Working away in the UK a lot you can easily tell whether you are in a town or city depending on whether there is still hustle and bustle after 5pm.
Newcastle, Leeds, Sheffield, Birmingham, Liverpool, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Nottingham, London, Bristol - If you visit any of these, they still have bustling city centres, with big name brands, restaurants open, and people about after 5pm.
Visit places like Stockton, Middlesbrough, Blackburn, Barnsley, Preston, Mansfield, Luton, Swindon - places are ghost towns. Barely any shops open except the odd Costa/Starbucks with down and outs and druggies everywhere with an air of menace. In fact the further north you get, the worse it is. The North has well and truly being neglected and it is frightening how shockingly poor and impoverished Stockton and Middlesbrough have been allowed to become. Especially sickening when you see local politicians like Houchen and Clarke allowing the rich to become richer while poverty reeks across our region.
To say Middlesbrough is a city would be a lie and a complete joke. How can it improve? Maybe become like Salford Quays. Build a complex along the river near the Transporter with hotels, restaurants facing the river with a promenade to walk along. Build a new theatre like the Lowry, and build tramlines from a Riverside stadium terminus along the complex, up Albert Rd and towards Albert Park.