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Utica NY
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I've noticed a lot of talk on here about Utica, NY. Family trip to Maine one summer back in maybe the mid 90s. We ended up spending the night in Utica. I was maybe 14 at the time. Even then I took one look around Utica and was like man this place is creepy. Like literally it was July and the whole city looked like it was late October.
Those plantation houses with giant 2nd floor covered porches wrapped around the building are so cringy. I see them on zillow in Nashville also.
The old US Customs building in downtown Charleston was originally the slave auction block. It's super cringe worthy to walk the steps of the building knowing full well that this is where humans sold other humans.
Marietta, Ohio fits my idea of creepy/eerie. Just felt somewhat forgotten, stuck in the past. Plus I was getting some real "outsiders aren't welcome 'round here" vibes my entire time there (about 4 days).
For me it was Charleston, IL, first and foremost. It spooked me the minute I crossed the city limits. It felt like the worst of both worlds between a Chicago suburb and a hick town; nothing like I expected a college town to be like. Just lots of fast food chains and liquor stores; roads with no streetlights or sidewalks; a downtown that time forgot, with boarded-up windows and unmaintained buildings; no history in sight except for the city hall (or maybe the courthouse), despite Charleston growing up in the Age of Rail; and a general sense of dreariness that's hard to put into words. If you saw the movie "Straw Dogs" (2011) and the town it was set in, that's what Charleston felt like. I spent a little under two days there, to visit a buddy from high school who went to EIU. The best part of my visit was getting onto I-57 toward Chicago.
I had a similar negative reaction to Los Angeles. The whole city felt unwelcoming and offputting. Granted, I spent only 45 minutes there, while transiting from LAX to Port of Long Beach, to get on my cruise ship, and back to LAX after the cruise. But it felt clear beyond clear that I was not wanted there. Imagine the horror movie trope with the words "get out!" scribbled in red paint on a white wall; yeah, like that.
Conversely, I got overwhelmingly positive vibes from New Orleans and from New York. They felt semi-welcoming and laid-back, something like "Come in, take a load off, and enjoy what we have to offer; just remember that we're not gonna hold your hand." I had a good time in those cities, and would like to visit again someday.
Charleston I think did have one good small-ish record/CD store in town. But yeah you are right it didn't seem as vibrant for a Midwest small college town, vs. say even like others like DeKalb, IL, or Bowling Green, OH. Or say like Carbondale, IL(Southern Illinois University), which has a litte more going on. Be thankful you didn't visit Macomb (home of Western Illinois University), which also seemed slow as well. And to me, I think Macomb was even slower. Also, to me it seems like a nice thing I noticed there was a separated bike path between Mattoon and Charleston.
Although to be honest I wouldn't expect much, out of a town like Charleston, Macomb, etc. Recently I discovered this youtube channel called Nostalgia Tours, which does dive into statistics, an analysis, and a drive around various parts of (mostly, for now) Midwest towns and smaller cities. As I remember so far, he has covered Mattoon in one of his past videos, and he's covered some other towns and cities like Rochelle, IL (this one he did like, and I remember visiting for its railroad park for railfanning), Decatur, IL (he could tell this one had fallen beyond its peak), Beloit, WI to name a few of dozens of examples. Just be warned some of those videos can be over 20 minutes, but as he has said, one can speed up the youtube speed pace of the video in settings if they want to.
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