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being a philadelphia native living in st. louis, i will tell you with authority that st. louis is very similar in character to baltimore. many of the reasons have been cited by others in this thread. i do not get the comparison with memphis and st. louis. memphis is a smaller southern city with a completely different atmosphere. st. louis has a lot in common with baltimore, pittsburgh and yes, philadelphia. much of those similarities stem from the city's age. st. louis is older than the united states, so its character has developed completely independent of the rest of the state of missouri. it's the oldest major interior city, so it has a lot in common with its eastern peers.
Austin - Alburquerque
Baltimore - Pittsburgh
Santa Barbara - Santa Fe
San Diego- San Francisco
Houston - Los angeles
Boston - Philadelphia
Detroit -Cleveland
being a philadelphia native living in st. louis, i will tell you with authority that st. louis is very similar in character to baltimore. many of the reasons have been cited by others in this thread. i do not get the comparison with memphis and st. louis. memphis is a smaller southern city with a completely different atmosphere. st. louis has a lot in common with baltimore, pittsburgh and yes, philadelphia. much of those similarities stem from the city's age. st. louis is older than the united states, so its character has developed completely independent of the rest of the state of missouri. it's the oldest major interior city, so it has a lot in common with its eastern peers.
People in Memphis think of St. Louis as a very similar city, much more similar than Nashville. Maybe we just have a lot of Cardinals fans who like to think we're like St. Louis, LOL... I can see that that feeling is not mutual. Every time I take my friends up there I ask them if they think they're still in the South, they always say "well it still feels Southern" I can definitely see the differences between the 2 cities (architecture, accents, religion) but the average Memphian doesn't really pay attention to these things, so they don't think that St. Louis feels much different. (I will say that the people and their attitudes are similar.) So I wouldn't call Memphis & St. Louis twins, but if St. Louis had a Southern sibling, it would either be Memphis or New Orleans.
Three city comparison: New Orleans= Charleston-Savannah. New Orleans has a great historic district, including a market, which Charleston first made up. Savannah has something like that. Savannah has all the great squares in town, while Charleston has lots of statues. New Orleans has a lot of statues.
All three cities have large industrial areas. All three are very walkable. All have major ports. All have famous restaurants in their historic district (New Orleans- Cafe Du Monde, Charleston- Charleston Grill, Savannah- The Lady & Sons). Charleston and Savannah have just about the same size metro area.
All three cities are very much like each other, and all have good and bad qualities.
People in Memphis think of St. Louis as a very similar city, much more similar than Nashville. Maybe we just have a lot of Cardinals fans who like to think we're like St. Louis, LOL... I can see that that feeling is not mutual. Every time I take my friends up there I ask them if they think they're still in the South, they always say "well it still feels Southern" I can definitely see the differences between the 2 cities (architecture, accents, religion) but the average Memphian doesn't really pay attention to these things, so they don't think that St. Louis feels much different. (I will say that the people and their attitudes are similar.) So I wouldn't call Memphis & St. Louis twins, but if St. Louis had a Southern sibling, it would either be Memphis or New Orleans.
Actually I am thinking St. Louis has a twin in several regions. It's Midwest twin is Cincinatti, it's Eastern twin is Baltimore, and it's Southern twin is either Memphis or New Orleans. The reasons are that it shears some common aspects with at least two if not all of them. Mainly river cities, border cities, and history based on things like culture and/or religion.
NYC, New Orleans & San Francisco - the port city history, their early early dominance on their respective coasts, and their shared 'anything goes' and self-inventive qualities that are certainly a foundation beneath both their success and their issues. They are all constrained by geography, and the limits of that are plainly evident, though it also (at best) forces a certain amount of creativity in how a place can be built and maintained. And - they all share a certain degree of "We are what we are, and if you have a problem with it, go somewhere else."
Austin, Athens GA, Chapel Hill - University cities with music scenes that became famous at some point in time or another; wielding an influence that was unexpected given the size of the cities. They also stand as radical departures (in their local culture) from their respective states.
Santa Fe and Asheville - Pretentious, lots of artists, and lots of wealthy people with second homes. Affluent groovy. Stunning scenery close at hand.
Asheville and San Francisco - SF is a global city, A'ville clearly is not. Sf anchors a metro of more than 5 million, by contrast Asheville's metro is around 300K. A'vill doesn't have the ethnic diversity either. But their shared history of scenery, unique architecture (scrupulously preserved in great chunks of both cities), and a legendary freak-friendliness gives them some degree of kinship.
Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Sunnyvale, Seattle, Cary, Fairfax, Boston (pair interchangeably) - Brain trusts: brainy people, doing brainy things, living amongst brainy people, and often capitalizing on it.
Boulder, CO and Boone, NC - Rocky Mountain High, meet Appalachian Mountain high. Universities, Birkenstocks when warm, snow up to you eyeballs when its' cold. Phish tapes can be found.
Philadelphia - Baltimore
Los Angeles - Phoenix
Newark - Buffalo
NYC - Toronto
Boston - Denver
Chicago - Montreal
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