“In our fourth annual installment spotlighting the most dynamic cities in America, we cover places of enormous interest and impact to our audience,” Richard Bradley wrote in the 2019 Cities issue of Worth. “They are the places where millions of people live and work, raise families, invest, start companies, move companies to, engage in philanthropy and immerse themselves in some of the world’s finest cultural achievements—museums, music halls, restaurants, parks. We also cover cities because we love them; at their best, they represent the peak of human achievement.

“The past decade has been a period of growth and rejuvenation for cities nationwide. Why? The rejuvenation of cities is in part the result of long-term responses to urban desolation of the 1960s and ’70s. Another factor is the generally strong economy since the financial crisis. Immigration, as is historically true in America, has created an underpinning of entry-level labor in a very tight urban labor market. Demographic trends, including the ascendance of millenials with little desire to work in the suburban office parks, have played a role. And in places like Detroit, Milwaukee, and San Antonio, the private sector has helped transform entire neighborhoods.”

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Read on to learn more about the people and the cities defining our present, and shaping our future.