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Honestly I find it hard to rank Chicago and Boston as more cosmopolitan than Houston
I’d say NY, SF, LA, DC, Houston is top 5.
What’s fascinating is people obsession with high culture. Like Rodeo events are more steeply ingrained in two entire continents cultures. It’s just as cosmopolitan as like Ballet or Opera.
Cosmopolitan implies a level of sophistication. The rodeo crowd themselves would be upset if you say they're sophisticated.
I don't think Oil Barons make a place cosmopolitan either.
I was responding to the notion that oil money billionaires are somehow all Hillbillies while finance billionaires are sofisticated.
As far as how many? Almost all Houston Billionaires are.
Most places with hockey teams are not high on the cosmopolitan totem pole. Heck Green Bay has a top football team
I think Chicago has a fair amount of sophistication. I said nothing about hockey. My dad worked for an oil company, managing a new territory in the US. His company was based in Oklahoma. My dad was an engineer, and they're pretty darn smart, but he didn't have the social aspect to his jobs that those in finance have. He wasn't an oil baron, but there aren't many of those left in Texas.
Oil barons watching the rodeo does not make a place cosmopolitan.
Maybe not but being one of the most ethnically diverse metros in the US with a globally oriented economy and a large variety of cultural institutions certainly does. Google’s definition of cosmopolitan is “ including or containing people from many different countries.” By this definition Houston is objectively more cosmopolitan than Chicago. Houston feels like a more worldy city than Chicago too. Now if you’re talking about sophistication then that’s absolutely subjective tbh. Both cities have very high class and sophisticated areas and also have many areas that are the furthest thing away from sophistication. Both are big cities so this is expected.
Maybe not but being one of the most ethnically diverse metros in the US with a globally oriented economy and a large variety of cultural institutions certainly does. Google’s definition of cosmopolitan is “ including or containing people from many different countries.” By this definition Houston is objectively more cosmopolitan than Chicago. Houston feels like a more worldy city than Chicago too. Now if you’re talking about sophistication then that’s absolutely subjective tbh. Both cities have very high class and sophisticated areas and also have many areas that are the furthest thing away from sophistication. Both are big cities so this is expected.
I feel like people are interpreting Cosmopolitan as “most like New York” but New York’s density, transit, urbanity, size, skyscrapers are wholly unrelated to what makes it cosmopolitan.
But while Chicago is more like New York than anywhere else, it’s not more cosmopolitan.
Last edited by btownboss4; 05-21-2023 at 08:31 PM..
Maybe not but being one of the most ethnically diverse metros in the US with a globally oriented economy and a large variety of cultural institutions certainly does. Google’s definition of cosmopolitan is “ including or containing people from many different countries.” By this definition Houston is objectively more cosmopolitan than Chicago. Houston feels like a more worldy city than Chicago too. Now if you’re talking about sophistication then that’s absolutely subjective tbh. Both cities have very high class and sophisticated areas and also have many areas that are the furthest thing away from sophistication. Both are big cities so this is expected.
Yeah, true, but when most people hear the word "Cosmopolitan" they're thinking about it in the cultural sense. Or else, why not just call the topic, most racially diverse city?
Cosmopolitan connotes sophistication, and when you think of cosmopolitan cities you're thinking of cultural institutions like museums, theaters, orchestras, universities and overall "city life".
Yeah, true, but when most people hear the word "Cosmopolitan" they're thinking about it in the cultural sense. Or else, why not just call the topic, most racially diverse city?
Cosmopolitan connotes sophistication, and when you think of cosmopolitan cities you're thinking of cultural institutions like museums, theaters, orchestras, universities and overall "city life".
Yeah, true, but when most people hear the word "Cosmopolitan" they're thinking about it in the cultural sense. Or else, why not just call the topic, most racially diverse city?
Cosmopolitan connotes sophistication, and when you think of cosmopolitan cities you're thinking of cultural institutions like museums, theaters, orchestras, universities and overall "city life".
I don’t know about this. Cosmopolitan means worldly. That’s how it’s defined literally almost everywhere. It seems like people on here are moving goalposts because some urban cities are losing to sunbelt cities. Also Houston does very well in every single one of those things you mentioned while also being very worldly. It is a top 5 cosmopolitan city when you take all of these into account.
Yeah, true, but when most people hear the word "Cosmopolitan" they're thinking about it in the cultural sense. Or else, why not just call the topic, most racially diverse city?
Cosmopolitan connotes sophistication, and when you think of cosmopolitan cities you're thinking of cultural institutions like museums, theaters, orchestras, universities and overall "city life".
This. And "worldy" could mean well traveled as well as having people from different parts of the country. However, having a lot of El Savadorans or Colombians doesn't mean you're cosmopolitan.
Quote:
Originally Posted by atadytic19
Every big city has all of that though.
Yes. Tulsa has great museums and universities. That doesn't mean it's cosmopolitan.
Yes. Tulsa has great museums and universities. That doesn't mean it's cosmopolitan.
Exactly, so those things can't be main requirements of being cosmopolitan. If every big city has them then size would be the determining factor of places being cosmopolitan or not.
It's just like the urban qualifier that everyone tries to make Cosmopolitan out to be.
It's the worldliness of a city that makes it cosmopolitan not its urban form or presence of museums. If a cosmopolitan city has museums and Universities more power to it, but lacking those is not a disqualifyer. Miami and DFW are two of the biggest metros lacking Tier 1 universities but I think both are very cosmopolitan.
Again, size is what makes cities have the universities plus renowned opera, museums etc. Any of those criteria by themselves is useless as small cities usually have 1 or 2 of those things but big cities have all of em and I bet we can agree on not all big cities are cosmopolitan. We'll, almost all big cities have all of em. Phoenix is another biggie that lacks a tier 1 university, but it's Lillie sibling Tucson has one
Tier one universities (AAU qualifying) in the south can be found in Houston, ATL, New Orleans, Austin, College Station, Nashville, Durham, Charlottesville VA, Gainesville FL, Chapel Hill. No Miami and Dallas but lots of tiny cities and college towns that no one has on their cosmopolitan lists. Miami and Dallas worldliness makes them cosmopolitan.
Universities add to the cosmopolitan nature of a place, especially if it attracts students from all over, but that just brings us back to worldliness as being key and a place can be worldly in aspects other than education.
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