I have a cousin that lives in Duisburg that works in Essen I believe.
Both are kinda nice cities to live in, have some relatives of mine living there too.The city government try to green up the cities by greening old industrial sites and renaturating rivers and stuff, but the train stations there are kinda... Sus.
Then again, I am no one who can complain, Hamburg's Main Station is a giant drug den. Guess after experiencing 1st or second tier train stations in China, everything anywhere else become puny.