​This article discusses the different ways in which people have created affective links with cities, what cities offer for people to create affective links and how they are being presented to them. Taking the old city of Jeddah, now bare of its original inhabitants, as its starting point, the paper argues that in spite of many transformations, references to the old city are still crucial for the urban identity of many people hailing from Jeddah. In contrast, many New urban developments appeal instead by their spectacular architecture, promises of a new lifestyle, or indeed of environmental benefits associated with different urban planning. In this, they follow and surpass the model of Dubai as a particular type of hypermodern capitalist development which serves as a model for cities in and far beyond the Peninsula.