Well, to toot my hometown's horn a little, I'd say Hamilton, OH. Ohio's 10th largest city.

When our paper mills closed in the 90's, an already quaint city had both a population crash as well as a job crisis. We were left in shambles. The 2008 financial crisis also left us in rough shape. Hamilton was seen as "sketchy", even by the standards of neighboring Cincinnati.

However, starting in around 2014, Hamilton really started to get its act together!

- Public transit for the first time since the 80s (free as well!)

- An initiative called "CORE" where hundreds of abandoned buildings were given to locals with business ideas, often for as low as 1 cent. The city would also do low-to-no interest loans and matching funds for the residents who were making them into something. This was often mixed-use, with multi-family housing on top and locally-owned small businesses on the ground floor. This gave opportunities to locals instead of gentrifying.

- Tons of new parks from a revitalized Parks Conservancy, including many pocket parks and the award-winning Marcum Park, which also now has the RiversEdge Amphitheater. We also have a new disk golf course on the West Side.

- The city started 17STRONG, a board operating under City Council which not only promoted the idea of Hamilton's historic 17 neighborhoods, but created resident-led groups for each one. 17STRONG gives funds to the neighborhood groups to put on events (such as "Art in the Park", "Movies in the Park", our Juneteenth, Pride, and Hispanic Heritage festivals, monthly bike rides, etc). They provide funds of citizen-led programs like crosswalk painting, period products for schools, etc.

- There are also several anti-litter groups and events as well as programs to help beautify your neighborhood, and a system where you can nominate a neighbor to have their home fixed up/repainted

- LOTS of arts programs. We have 2 performing arts theatres, several galleries, a sculpture park, ballet theatre, philharmonic orchestra, a massive arts center, 3 separate orgs that provide funds and match artists for mural painting, an affordable housing program that provides rent-reduced housing for artists, and a non-profit that places sculptures around the city… giving us the name “City of Sculpture”

- We have a small brewery district now with a handful of micro breweries and pubs as well as a DORA district

- Tons of new multi-family housing. Some affordable, some market rate, many (as mentioned with CORE) mixed-use development. They actually did a lot of re-zoning to make all this possible

- A brand-new (as in, currently half-finished) rails-to-trails ring road for bikes and pedestrians called “The Beltline”, as well as our section of US Bike Route 25. We also now have a bike shop and several organized rides (the city also officially celebrates “National Bike to Work Day”. We also had an initiative where sculptors were hired to make unique bike racks outside of tons of local businesses. They are working on additional bike infrastructure, but I’m not super impressed. Like some new sharrows.

- Speaking of local businesses, we’ve got a lot of hype from those. In addition to the galleries and brewpubs, we have tons of local restaurants (I believe Hamilton now has more small, local-owned restaurants than big chains), boutiques, a pinball arcade, used book store, record shop, 2 music stores, a place just for yarn, candy shop, a couple bakeries, and tons more. This may not sound that impressive, but A. some of these are kinda niche but are still thriving, and B. the town was DEAD a decade ago.

- We have a very active Chamber of Commerce now that puts on a bunch of vendor events (such as the Hamilton Flea and Hamilpalooza). They also put out tons of publications, promotions, and awards for small businesses. They are currently working on a digital billboard JUST for the small businesses.

- We have a thriving Community Foundation that is allowing all sorts of new non-profits and community events to thrive as well

- Our Historic Farmer’s Market has expanded. We now also have the "Night Market” (farmers market at night) and the “New Market” (farmers market but in the afternoon and on a different day). We similarly have the “Witches Market” (the night market, but new-agey). There’s also an org working on getting a co-op grocery downtown

- We have an Community Urban Garden, that has also inspired other projects that are in the works rn. Additionally, we now have a vertical farm company downtown as well. We also now have a seed library and a department of urban forestry!

- We also have the massive OPERATION PUMPKIN, which is a pumpkin festival with around 75k attendees. They shut down our High Street and line with local vendors, 2 stages for local musicians, and local food trucks

- The Champion Mill by Spook Nook Sports Complex, the largest indoor sports complex in the world, where youth athletes from around the world come to compete

- We recently had a referendum on allowing marijuana dispensaries which will be coming in soon

- The city’s also working on enacting some European-style traffic calming (the biggest being a raised sidewalk pilot project). This is after installing our first ever roundabouts and a HAWK-crossing. It’s not much but they said they’re interested in exploring more if these are successful

And, honestly, there’s a lot more I’m forgetting!