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Boy, that's a great list of underrated cities, so that makes this very tough!
I would personally strike out Memphis, Jacksonville, Syracuse, San Antonio and Portland, because although I know little about them I wasn't under the impression any of those places were hidden gems, and San Antonio seems to be getting a LOT of buzz lately.
That leaves:
Milwaukee
Cincinnati
Kansas City
Cleveland
New Orleans
Indianapolis
St. Paul
Providence
Baltimore
I've heard great things about EVERY one of these places, but a few truly stand out among the others as being the most underrated. Most notably: Milwaukee, Cleveland, New Orleans, Providence and Baltimore. I'll stop there, since I don't think I can winnow this list down any further.
Seems to me there are a few subcategories happening in this list.
Smaller northeastern cities:
Portland
Providence
Syracuse
(Underrated because they are overshadowed by Boston, NYC, etc., even Rochester to an extent)
Midsize midlands cities:
Kansas City
Indianapolis
Milwaukee (iffy, Milwaukee is extremely underrated in its own right)
(Underrated because the midlands region doesn't register on people's radar; I think they also haven't necessarily been "cool" cities for very long, relatively)
Midsize southern cities:
Memphis
San Antonio
New Orleans
Jacksonville
(Underrated because they're in the South, although I don't think New Orleans is that underrated)
Large working-class manufacturing cities:
Cincinnati
Cleveland
Baltimore
(Underrated because they are not as shiny and wealthy as some other cities their size)
The odd one out is St. Paul. I guess there's an argument to put it with KC/Indy/Milwaukee but I think it's too far north (not really part of the midlands) and MSP is significantly bigger than those cities. Of course the reason St. Paul is underrated is that Minneapolis gets much more attention. So St. Paul gets my vote because as far as I can tell it has the most working against it: coastal and global bias against the Midwest, the looming presence of Minneapolis (which of course is itself moderately underrated), and the illusion of unlivable weather.
If Fort Worth were included here, that would be a close second or flat-out tie for me.
Which of these 14 cities is the most underrated to you and why?
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- Cincinnati, Ohio
- Kansas City, Missouri
- Portland, Maine
- San Antonio, Texas
- Cleveland, Ohio
- New Orleans, Louisiana
- Memphis, Tennessee
- Jacksonville, Florida
- Indianapolis, Indiana
- St. Paul, Minnesota
- Syracuse, New York
- Providence, Rhode Island
- Baltimore, Maryland
Milwaukee isn't a splendid place, but it is definitely overrated. I also don't know much about Baltimore, and it never seems to get much attention, so maybe that is underrated, too, and obviously St. Paul is underrated because of Minneapolis. Those are the top three, I think; I haven't been to San Antonio(only Texan city I've been too is Austin), nor do I know too much about it, so I can't speak for it.
Baltimore for the urban lifestyle, Jacksonville for the family-oriented suburban one.
Baltimore is overlooked for obvious reasons and needs no explanation. I have no idea why Jacksonville is overlooked though. It seems like one of those "nice" places to live by those who prefer that life. But people always overlook it.
Maybe because it's in FL and typically people tend to visualize something different than Jacksonville when they think of life in FL. I'm just guessing though.
People often make fun of Cleveland but I always like this city as a visitor. Since moving to Cleveland, I have found it to be even better than I had previously thought. One of the reasons I moved here was because I liked the fact that it wasn't overly hyped and the people I met really like their city even though it was not really on most people's radar as a place to relocate. I had several reasons as to why it was my choice though and have so far not been disappointed.
I have found that most underrating or overrating of cities come from people who have never been there and go only by what they have heard about them. People can underrate Cleveland all they want, it's a great city and those who overlook it don't know what they're missing.
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