The Cost of 'Cool'

"Lately, 'new Berlin' has become shorthand for an under-visited European city that is cheap, fun, and up-and-coming," writes Rogers. "Ever since creeping gentrification and a massive rise in tourism have thrown into question the German capital’s status of the world’s 'coolest' city, people have been racing to determine its successor."

According to Rogers, cities like Leipzig, Germany; Krakow, Poland; Vilnius, Lithuania; Belgrade, Serbia; Tallinn, Estonia; and Warsaw, Poland "share, to varying degrees, many of the elements that made Berlin famous in the 1990s: affordability, empty buildings that can be repurposed and a sizeable arts scene."

The problem is that cities, seeking membership among the ranks of cool cities, "are now engaged in an aggressive war for buzz and attention."

In comparing similar examples in the United States, and lamenting the effects of foreign investors in the real estate markets of such "cool" cities, Rogers eventually turns the article into a polemic against what he terms "neo-liberal reforms" and "liberalized purchasing rules."