Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > General U.S.
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 11-06-2022, 12:14 AM
 
158 posts, read 165,602 times
Reputation: 353

Advertisements

For decades really it's been California. You may not agree with that but I would say that would be the popular opinion. But with folks leaving somewhat, including various celebrities, issues with crime, wildfires maybe it's not that anymore. My question is do you guys think there is another state out there that has/could take it place? Florida? Texas? Or is it overblown?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 11-06-2022, 01:54 AM
 
Location: West Seattle
6,333 posts, read 4,872,408 times
Reputation: 8369
Not really a single state. These are all considered pretty cool now: Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Vermont, maybe Georgia.

Texas is "convenient" and high QOL for the cost, I don't know if I'd say it's considered cool.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-06-2022, 03:59 AM
 
Location: Elk Grove, CA
578 posts, read 495,505 times
Reputation: 1094
South Florida seems to be the "it" place for LA types. Austin, TX for all the Silicon Valley types.

California seems to be kind of has-been, for these young Gen Zers coming up. Portland, Seattle and Denver have just become California lite.

Living in CA just doesn't have the same cache it did 20 years ago. It's become a victim of it's own success, like NYC, Chicago, etc.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-06-2022, 07:07 AM
 
26,885 posts, read 43,390,908 times
Reputation: 31602
California in my opinion is way overblown with some right-wing political commentary describing people leaving in droves. The state population is around 40 million and the number who left/died from COVID in 2021 was 117,000, or around 0.003%. Hardly anywhere close to droves...

There really aren't cool new states but would venture Nashville might be the new hip/cool destination.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-06-2022, 08:38 AM
 
Location: The Bootheel
146 posts, read 149,163 times
Reputation: 195
The Carolinas
Georgia
Florida
Tennessee
Texas
Arizona
Utah
Montana
Idaho
Nevada
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-06-2022, 09:28 AM
 
8,779 posts, read 6,705,936 times
Reputation: 8516
4eveMissouri, are you listing the LEAST cool states?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-06-2022, 09:35 AM
 
513 posts, read 528,777 times
Reputation: 887
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheTimidBlueBars View Post
Not really a single state. These are all considered pretty cool now: Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Vermont, maybe Georgia.

Texas is "convenient" and high QOL for the cost, I don't know if I'd say it's considered cool.
I'd say Georgia has lost a bit of its luster. Atlanta's still growing fast, but it's not Texas fast. I'd say the big appeal of NC/GA is moving towards SC and westward toward TN, and to a far lesser extent, parts of AL. Georgia's trying to play the middle ground socially perception-wise right now, and it's really not working. Generally speaking, playing up "city as enclave" looks to be the route to go to appeal to everyone so that they feel like they have a place.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-06-2022, 10:02 AM
 
Location: Brooklyn, NY
9,885 posts, read 14,223,217 times
Reputation: 10929
If the definition of "cool" is a state that is popular and desirable from geographic offerings, good mix of growing cities that offer diverse bar/restaurant/retail, and are considered attractive thanks to television, music and movies, then these are the current crop, in my opinion:

California - still leads the country, and no state can come close to its geographic beauty and city popularity, despite negative media spin on the regular, and climate issues that keep happening

Washington - stunning shoreline, with hiking trails, waterfalls and booming Seattle's growth and options

Colorado - offers an amazing outdoor adventure paradise and the Denver metro area is really attractive

Vermont - offers an incredible sort of "off the grid" option for many, with woods, rustic farms and quiet towns, yet amazing skiing, bigger city access not super far away, and 4 strong seasons are amenities

New York - always a classic destination for the best city in the world, and the upstate mountains offer hiking, skiing, beautiful lakes and outdoor options with smaller villages and cool towns. Also, long island has some of the best under-rated beaches in the US

Tennessee - the outdoor beauty and incredible options for boating, hiking, camping are endless. Nashville, Chattanooga and Knoxville are all growing fast, with a diverse mix of bars/restaurants/destination spots that ppl love. The music scene in Tennessee is super desirable

Texas - Austin leads the "cool factor" with its bar/restaurants/fast growth and outdoor options for the lake region. Good live music spot. Fort Worth is a growing, under-rated city, as-is Houston and San Antonio

Virginia - Beautiful state with a coastline with nice beaches, mountains, growing DC suburb region and under-rated growth of Richmond, Virginia Beach, Charlottesville, and towns in between

Massachusetts - Coastline and Berkshires are classic cool spots for diversity and arts and outdoor abundance of options. The Boston area offers almost anything you want in a big city, and is a historically beautiful city

Oregon - Portland is always a draw with its great bar/beer scene and hipster sort of haven vibe. The forests and trails are stunning, and Oregon's coastline is incredible in many areas

Last edited by jjbradleynyc; 11-06-2022 at 10:13 AM..
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-06-2022, 10:03 AM
 
Location: PHX -> ATL
6,311 posts, read 6,737,968 times
Reputation: 7167
There is no “cool state” really, only cool cities. When people talk about California I know they aren’t talking about Victorville or Fresno most of the time. They are talking about Santa Monica, Orange County, SF’s Mission District or something like that. These areas will always be “cool” so as long as the stereotype of California is like the Santa Monica pier or Venice Beach then yeah California will continue to be perceived that way. California benefits more so than any other in state in its collection of neat areas to visit and that are cool for a nice Instagram or Tiktok post so that’s not going to change.

Most states if not all of them have cool areas. It’s a matter of whether they are “discovered” and are the state stereotype. NY for example yes has places like Buffalo and Albany but most people think of Midtown Manhattan. And Manhattan is cool so… NY is cool.

New Orleans has the French Quarter a famous district known for beautiful old Southern architecture built from its French days and a bustling nightlife that is LGBTQ+ friendly in addition to many other great districts like the Garden District with a walkable environment, top tier food and a good trolley system. Is New Orleans overall cool? Absolutely, but does it trump the state stereotype of being filled with undereducated backwater swampbillies who live in the bayou and eat crawfish and alligators all day outside of duck hunting? No it does not, therefore Louisiana is not cool.

What about Illinois? Do people think of giant swaths of soybean farms, or do they think of the Chicago skyline? What about Pennsylvania, is it Center City or is it the abandoned towns of the Rust Belt? What about Florida, is it the Villages or is it South Beach?

For example North Carolina is a state that is growing a lot and has neat areas like Asheville from what I’ve heard. Is it a cool state? I’d argue no, North Carolina is mostly known for being a more affordable and nice location for families to live with a nuclear structure on the culdesac with a 9-5 job rather than being anything actually trendy or edgy. Being favored by the general population because the cost-benefit analysis is good for the suburbs especially does not mean you are cool. It just means that North Carolina offers a lot to people who don’t define social trends typically. Suburbs haven’t been cool since the 1990s punk scene with teen angst, that doesn’t mean people don’t participate in uncool things for the purposes of practicality. Just suburbs or corporatized sanitized urban areas are not cool.

Arizona is not cool for the same exact reasons as NC. Arizona also has a cool liberal mountain town called Flagstaff, that’s not what people think of when they think of the state. They may think of empty swaths of dirt with saguaros and a rolling tumbleweed, or they think of Sun City, maybe the Grand Canyon or Tombstone/Jerome but none of those are cool areas.

Georgia is not cool either though unlike many other areas it has the bones to change. Atlanta has a lot of history with a strong neighborhood identities like Chicago and NYC, large artistic and media scenes like LA, etc. Part of what makes Chicago and NYC so desirable and cool are not because it’s urban and walkable (though that’s part of it since it helps stimulate these interactions), is that they have fully developed individual communities with shared amenities where you can meet your neighbors and more easily participate in neighborhood/community activism towards sharing common lifestyles and goals. Neighborhoods built like this are excellent for people watching and creating something that all humans, evolutionarily speaking, crave: a sense of belonging. Nothing is worse than living somewhere that feels isolated and soulless for most of your life for most people since we are not programmed to be hermits. Well at least most of us. Atlanta as far as big cities go especially in the South, including Texas, is absolutely THE most similar to our cool and trendy major cities with Miami being second. Miami just operates differently. Atlanta has the bones to follow the greats and if it can surpass the negative anti-Southern stereotypes that people have on Georgia then it will be a cool state, but Atlanta is not as strong of a primate city like NYC and Chicago are.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-06-2022, 10:21 AM
 
846 posts, read 666,972 times
Reputation: 2265
Quote:
Originally Posted by 4everMissouri View Post
The Carolinas
What's cool about them? It's mostly just empty beaches, fast food places and buffets. It's a poor man's Florida, but more boring.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > General U.S.

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top