2006 - 2026: What are the most surprising changes to happen in major cities?

[Yuri]

Brisavoine once again polluted a rather interesting thread with cheap far right propaganda and barely disguised racism.

Paris is undergoing one of the biggest urban transformation of any city in the world, greening every single corner and taking away room from cars and giving back to people.

There are thousands of articles, YouTube videos and Instagram posts about the subject. People who actually like other people and cities are happy with Paris changing.

[muppet]

Originally Posted by New Brisavoine

London before Margaret Thatcher disbanded the Greater London Council. Even Paris hasn't reached that level yet.

Ah yes, pics of a binman's strike, well done.


Also under Thatcher:




property crime:



Inequality:



Poverty:




Unemployment:




No more social housing:




Govt spending crashed (this is the bit you need to get the litter picked up):




But yes, she did destroy the trade unions and stop the strikes. So yay!



Which is why it was the era of the yuppies and Sloane Rangers:




But also the punk era, football hooliganism, yardies, skinheads, race riots, the National Front, the Anti-Nazi League, Reclaim the Streets -all born from hard times








Ultimately Thatcher took the money from the working classes and benefited the rich, who boomed the economy for the short term. However, that came too close for comfort when it began to make the cities unliveable (thus exit stage right, the money). The final straw were the Poll Tax riots in the new decade, that ultimately bought her down, when the middle classes realised they were about to follow the same treatment.

Everything that followed, the meteoric rise in culture, liveability and attracting global talent, can be attributed to the damn city getting its own powers back.

Cities need mayors. Megacities especially.

[iheartthed]

I don't think I would ever have described Paris as a "clean" city. I haven't visited in a few years but litter and full trash bins were not uncommon at all in certain areas of the city. Perhaps it's worse now but it was definitely there before.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

How could I forgot this one. Yes, hailing a cab from an app on your phone to pick you up from literally anywhere was unthinkable in 2006, and it has pretty much demolished the NYC yellow cab industry. It's hard to get an accounting of how many yellow cabs have disappeared because the medallion count is stable, but many are not actively used. I would guesstimate that yellow cab visibility in Manhattan has decreased by about 70-80% since 2006

Originally Posted by 3rd&Brown

Is it though?

Spots that used to reliably close at 4 now seem to close at 2. Spots that closed at 2 now close at midnight, so on and so forth.

The most depressing thing about NYC is trying to order takeout on Seamless or Grubhub after 10PM. Like, excuse me? It's crickets.

I forgot to mention how the proliferation of food delivery apps has changed NYC. This is, obviously, something that has changed every city to some degree. Twenty years ago in NYC most people called in an order to a restaurant then walked over and picked it up. Or sometimes a restaurant employee would deliver within a defined geographical area. Grubhub and Seamless were still very, very early, and most people were unaware of them. The other big app delivery services didn't exist yet.

Fast forward to 2016 and the delivery app industry had created an industry of food delivery workers in NYC. People were primarily sending in their orders through their smartphones instead of calling, having the food delivered by someone contracted through whatever app. Food was being delivery by either foot, bike, or car. But it was still mostly a means to make some extra dollars on the side or in-between jobs.

Jump to 2025 and there are people who make a living by riding bikes around all evening to pick up food from restaurants and deliver it to people. There are now even daily e-bike rental companies that rent exclusively to delivery workers. Not many people seem to deliver by car or foot anymore, at least not in my area of NYC. Also, today the deliveries are mostly done by male immigrants who appear to have arrived in the U.S. within the last 5 or so years. Prior to COVID there was much more variation in the types of people who might be delivering your food.

[biguc]

Originally Posted by New Brisavoine

I don't need a 'Youtube algorithm'. I live here and have eyes to see.

No you don't.

[MolsonExport]

I was in Paris last summer. It looked better than during my previous visits (2014, 2011). I got around large swathes of the city.

Marseille...it seemed like parts of the city were getting worse, while other parts were getting (much) better. I spent a month in Marseille every year over a four year period. Wonderful, underrated city.

[New Brisavoine]

Originally Posted by Yuri

far right propaganda and barely disguised racism.

Originally Posted by Yuri

Paris is undergoing one of the biggest urban transformation of any city in the world, greening every single corner

If only! But as usual, you have no idea what you're talking about. It's been documented that in the past 10 years Paris has lost more trees than it has gotten.

A typical example:



And the new trees planted are young trees which do not provide the same cover and refreshing power as much older trees that they cut (due to poorly thought street works that cut their roots and fragilise them, plus rats proliferation due to lousy trash collection, with the rats also damaging the roots of trees).

Another cause responsible for the bad health of trees in Paris and the record rate of tree cutting is this, replacing the old iron-wrought grills that let the air communicate with the soil, with those air-tight resins that asphyxiate the roots of trees. Tree specialists have told them it kills the trees, but they don't care. If the century-old tree dies, they plant a new tree, and it counts in the stats as 1 new tree for greenification (even if it's a small young tree that doesn't have the same benefit in terms of tree shade and evaporation as a century-old tree).

Originally Posted by Yuri

and taking away room from cars and giving back to people.

Cars are not driven by people?

Originally Posted by Yuri

People who actually like other people and cities are happy with Paris changing.

You don't live in Paris and you use the city here only as a ploy for your little personal hatreds. You don't care whatsoever if the city is pleasant to live or not for local residents.

I live here. I don't give a damn which party is in power in the city hall as long as they maintain the city properly and make it more comfortable for people who actually live here, not people who fantasize about it from across the globe. And they fail miserably on that record. It's dirtier, less beautiful, less pleasant to live than it's ever been. Many people from the suburbs don't even want to go to the city of Paris anymore, they prefer to stay in their better maintained suburbs. Just ask Mousquet. That's a complete change to how it was historically, when the city of Paris was actually more beautiful and better maintained than its suburbs, and people would have preferred to live there if they could have afforded it.

On a final note: this forum is supposed to be about learning about cities. If you come here only to be confirmed in your bias, or to attack other people whom you imagine as your "enemies", and if you refuse to listen to people who ACTUALLY live in the city and know it better than you, then what's the point of coming on this forum?

[R@ptor]

FRANKFURT, Germany

I moved here in 2012 but still remember the city well from 2006.

The skyline would immediately stand out. In 2006 Frankfurt already had skyscrapers, but it still felt like a relatively compact German banking city. In 2026 it feels denser and more vertical. Entire areas like Europaviertel barely existed in recognizable form back then. The Ostend transformed from a rough industrial district into a modern ECB-centered quarter. Gallus went from working-class and partially neglected to aggressively gentrified. Huge parts of the city feel wealthier, cleaner and more polished than twenty years ago.

But at the same time, the city has also become far more socially divided. In 2006 Frankfurt was already multicultural, but the demographic balance has shifted noticeably. Many traditional German working- and middle-class residents were pushed outward by exploding rents, while the inner city became increasingly polarized between highly paid international professionals and lower-income migrant populations. In districts like Bahnhofsviertel, parts of Gallus or certain outer areas, the social fragmentation is much more visible today than it was in 2006.

The Bahnhofsviertel (the area close to the main railway station) is probably the single biggest shock. In 2006 it was already rough, dirty and associated with prostitution and drugs. But in 2026 the contrast became surreal. On one street you have Michelin-star restaurants and luxury apartments. Fifty meters away you see open hard-drug consumption, severely addicted people, police patrols and visible mental illness. Frankfurt became much more extreme in this regard: wealth and urban decay existing almost literally side by side.

The city also feels less safe psychologically, even if statistics are more nuanced than public perception often suggests. Certain crimes are lower than in the 1990s or early 2000s, but visible disorder increased in specific areas, especially around the main railway station and some public transport hubs.

Cleanliness is another mixed story. Some areas became dramatically nicer than in 2006 such as the Main riverbanks, parts of Ostend, Europaviertel or renovated Altstadt zones are objectively far more attractive today. The reconstructed old town between Römer and Dom would genuinely surprise someone from 2006 because it simply did not exist in its current form. But other areas feel more neglected than before, especially where homelessness, drug issues and overcrowding became more visible.

Culturally, however, Frankfurt became far more interesting. Back in 2006 the city often had the reputation of being sterile: banks, suits, commuters and not much soul. In 2026 Frankfurt is far more cosmopolitan. The restaurant scene improved enormously. Twenty years ago, international cuisine existed, but nowhere near today’s level. Now you find genuinely excellent Korean, Japanese, Ethiopian, Peruvian or modern fusion restaurants throughout the city. The cafe culture became more European and urban. Small bars, creative spaces and niche events increased massively.

[New Brisavoine]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

I don't think I would ever have described Paris as a "clean" city. I haven't visited in a few years but litter and full trash bins were not uncommon at all in certain areas of the city. Perhaps it's worse now but it was definitely there before.

Yes. Back in the days it was confined to some eastern working-class districts, but now it's both worse in those districts, and it has reached the wealthy western districts.

After I returned from the US, I lived at my sister's apartment during a few months in a working class area of the north-eastern districts, and it was okeyish, a bit more dirty than the western districts, but frankly okeyish.

Now, the few times when I return in that area, I'm always shocked at the level of squalor now.

Last week (or two weeks ago), they even reported about employees in the local supermarket near her apartment where I used to shop and which was quite a good supermarket, so they reported about employees in that supermarket going on strike due to insecurity and the supermarket having fallen down the ladders.

Some people posted this picture of the strike, and I was frankly shocked, because in my memory it was a gentrifying area, and the supermarket was perfectly neat, and now look how it has become:



And now the dirtiness has reached even the wealthiest western arrondissements. Their level of dirtiness now is slightly worse than the working-class area where my sister used to live when I returned from the US (but whenever I cross the line and go east of Paris the contrast is so shocking that the western districts, despite being far dirtier and less well maintained than in the past, are still incomparably better than the eastern districts).

Where you have well maintained areas (or just normally maintained areas worthy of a developed country) is in the suburban municipalities, most of them (like 80%+ let's say). I'm more and more tempted to move to the suburbs, like many inner Parisians (200,000 have left in the past 10 years), but so far I remain in the city of Paris proper because it's more centrally located and I don't want to waste too much time in public transportation. But each year that passes frankly makes you think about moving, and LOTS of Parisians are having the same thoughts.

I had a cousin who lived in Boulogne-Billancourt, and I used to think "Gosh, it's so far away, I could never live there, and it's not as pretty as Paris proper". And now I go to Boulogne-Billancourt and I'm astonished to see how well maintained the place is compared to how the city of Paris has become. I even recorded a short video a while ago, but cannot post it here because the forum does not have Twitter-video embedding. When I posted the video on Twitter (and it was just a video showing the corner of two commercial streets in the old city center of Boulogne), I had many reactions from Parisians who couldn't believe how clean and tidy it was compared to the city of Paris.

[New Brisavoine]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

I was in Paris last summer. It looked better than during my previous visits (2014, 2011). I got around large swathes of the city.

Paris last summer, when my mom came to visit:

Rue Royale, the one high-end luxury shopping street, during opening hours (whereas trash cans used to be collected in the wee hours until 10 years ago, but now they come on purpose in the afternoon, with the trash cans staying on the sidewalks many hours during the day):





Same spot in 2014:



Rue Royale again last summer:



In 2014:



Place de la Concorde last summer:



In 2014:



Hôtel de la Marine last summer:



In 2014:



And it's like that pretty much everywhere: lack of supervision of works by city authorities, lack of care for heritage and monuments, lack of a sense of beauty. Just a general philistine attitude by city authorities.

Oh, and just for context: NO, it's not some temporary works. It's non-stop works all year long, due to lack of supervision, and lack of interest in having clean and tidy streets. I haven't seen Rue Royale and Place de la Concorde in pristine conditions and without a clutter of work palissades, materials, and trash cans in years now (probably not since 2014 or 2015).

[jmecklenborg]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Fast forward to 2016 and the delivery app industry had created an industry of food delivery workers in NYC. People were primarily sending in their orders through their smartphones instead of calling, having the food delivered by someone contracted through whatever app.

The types of food that people are getting delivered has expanded, to the detriment of pizza and subs. People, for reasons that don't make any sense to me, don't seem to mind overpaying for soggy 45-minute old Wendy's or Taco Bell to be delivered. The doordash/uber eats drivers often double park in the city and cause significant traffic backups. They often drive around with their girlfriend/boyfriend in the car and sometimes their kid. I have seen people have their 8 year-old kid do the delivery to try to elicit sympathy tips.

Go into hospitals, apartment buildings, and any large workplace and you will see forgotten food deliveries rotting near the entrance. People sit around and wonder why Americans are broke when you can quite clearly see examples of people paying over $20 for lunch and then not even eating it. I've only had food delivered 4-5 times in my entire life and it was either because I was sick or because I was unexpectedly working OT. Meanwhile, many people are getting food delivered 4-5 times per week.

[craigs]

One notable change in Los Angeles over the last 20 to 25 years is the significant improvement in the city's air quality. The region still has a way to go, but there are far fewer smoggy days than in the past.

[jmecklenborg]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Also, today the deliveries are mostly done by male immigrants who appear to have arrived in the U.S. within the last 5 or so years. Prior to COVID there was much more variation in the types of people who might be delivering your food.

Your comment reminds me of a NY Times reporter who recently visited Montana or Idaho and was shocked to see white people working as maids in chain hotels.

In the Midwest, new immigrants have moved almost entirely to the suburbs, not the core cities. Suburban e-commerce warehouses are now staffed by armies of people from Africa, Asia, Middle East, Mexico, etc. These people rarely come into the cities, so the city residents often don't even know these people are around.

This is a complete inversion from previous immigrant waves when they typically settled in specific old city neighborhoods. Now the immigrant groups are often mixed together in 1960s/70s apartment complexes.

[niwell]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Fast forward to 2016 and the delivery app industry had created an industry of food delivery workers in NYC. People were primarily sending in their orders through their smartphones instead of calling, having the food delivered by someone contracted through whatever app. Food was being delivery by either foot, bike, or car. But it was still mostly a means to make some extra dollars on the side or in-between jobs.

Jump to 2025 and there are people who make a living by riding bikes around all evening to pick up food from restaurants and deliver it to people. There are now even daily e-bike rental companies that rent exclusively to delivery workers. Not many people seem to deliver by car or foot anymore, at least not in my area of NYC. Also, today the deliveries are mostly done by male immigrants who appear to have arrived in the U.S. within the last 5 or so years. Prior to COVID there was much more variation in the types of people who might be delivering your food.

This is very similar to Toronto. Most food delivery in the central areas of the city are done by e-bike now and quite frankly they can be a menace. As someone who mostly commutes by cycling they are extremely unpredictable and create dangerous situations with pedestrians and cars all the time. I blame the apps as much if not more than the drivers due to the expectations they create though.

Many if not most of the delivery drivers live in extremely poor conditions centered on Brampton which is heavily South Asian that have been split up into (illegal) apartments housing multiple people per room. Our regional transit agency has had to add dedicated bicycle cars on GO trains on the Kitchener line (which goes to Brampton) to accommodate this, and the TTC has banned e-bikes on trains during winter due to the risk of fire.

We were already drastically cutting down on uber eats post-COVID due to cost but the current situation has enforced this even more.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by jmecklenborg

In the Midwest, new immigrants have moved almost entirely to the suburbs, not the core cities. .

You don't spend much tome in Chicago, do you?

[JManc]

Originally Posted by craigs

One notable change in Los Angeles over the last 20 to 25 years is the significant improvement in the city's air quality. The region still has a way to go, but there are far fewer smoggy days than in the past.

Booo! No more dystopian depictions of smog choked LA in movies.

[Bonsai Tree]

Originally Posted by jmecklenborg

In the Midwest, new immigrants have moved almost entirely to the suburbs, not the core cities. Suburban e-commerce warehouses are now staffed by armies of people from Africa, Asia, Middle East, Mexico, etc. These people rarely come into the cities, so the city residents often don't even know these people are around.

I'm not even sure this is true in general. I'd be curious what experience you are drawing from to gather this? I've been to a number of midwest cities and doesn't seem like this rings true.

Especially for Chicago, as Steely already mentioned.

[jmecklenborg]

Originally Posted by Bonsai Tree

I'm not even sure this is true in general. I'd be curious what experience you are drawing from to gather this?

I've done IT and other types of work in warehouses and manufacturing plants for many years and both the floor and technical workforces of these places are coming to be dominated by foreign labor, be it unskilled on the floor or skilled H1-B people doing the office/technical work. Some of these places are like 90% foreign labor (all levels) out of several thousand employees. I've witnessed some pretty off-the-wall human resources episodes at these places that simply aren't in the national conversation because most of the people doing the talking are well insulated from working class worksites.

One thing that happened two years ago that took me totally by surprise was a large group of Africans who took a liking to the county fair in rural Kentucky and had started making a big deal out of it. They loved the demolition derby, the tractor pull, the animals - everything. They were talking about it for weeks ahead of time and then a couple of them went to it every day before work (night guys) or after work (day guys). A couple of these guys were old and wore traditional clothing all the time so I assume that they showed up to the county fair dressed that way.

[MolsonExport]

Interesting…for a first post.
Deja vu

[Bailey]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Interesting…for a first post.
Deja vu

Looks like you've deleted that post but I read it and as a native Houstonian, I agree. Not sure how this city ever puts itself back together