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I lived in Portland 3 years and have family who live there now. Its very overated. I feel people listening to all the hype about Portland would be disapointed. Its a small city great for a day trip enjoyable . I still go there it's just not as large or as much to do as Seattle or Vancouver kind of the little sibling of those cities. But as goes with all siblings they do grow up Portland still has to grow to become a destination. Even as a person living there theres not as much of shopping or dinning options it still has a small town feel. My family has to drive to Washington Square a suburban shopping area . Its where most the national retailers are and dinning establishments . Just to clarify I'm talking specialty retailers and dinning not to disrespect Portland . Downtown Portland does have a vibrant downtown it's just on a differ'nt scale think smaller.
Look, I'll be the first to admit that Portland is overrated at this point and has it's share of issues...but as far as problems go, food isn't really one of them. The dining options in Portland are way better than ten years ago, and while it might lack the big ethnic neighborhoods, we've still got a good variety of food options..
Washington Square Mall?? Really? What's there to eat---a TGI Fridays or the Cheesecake Factory? Even in my NE Portland neighborhood, I've got 3-4 excellent restaurants within walking distance. I mean the New York Times might describe Portland in slightly exaggerated praise when takling about our food scene, but it's not all hype--there are some good restaurants here and this is coming from someone who travels frequently to larger cities in the US and throughout the world.
Look, I'll be the first to admit that Portland is overrated at this point and has it's share of issues...but as far as problems go, food isn't really one of them. The dining options in Portland are way better than ten years ago, and while it might lack the big ethnic neighborhoods, we've still got a good variety of food options..
Washington Square Mall?? Really? What's there to eat---a TGI Fridays or the Cheesecake Factory? Even in my NE Portland neighborhood, I've got 3-4 excellent restaurants within walking distance. I mean the New York Times might describe Portland in slightly exaggerated praise when takling about our food scene, but it's not all hype--there are some good restaurants here and this is coming from someone who travels frequently to larger cities in the US and throughout the world.
Actually the reference to washington square mall was about shopping options. Portlands man shopping area isn't downtown but in the suburbs. Downtown has far much less retail than the washington square area and less options. But as goes for a downtown its still a healthy downtown just not the center of attention. More of a neighborhood shopping area the regional retail powerhouse goes to washinton square. And yes theres many local flavors and local resteraunts in Portland I just dont see it as a major draw as its hyped up to be. But its a great city just to much hype.
Jacksonville, FL is not underrated -- unless you are talking about murder statistics. Duval county has the highest per-capita murder rate in the state of Florida, a rate that happens to be on the rise, and that's saying something, considering that Florida already has a higher-than-average violent crime rate. Also, a lot of others on this thread have commented on the fact that Jax is spread out and made it sound like its a good thing. IMO, this could not be further from the truth. Public transportation is almost impossible to use unless one happens to live downtown, and since it feels like (and about as safe as) a third-world country , I would not recommend this. The city is so spread out that it is impossible to get anywhere without a car (and I like cars, but really, the point of living in a city is that you don't have to drive yourself everywhere; in Jax, you don't really have a choice because the city is so pedestrian-unfriendly and because everywhere you want to go is likely to be tens of miles away). Also, if you are looking for a vibrant downtown, then this is not the town for you. To be sure, there are the Jaguars, and there is the Times-Union theater, but that is unfortunately about it. And while the skyline doesn't look bad at night, it would be a mistake to actually venture into downtown after dark. See, the municipal government recently decided to save money by cutting power to the downtown lights after dark, their rational being that nobody was walking around downtown anyway to need the light. This is true, but as a friend of mine put it, "It's gonna turn into Gotham City from Batman Begins pretty soon."
SF/Oakland are in the same metro. However SF and San Jose are 48 miles apart, then you want to add the entire silicon valley to the BAY AREA and you start drifting 80-90 miles from SF. I agree with you that Dallas/FW is way too sprawled out at 12,000 sq.miles.Philadlephia is the same population as Dallas/FW but at only 4600 sq miles.
Dallas Fort Worth should not be considered one metro.
Washington/Bal should not be considered one metro.
and
San Francisco/San Jose/Silicon Valley should not be considered one metro.
This metro expansion is getting out of hand.
Sensible. Though ultimately it should be tied to commuting patterns IMO. If there is sufficient commuting between the two areas (10% is a good threshold) I have no problem with them being considered one metro area. I assume that none of the areas you listed above are anywhere close to that threshold, so I agree with you.
Population in general is meaningless. The metro area of Montreal is quite a bit smaller in population than Atlanta. Poll the civilized world on where they'd rather live. Charm, atmosphere, and aesthetic beauty are worth an entire book full of statistics.
Edit- I realize we're talking about American cities, but Montreal seemed to be the best comparison for what I was trying to say
Truer words have not been said. People on here obssess over the size of their cities/metro areas like you get some kind of prize for that. Bigger is not always better, especially in this country.
Pittsburgh: So underrated, most people don't even know how to spell it properly.
Maybe they were referring to Pittsburg, California(originally known as New York Landing). So underrated that no outside of the East Bay has ever heard of it.
Sensible. Though ultimately it should be tied to commuting patterns IMO. If there is sufficient commuting between the two areas (10% is a good threshold) I have no problem with them being considered one metro area. I assume that none of the areas you listed above are anywhere close to that threshold, so I agree with you.
are you kidding me? 10% that would be joining metros together for 100's of miles.
10% is nothing. The current threshold is 25%
Last edited by HtownLove; 11-28-2011 at 05:32 PM..
Pittsburgh: So underrated, most people don't even know how to spell it properly.
Actually that's how it was spelled back in the 1800s.... not that we're in the 1800s or anything
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