I am answering as a young single black creative. There are only about 5 reasonable cities for us: DC, Philly, NYC, Oakland, Chicago. 2nd tiers are like Houston, Atlanta. Baltimore is on the come up too they're staying quiet tho. New Orleans is gonna be dope in like 5 years too.

SF is the most beautiful city. The entire Pacific Northwest is just mindblowingly beautiful for any east-coaster. We forget as Americans sometimes that we get to explore an entire continent with no passport. America has incredible natural resources - we definitely overvalue the Caribbean and Europe.

Chicago is the best functioning city I think (in terms of transportation, access to public spaces, food, sports, etc). Like if you could pick up Chicago and put it where Manhattan is it would be the best city in the world.

Nothing beats New York though. It really is as advertised. And Brooklyn is CLEARLY the coolest place in the country and probably the world. Not close. Living here you realize that Brooklyn Cool is like a $20B/yr national export.