Friendliest Cities With At Least 500,000 People (friendly, park, metro)

[SiddharthaGautama]

What are some of the friendliest cities with at least a half a million people (metro)?

[ainulinale]

When you say cities with over 500,000, do you mean 1/2 a million in the city proper? Personally, I believe urban areas are most accurate for defining the true relative size of a city. For instance, would you really say that Mesa, AZ is bigger than St. Louis, Miami, and Pittsburgh? City proper is utterly arbitrary. With that in mind, I would say most Southern and Midwestern cities are friendly. However, I've been to few cities in the South or Midwest, so I can't really say which. I have heard good things about St. Louis though, especially in baseball, they are known as the friendliest fans in the sport (they never boo anyone). Pittsburgh is known to be a friendly city, and growing up here I tend to agree and disagree--I've come across some very nice people, but I also seem to find a lot of really nasty ones.

[jcladue]

Buffalo is def among most friendly.

[STLCardsBlues1989]

We do boo occasionally, but not that often. There's been more booing since the World Series and new ballpark opened, which makes me think that some fans may be new to it and aren't really accustomed to not booing much. If fans do boo much, it's usually because they feel that a player isn't trying hard enough. Izzy got booed a lot in 2006, but I think the majority of fans didn't know he was hurt, so it looked like he wasn't really trying. A lot of players say that they like St. Louis, though. David Eckstein said he really appreciated that fans recognized his dad and told him that they had been praying for him (he was sick). Some Blues also say they appreciate the fan support.

I've heard that St. Louis is pretty friendly, but I think that's the case across the south and midwest usually. I've heard St. Louis described as a big city with a smalltown feeling.

[kshe95girl]

St Louis, Louisville, Cincy, Nashville.

[metro223]

Friendliest cities with a metro of at least 500k: (definitely not limited to)
*Fort Worth (I seem to be infatuated with that city lately)
*Des Moines (biased, it's in the home-state, but IS friendly for the record)
*Omaha
*St. Louis
*Kansas City

[f1000]

Agree on the Midwestern & Southern big cities (except in Florida). There was a surprising number of friendly folks & pleasant experiences in Chicago, Atlanta, New Orleans, Dallas, San Antonio, that I remember. Also, people in Portland are generally not as exuberant, but are very kind & pleasant compared to other Western cities. And Denver was quite friendly overall too. All generalizations, but in those places you somehow seem more likely to run into a genuine, friendly person.

[gizmo980]

Personally, I like the people in Seattle and Portland (OR). We're pretty friendly here in San Francisco, but in a more city-like way... we'll smile if you say hi to us, but we might think you're a little weird for it. Plus we drive like jerks - LOL. But as the post above says, these are just generalizations!

[metro223]

Originally Posted by gizmo980

Personally, I like the people in Seattle and Portland (OR). We're pretty friendly here in San Francisco, but in a more city-like way... we'll smile if you say hi to us, but we might think you're a little weird for it. Plus we drive like jerks - LOL. But as the post above says, these are just generalizations!

What about the Seattle Freeze that I've heard so much about, just a myth?

[K-Luv]

I would say Minneapolis because Minnesota Nice dictates that a person will always act pleasant in front of you (even if they really really don't want to).