I’ve spent a lot of time traveling across the United States. Probably more than most Americans. There’s a running joke among my friends that every time I come back I am convinced that whichever city I just visited is the greatest place on earth. It’s a slight exaggeration, but I have enjoyed virtually every American city I have ever visited.1
My experiences couldn’t be much different from the prevailing narrative about America. Doom and gloom. Death and destruction. The end of the American empire! Empirically, this is all wrong. America is the most successful country in human history. The American-led post-war international order has served but America, and the rest of the free world extremely well. This is why, as a citizen of that world, I’m always yelling from the rooftops: America is awesome!
Of course, a lot of people would agree with that statement, with a caveat: America is great, sure, but not the cities! The caveat is even more perplexing to me than the general idea of American decline. America’s cities are its source of strength. Not just New York or San Francisco, but Boise, Denver, Austin - I could go on. American cities are prosperous, dynamic, and (with some highly localized exceptions) safe.
Sometimes I think I’m losing my mind when I try to make this point. How do people not see it? Touch grass, people, it’s nice out there! Then I remember that most American don’t really spend time in urban areas. They’re mostly familiar with New York or LA from television, which portrays them as flaming hellscapes. Happily ever after doesn’t make good television, after all.
None of this is original. There are mountains of data to prove what I’m saying here, but I don’t have time to comprehensively debunk every misguided narrative. Instead I’ll share some of what I’ve seen with my own two eyes.
I don’t just spent time in the hot spots like Brooklyn and San Francisco. My primary interest is mid-sized cities outside of the coasts. There was a time in my life when I wanted to write a book about the future of the I-29 corridor. I spent a lot of time in that part of the country when I lived in Winnipeg. Minneapolis was my home away from home. Kansas City was my favourite destination (best BBQ in the world!).
I’ve had corn dogs in Des Moines, Iowa. Brisket in Dallas. Fried Chicken sandwiches in Nashville. Ribs in Memphis. Mountains of wings in Buffalo. I’ve had most prominent regional specialty foods in America, and I’ve loved nearly all of them.2 America’s distinct regional cultures have bread all kinds of culinary innovation that make the long drives through the middle of the map worth it.
Americans are also extremely friendly. My fellow Canadians are sometimes perplexed when I say this, since Americans tend to think of us as the friendly ones. We’re polite, Americans are outgoing. If you’re sitting at a bar in Canada, it’s a bit unusual for a stranger to strike up a conversations. In much of America, it’s just expected. I was in Pittsburgh one time and was griping with a friend about how we arrived late and most of downtown was closing. The bartender overheard us talking about a place we love outside of downtown, and he drove us there. Americans can be abrasive, but make no mistake: they’re usually friendly.
Now, at this point you might think I’m cherry picking. What about the Rustbelt? What about the scary cities. Let’s talk about that.
Most American cities experienced some degree of decline as “white flight” started in the 1950s. Several cities like Buffalo have lost half their population since. Buffalo seemed a bit dodgy when I first visited two decades ago. Now it’s an actual destination for a lot of my Toronto friends. I’m overdue to get back.
But I guess Buffalo isn’t what the naysayers have in mind here. It’s places like Baltimore and Detroit. As it happens, I re-visited both last year on an impromptu trip. I stopped off in Cincinnati in between to complete the hat trick of high crime cities. I started out with a ball game in Detroit, spent some time in Cincinnati’s charming Over-the-Rhine neighbourhood (formerly the most dangerous neighbourhood in America), and enjoyed some seafood in Baltimore. Couldn’t ask for a better trip.
Look, I’m not going to tell you these places don’t have problems. There are pockets of deep poverty and high crime rates (the overlap probably isn’t coincidental). But the downtown cores of these cities are all thriving. The social problems that they have aren’t that the city cores are failing. It’s that there’s systemic poverty in pockets of the cities that are hidden away from tourists. That’s a real problem, but one that shouldn’t scare people off from visiting these cities.
Honestly, visit Detroit sometime. The downtown core is filled with old hotels that are now fancy cocktail bars, and they’ve got every major professional sport right in the city core. You can walk from obscenely good Detroit style pizza to a baseball game in like ten minutes. Ten out of ten, recommend.
America is a wonderful place. It’s easy to take things for granted when you’ve been on top of the world for more than a half a century. But you should feel good about America, including the cities that people often write-off. They’re good places filled with decent people fighting like hell to make things even better.
Happy Fourth of July, America. Keep on doing your thing.
With the exception of one small city I’ll refrain from picking on.
With the exception of Philly cheesesteaks, which are just ok, and Old Forge pizza, which…I can’t endorse. Sorry to pick on Pennsylvania. I genuinely love the state!