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Pittsburgh. It definitely gets a solid amount of love on urbanity-oriented forums such as this, but IRL, no one talks about it that positively and many people still see it as a crime ridded dump in the middle of the Rustbelt. In fact, I'd go ahead and put Philly in the same category. Both PA cities don't get a lot of love in real life.
Austin, I hear positive remarks in and outside of urbanity forums.
Which cities have the biggest gap between the way they’re generally perceived, and the way they are perceived on this site?
I’m leaning towards Pittsburgh and Austin, going in different directions.
Good thread. Are you implying Pittsburgh is perceived positively here but negative in the "real world?" Austin is pretty well liked in the real world but hated or minimized here, so I agree with that.
Detroit and really other Rust Belt cities get their share of antagonists on here, but usually on their local forums.
I think the only thing that really gets "romanticized" about them are their built environment and relative affordability while still having some walkable neighborhoods that are viable, but they also have their share of people that aren't fans of them or are indifferent.
I do also think that people assume that they are all still uniformly run down or strictly industrial, when that is also further from the truth.
Yeah I lol'd at that post. Not sure what forum people read.
I don't know about cities, but people on here have made wildly inaccurate comments about New England.
There was a thread a long time ago where posters were going on about Connecticut being full of villages, hamlets and forests and for the most part being largely devoid of the sprawl that exists throughout vasts parts of this great land. A poster who grew up there had to chime in and inform everyone that Connecticut in fact has a great deal of tract housing and a significant number of burnt out, post-industrial cities.
The New Englanders on this site tend to be really sensitive, and visitors to New England on this site tend to only visit the quaint parts.
Agreed 100%. I personally value urbanity, walkability, mixed-use zoning, etc.
Most Americans? As long as they can drive their SUV's to Walmart, work, and Applebee's in a relatively brief amount of time they're happy campers.
As such this forum heavily tilts towards favoring historic pre-automobile cities like Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, NYC, etc. while disproportionately slamming Phoenix, Charlotte, Houston, etc. Meanwhile the "reality" is that far, far more people are moving to the sprawling haphazard Sunbelt cities while places like Pittsburgh continue to empty out showing most couldn't care less about walkability.
Teaches you a lot about America, lol. I do agree with your assessment. There is only a small percentage of American cities that provide unique walk-able, urban, historic and architecturally significant qualities, and sadly those qualities aren't on many Americans radars.
My personal opinion, I have yet to see any appeal to a city like Charlotte, yet people keep moving there. I'm sure corporate relocation has something to do with it, but I would never even consider most US cities unless there was a once in a lifetime job opportunity.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ant131531
Pittsburgh. It definitely gets a solid amount of love on urbanity-oriented forums such as this, but IRL, no one talks about it that positively and many people still see it as a crime ridded dump in the middle of the Rustbelt. In fact, I'd go ahead and put Philly in the same category. Both PA cities don't get a lot of love in real life.
Austin, I hear positive remarks in and outside of urbanity forums.
I think Philadelphia certainly is underappreciated in real life for what it offers, people on here generally give it positive feedback. I think Pittsburgh falls into the same category for your mid-sized US cities.
Good thread. Are you implying Pittsburgh is perceived positively here but negative in the "real world?" Austin is pretty well liked in the real world but hated here, so I agree with that.
Austin seems to have a bit of polarization. Some see as ideal others don't see the allure.
I think a lot of this may be age and preference.
Austin is an interesting smaller sting but growing rapidly place. I personally see it as largely loved by a post college where it affords an extended slightly grown up party seen with some interesting sort of eclectic stuff. The food is good but not amazing but a worthy eating town
personally on the main bar strip or drinking craft beer/cocktails in a converted gas station while interesting are not what makes a full great place to me.
It does have the hill country but I don't find that all that different from so many areas, it may be more different for Texas. I would actually say western burbs of NYC and Philly are prettier and more rolling in fact as one example
I like Austin but do believe its sort of overrated by many and misses on a lot still
it also has for to much suburban apartments built sort of close to the city and sort of urban its not a walkable place which no place has to be but Austin isn't all that urban or walkable sans a very small portion of it
again I like Austin but don't see it as some panacea others make it out to be I think many seeing it that way may be in their 20s or early 30s
its growing and attracting jobs which is a great thing, it seems to be struggling with its growth and for me still lacks a full compliment of big city offerings
Good thread. Are you implying Pittsburgh is perceived positively here but negative in the "real world?" Austin is pretty well liked in the real world but hated or minimized here, so I agree with that.
Exactly! FWIW, I think the C-D perception of Pittsburgh is fairly close to reality though. I haven’t visited Austin in over a decade, but I suspect C-D is wrong about Austin.
Austin seems to have a bit of polarization. Some see as ideal others don't see the allure.
I think a lot of this may be age and preference.
Austin is an interesting smaller sting but growing rapidly place. I personally see it as largely loved by a post college where it affords an extended slightly grown up party seen with some interesting sort of eclectic stuff. The food is good but not amazing but a worthy eating town
personally on the main bar strip or drinking craft beer/cocktails in a converted gas station while interesting are not what makes a full great place to me.
It does have the hill country but I don't find that all that different from so many areas, it may be more different for Texas. I would actually say western burbs of NYC and Philly are prettier and more rolling in fact as one example
I like Austin but do believe its sort of overrated by many and misses on a lot still
it also has for to much suburban apartments built sort of close to the city and sort of urban its not a walkable place which no place has to be but Austin isn't all that urban or walkable sans a very small portion of it
again I like Austin but don't see it as some panacea others make it out to be I think many seeing it that way may be in their 20s or early 30s
its growing and attracting jobs which is a great thing, it seems to be struggling with its growth and for me still lacks a full compliment of big city offerings
yeah, I think there's a lot of mean spirited hate from CDers who live in cities that are similar to Austin in size, or are Texans who hate the hype Austin gets, or cities that don't grow as fast. Ever notice, nobody really defends Austin here? I'm like the only one and I don't even live there. And Austinites have never claimed that their city is some urban oasis. They acknowledge the sprawl.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gladhands
Exactly! FWIW, I think the C-D perception of Pittsburgh is fairly close to reality though. I haven’t visited Austin in over a decade, but I suspect C-D is wrong about Austin.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SteelCityRising
Agreed 100%. I personally value urbanity, walkability, mixed-use zoning, etc.
Most Americans? As long as they can drive their SUV's to Walmart, work, and Applebee's in a relatively brief amount of time they're happy campers.
As such this forum heavily tilts towards favoring historic pre-automobile cities like Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, NYC, etc. while disproportionately slamming Phoenix, Charlotte, Houston, etc. Meanwhile the "reality" is that far, far more people are moving to the sprawling haphazard Sunbelt cities while places like Pittsburgh continue to empty out showing most couldn't care less about walkability.
1. When you have kids, walkability isn't quite as important.
2. Weather and jobs. More jobs in the south and most prefer that weather.
3. I'm a huge fan of Pittsburgh
If you read many posts on CD you would get the impression the only people who live here are Pablo Escobar’s descendants, fast food workers, everyone only speaks Spanish, the vast majority of nicer area, of which there are many, condos and homes sit vacant 10 months of the year, and the summers are like The Forbidden Zone from Planet of the Apes.
This.
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