[Python] How to replace specific entries of a Numpy array based on its content

So let's say I have a simple matrix made out of ndarrays (just an example of how part of the data might look like):

import numpy as np
a = np.asarray([['1.0', 'Miami'],
['2.0', 'Boston'],
['1.4', 'Miami']])


I want to do data analysis in this complex data set - I want to transform 'Miami' in 0 and Boston in 1 in order to use a really fancy ML algorithm.

What is a good way to accomplish this in Python?
(I am not asking for the obvious one of iterating and using a dictionary / if sentence to replace the entry) but more if there's a better way using NumPy or native Python to do this.

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