since I’ve been saying this for years now!! You really can’t live in Houston if you don’t have a car, and since I’ve gotten to see that it’s not necessary for cities to be like that all I’ve wanted is to move somewhere with practical and effective public transit.

Growing up in Western New York, even as a young young child I remember talking to my parents about how I didn’t want to live anywhere else- we had the best weather in the US! Besides our historic snowstorms (which are only as bad as similar ones in the mid-west anyway) and the related 5 layers of spring/winter tat sometimes means snow in may and 70’s in March, our weather is extremely, *exceedingly* temperate. No tornadoes (despite the occasional warning), no forest fires, no earthquakes, summers rarely get above 100 degrees. No worries about rising sea level, and our freshwater resources (this I was awakened to in a college hydrology course) frankly spoil us more than we know. We’re used to just always having infinite, cheap, clean fresh water, as well as tons of glacial lakes for recreation (and wine-making!). At first someplace like Rochester or Buffalo might not seem exciting, but they are certainly fairly stable, climate-wise. And besides, if you dig a little deeper, you’ll find beauty in the regions around the rust belt- the lakes, the forests, the changing fall colors, the warm cottages in winter, the historic cities and locations, and a rich indigenous presence and history. I definitely would call our Rust Belt the most unjustly underrated part of the US. Even when I find myself struggling to be a proud American, I am always a proud resident of the State of New York!

Philly has great transportation, affordable, and you can walk to many places that you would need to go on a normal basis

I can tell you one thing, the sun belt will not embrace walking so long as the temperature and uv is high enough to make you start sweating within seconds of being outside let alone in the sun. Real life lore made a good video on the ideal human climate and ironically ,to some ,it’s around 69-71 degrees average yearly temp. I could go on and on about how northern culture and life differs from southern culture and life as I lived half my life (so far) up north, and half down south.