One complex, multifaceted city cannot be understood through one obsolete dimension.

Big cities are now primarily occupied by the millennials, those flannel-clad intellectuals with nose piercings and man-buns and pretentious tastes in everything from restaurants to technology. Times are rapidly changing, and the elders who once defined particular cities are now fading to the background, making way for the younger voices to write a new era of history regarding said city.

Anthony Bourdain’s latest episode of his show “Parts Unknown” featured a trip to Chicago in which the city was portrayed as a gritty, rough-and-tumble town where emotions are scoffed at and dirty looks are as common as the trademark wind. Bourdain chose to present Chicago through the peephole of an old bar mainly populated by old men sipping dark ales with their should hunched over the countertop. Through the eyes of this episode, Chicago looked bleak. And, more sadly, mean.

That Bourdain even attempted to paint a picture of such an enigmatic city as something so one-dimensional is disappointing,  especially considering what a fan I am of the way he typically captures the locations featured on his show. His work is creative, unique, nuanced, and artistic. But, perhaps because I know Chicago better than any other city he’s ever visited, I can now see flaws in his single-angle methodology. For one thing, his fervent avoidance of the pretentious “hipster-tainted” parts of a city is becoming outdated. This is the world we live in now– it is occupied by twenty-somethings with outlandish looks and funky new ideas. It’s the future of travel, too, and although we will (hopefully) always have the ancient landmarks that make trips across the world worthwhile, we will also have the contemporary developments unique to each country that are brought about by the millennials.

This is something Bourdain will have to come to terms with if he wants to keep “Parts Unknown” up to date with what’s happening around him. Yes, there is a sense of concurrency in time, and the past will always be relevant to our present, but sometimes the present is as interesting and informative to point the camera at as the past.

Chicago is hundreds of things beyond gritty and windy and industrial. It is highly diverse, it is loud and it is home to some of the best restaurants in the world (and I’m not just talking about places that serve hot dogs). There are numerous neighborhoods, each defined by its own personality. Take Boystown, Chicago’s primary gay district, where the people are colorful and proud and different and unapologetically hipster.

This is just as quintessentially “Chicago” now as the Old Town Ale House on which Bourdain chose to focus.

Never assume you understand a city after examining it through one angle. There is always infinitely more to learn about any location beyond the surface level stereotypes.

Especially Chicago.