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It feels more Southern than most Midwestern cities, and as a Midwesterner/Northerner I felt uncomfortable at times in Columbus due to cultural differences I would only describe as being more "Southern", like drawl or love of NASCAR racing (over NFL football).
I honestly don't know a single person in Columbus who likes NASCAR, and football is clearly the #1 sport there. And I have no idea what drawl you're referring to.
They're Midwestern. They're just younger cities that grew more post WWII and have a lot of sprawl. That's the same sprawl though that's been spreading for decades around the cities of Detroit, Chicago, Minneapolis, etc. Those cities just have more of an urban core that tends to draw attention away from the fact that a large majority of those metro areas live in sprawling suburban areas just like Houston, Atlanta or Dallas.
I don't notice anything "southern" about Indianapolis except it's more republican than most great lakes/midwestern states.
If NASCAR fans and "drawl" make a place southern, then count Pennsylvania, southern Jersey, upstate NY, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and western Massachusetts as part of ol' Dixie.
I lived in Baton Rouge. I live in the deep south. I have been to Columbus several times. I don't mean driving by it, I mean I have spent significant time, down town, by the college, in the city, with friends I have there. It is in no way even the tiniest bit southern.
It's Southern to us Northerners, especially those of us from the Far North, like MN, WI, MI, ME, etc. There is not drawl in Maine, NH or VT, btw......I have no idea where you get that notion.
I honestly don't know a single person in Columbus who likes NASCAR, and football is clearly the #1 sport there. And I have no idea what drawl you're referring to.
I'm sure you don't.....most Columbusites think they're accent-neutral. Everybody's provincial it seems.
They're Midwestern. They're just younger cities that grew more post WWII and have a lot of sprawl. That's the same sprawl though that's been spreading for decades around the cities of Detroit, Chicago, Minneapolis, etc. Those cities just have more of an urban core that tends to draw attention away from the fact that a large majority of those metro areas live in sprawling suburban areas just like Houston, Atlanta or Dallas.
I don't notice anything "southern" about Indianapolis except it's more republican than most great lakes/midwestern states.
The accent there has more drawl. Again, I don't have to make this up, just visit and it's evident. There's even a language/accent map that will highlight the differences between regions. Whatever you call it (Hillbilly highway, Appalachia, whatever), it's different than the far North, from Chicago to Cleveland and Detroit on up.
Simply denying it doesn't change my perception one bit (and I'm not the only person with this perception). It's not a BAD thing, just a different thing that I distinguish between cities like Columbus, Indy or Cincy.
Sunbelt doesn't mean southern guys. California is sun-belt, as is Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, etc. I'd also argue that portions of the South lack any sun-belt cities (E.G., Kentucky, Mississippi, Arkansas, arguably Alabama.)
Central Ohio/Indiana does have a bit of a drawl, to my ears. But then again, I grew up in New England. When I first moved to Pittsburgh, I thought some people here sounded a bit southern.
No, they're Midwestern cities experiencing Sunbelt-like growth. It has nothing to do with accents or drawls. The closest city to Indy and Columbus that one might could make an argument for would be Nashville.
People in this thread seem to associate the sun-belt with different things than I do. I associate it with:
1. Relatively little intact pre-WW2 residential areas
2. Sprawling suburbs which are mostly within the core city, not in independent suburbs
3. More right-wing urban politics than other cities
4. A downtown which is surrounded by parking lots
5. A local working class/lower middle class economy which has done better than the norm over the last several decades
I think Columbus is quite a bit more liberal than Indianopolis. Would have to check.
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