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Detroit - I've been there a few times and have never seen such a stark difference anywhere as when you cross 8 Mile Road. A mile north of 8 Mile can be great, a mile the other way is terrible. For such a large metro altogether, it seems a bit bland
Detroit..a bit bland??
-Come to Eastern Market on Saturday mornings from spring to fall, and see if you think that's bland
The Slow Roll - every Mondays in a different part of the city during good weather
-Come to downtowns - Ferndale, Royal Oak, Birmingham, Plymouth, Hamtramck, Detroit & Windsor and Midtown Detroit and Corktown, on a weekend night and see if those are bland.
Come during the good weather months, to our large regional parks, like Kensington, Lake St. Clair Metropark, Proud Lake & Dodge Park #4 where hordes of folks are lounging on the beach on REAL lakes swimming, sunbathing, boating, kayaking, jet-skiing, wakeboarding etc., - and see if the're bland.
The Beach at Lake St. Clair Metropark
Come on over to the Somerset Collection, and see if it's bland
Come to one of the games of the Detroit City FC, see if that's bland:
Oh yeah, and Jobbie Nooner is coming up soon. Come on up that day, and indulge.
Bland, come on now.
Last edited by usroute10; 03-28-2016 at 06:45 PM..
I'll also add:
- Bakersfield
- Stockton
- Lexington, KY
In Bakersfield's and Stockton's defense, however, they're in a very economically disadvantaged region of California. Lexington frankly has no excuse except that it's full of rural Kentucky transplants who don't want to give up their small town mentality; it's actually a fairly wealthy city.
Honorable mention: Riverside. In its defense, though, it doesn't have to punch its weight so much since they're in the L.A. sphere of influence.
As a side note: Speaking of L.A., whoever said Los Angeles is simply wrong. It is an indisputable alpha world city that, within a few years (if it isn't already there), will deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as London, New York, Tokyo, Mexico City, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. Its metropolis is already the 16th largest in the world. Now, L.A.'s urban form is different from these other cities, I'll grant that, but that's just a unique attribute.
Detroit - I've been there a few times and have never seen such a stark difference anywhere as when you cross 8 Mile Road. A mile north of 8 Mile can be great, a mile the other way is terrible. For such a large metro altogether, it seems a bit bland.
Cincinnati and Toledo - good God, both are terribly ugly driving through. Neither strikes me as a great place to live, though Cincy at least has better scenery. Most of Ohio in general is forgettable.
Raleigh - given all the hype, I expected more. It's not terrible, but overly bland and overhyped.
Knoxville, TN - It's not that it's bad, but it feels like a big town when the metro is well over a million. I lived in Des Moines, IA and although Knoxville is larger, it feels small in comparison.
Ah let's have a serious conversation. Regarding Detroit, I think that its metro area is one of the most dynamic in the country. Forget the city's museums, forget its theaters, forget its music venues, forget its sports arenas, forget its riverfront, forget its international border, forget its festivals, forget its casinos, forget its architecture, forget the areas 1500 lakes etc.
Let's just look at one thing that Detroit has: That is densely packed pedestrian downtown areas scattered all throughout the metropolitan area. Detroit's suburbs are not just strip malls, Malls, Costco, Target, Home Depot, Best Buy, and corner gas stations of generic suburbia.
By the way, there are many other cities with dynamic metropolitan areas. (Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis, Boston, San Francisco come to mind)
Here are just a few glimpses of 16 downtown areas around Metro Detroit: I'm not sure what more you could ask for. They are packed with restaurants, cafes, clubs, shops, etc.
Phoenix, San Jose, and Jacksonville off the top of my head. And before anyone jumps down my throat about San Jose, I'm talking about the actual city limits of San Jose. Being part of the Bay Area helps it greatly, but as a city itself I think it fits this.
I agree re; San Jose.
And (or but) the proximity to the coast (Santa Cruz county) helps it a lot too.
Memphis punches at its weight, nothing more, nothing less.
Agree with this. I think Memphis is a good example of what a metro area of around 1.3 million should offer. Louisville as well.
In that tier, Richmond and New Orleans punch above their weight and Oklahoma City below. I am undecided on Jacksonville and don't want to judge it until I've spent time there myself. From what I've heard, it punches slightly below its weight but not as much as OKC.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Port Pitt Ash
Fresno, El Paso, Bakersfield, and Lincoln come to mind. Really a lot of the CA cities around 300k to 100k+ would fit.
Those places aren't great, but are they really below what you would expect? I mean Lincoln, NE isn't much more than a large town. I know very little about Fresno but wasn't it once several smaller towns that decided to merge? Bakersfield is about what you would expect given its location and economic circumstance. A case can be made for El Paso being that it compares somewhat unfavorably to Albuquerque and Tucson.
Quote:
Originally Posted by EclecticEars
As a side note: Speaking of L.A., whoever said Los Angeles is simply wrong. It is an indisputable alpha world city that, within a few years (if it isn't already there), will deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as London, New York, Tokyo, Mexico City, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. Its metropolis is already the 16th largest in the world. Now, L.A.'s urban form is different from these other cities, I'll grant that, but that's just a unique attribute.
Los Angeles isn't everyone's favorite city, but "punching below its weight" is never something I would associate with it at all.
Those places aren't great, but are they really below what you would expect?
I mean Lincoln, NE isn't much more than a large town. I know very little about Fresno but wasn't it once several smaller towns that decided to merge? Bakersfield is about what you would expect given its location and economic circumstance. A case can be made for El Paso being that it compares somewhat unfavorably to Albuquerque and Tucson.
Well, I suppose it depends if you're talking about just the city or the city with the metro. From the city point of view, yes. Metro maybe, maybe not. But then again the question was cities, not metros.
City-wise:
El Paso is almost at the same population as Detroit & is the 19th biggest US city by population.
Fresno is in the same grouping as Albuquerque & Tucson, which people have already mentioned Albuquerque as one of the underperformers so...
Even though the population of Lincoln is similar to Pittsburgh, Cinnci, or St. Paul I tend to think of it in terms of a Madison type city & it still underperforms by comparison. Or maybe a Knoxville comparison, but people are listing Knoxville as another underwhelming pick too.
Just going by cities alone Wichita (same basic pop. as Cleveland/New Orleans) could probably be added too (although I'm not very familiar with it to make the call).
I think Detroit is going to make this list, perhaps unfairly, as it used to be so much more as a city (although the Detroit City FC pic above reminds me of small town high school football stands). Jacksonville is probably making it too since it is so spread out.
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