The word “suburbia” tends to garner negative connotations. A sprawl of cookie-cutter subdivisions with a who’s who of chain restaurants, car dealerships, and outsized malls surrounding them. Bland, corporate, and without character, a sameness that breeds exclusion and isolation.

While there might be some merit to that long-held reputation, more and more suburban cities are shredding those stereotypes as populations continue to grow outside major metropolitan areas. Over the last decade, and especially since the pandemic, smaller urban and residential communities have instead become their own popular destinations, cultivating their own cultural and economic identities. They are no longer just commuter towns feeding their larger sister cities.

In an increasingly competitive landscape, suburban city leaders have achieved these distinctions in a variety of ways. They’ve fostered local entrepreneurship and small business, invested in education and infrastructure, and learned how to market their unique tourism opportunities, helping transform their cities into economic powerhouses while still maintaining their charm and personality. “The most important thing for communities to take away is to be who you are, celebrate who you are, market who you are, and stick with that,” says Tom West, the economic development director of Covington, Kentucky.

No doubt. This is a strong game plan to follow. But what actions have suburban cities implemented to pull this off ? Here’s a look at how three suburbs have successfully distinguished themselves from their neighbors.

Covington, Kentucky (Located Eight Miles South of Cincinnati)

“Spicy Mayberry.” That’s how West describes Covington, which sits just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati. It was recently named one of Money Magazine’s Top 50 Places to Live. The city, which has grown to around 40,000 in population, has preserved many of its historic buildings and traditional spirit (it even covers up to $7,500 in electrical sign restorations for its streetscape), but it also boasts a diverse and inclusive community. The city became the first in Kentucky to ban “conversion therapy” for LGBTQ youth, passed the 2020 Crown Act, which prevents discrimination related to a person’s hair texture or hairstyle, and published a Spanish version of its business guide, earning Covington a perfect score on the Municipal Equity Index from the Human Rights Campaign.

Covington targets four primary sectors for its economic development—micro-manufacturing, life and biosciences (Bexion Pharmaceuticals and Gravity Diagnostics are headquartered there), the tourism and hospitality industry, and office work, a growing sub-niche that includes many creative and remote businesses such as graphic design, video production, and commercial photography. Last year, the city provided $76,116 in incentives for small businesses. In addition to master leasing a woman-owned business accelerator and a facility for Northern Kentucky University’s entrepreneurship programs, Covington also pays for half of a small business’s monthly rent up to $500 for the first year, one of three incentive grants that have helped nearly 150 local businesses in the last eight years. “We want them focused on building their business and marketing their company, rather than trying to make rent,” West says. “We want to give them the best possible start that we can.”

The city is also committed to maximizing its infrastructure and tourism industry. When the IRS’s tax processing facility closed in 2016 due to its obsolescence, it presented Covington with a 23-acre hole in the heart of its riverfront district. To fill that hole and further drive the area’s transformation, the city broke ground on a redevelopment project that’s being called the “$5 billion mile” by West. The project, funded by a combination of private in- vestment, a $16.3 million federal RAISE grant, and $100 million from the city of Covington, will provide space for university law and medical schools, in addition to single-family homes and apartments, retail, and restaurants, “an entire neighborhood with the typical diversity you’d find in any one of our neighborhoods and businesses,” West says.