> The crime rate sky-rocketed, job rates feel, and everything went to pot. [0]

> 0: https://www.areavibes.com/keokuk-ia/crime/

Heh, I find it darkly comic that the livability score of your town is one point _higher_ than San Francisco's (as someone who's been here since my teens, a bit over a decade, and still loves it). I'm not really sure what that says beyond the fact that sites like areavibes have never been particularly useful, but it's interesting to think that the exact counterexample to your description of your city's pathologies curves right back around by at least some metrics. Again, taking for granted that this captures something useful, perhaps it's just "second-tier" cities like Phoenix that are making out well in the bifurcated economy.