Border Cities: Southern or Not (people, cons, Florida, food)

[Dawn.Davenport]

It seems that there has been some discussion in other threads about the South as far as what cities are considered to be part of the South (DC, St. Louis, and Dallas have been debated).

So, here's a list of potentially Southern cities, CHECK ALL THAT YOU CONSIDER TO BE PART OF THE SOUTH.

Why did you make your choices?

Do you see the South being defined more by geography or more by culture?

Looking forward to seeing the results

[gwillyfromphilly]

Originally Posted by Dawn.Davenport

It seems that there has been some discussion in other threads about the South as far as what cities are considered to be part of the South (DC, St. Louis, and Dallas have been debated).

Dallas is being debated on whether or not it's a southern city? You got to be kidding me!

[David_J]

All except Wilmington, Baltimore, DC, NoVA (split but the majority of population lives in the northern half of the area), St. Louis, El Paso, Tampa (borderline), and Orlando (borderline).

I'd say the South is defined broadly by culture, more specifically by economic ties, speech patterns, food, climate, and political ties (specifically in suburban counties; rural people everywhere tend to vote conservative and urbanites tend to vote liberal).

[PerseusVeil]

To the two people who think that St. Louis is Southern, I'd definitely suggest visiting. It's definitely Midwestern.

[jsimms3]

Slightly southern or having a "southern side"? All of these cities. Completely southern the way we think of Birmingham, AL? None of these cities.

[polo89]

For once, the Florida city is the most Southern on the list(Jacksonville). It's usually the opposite.

[Mutiny77]

Originally Posted by jsimms3

Slightly southern or having a "southern side"? All of these cities. Completely southern the way we think of Birmingham, AL? None of these cities.

Jax may not be as stereotypically Southern as B'ham, but I still consider it to be completely (deep) Southern.

[polo89]

In all honesty, the Midwestern and the northern boarder cities on this list might be more culturally southern than El Paso. El Paso might be the least Southern on this list.

[jsimms3]

I'd say in order of southernness from my own experience:

Dallas (stereotype of everything that is either eloquent about the south or flashy about the south. despite midwestern transplants, Dallas IS the south)


Jax (could even be considered part of the dirty south, but like Atl, Charlotte, and Raleigh is actually more "northern transplant" than southern redneck)

Houston (seemed less southern than Dallas on the surface, but definitely still the dirty south)

Tampa (a confederate flag flies on a large 150 ft pole at the intersection of I-4 and I-75, similar situation as Jax with a huge southern population and lots of rednecks, but TONS of transplants, Hispanics, and non-southerners as well)

DC (seems more southern to me than northern, though it's not really "southern")

NoVa (DC seemed more "southern" to me than Northern VA, odd right?)

Orlando (still has tons of southern FL "natives" and rednecks, much of the entire west side is southern, but New York/Puerto Rican transplants now dominate since the 1990s)

Louisville (seemed pretty definitively midwestern to me)

St. Louis

Austin (didn't seem southern at all)

SA (just drove through, but didn't feel southern to me at all)



I haven't been to the other cities to comment.

[Nairobi]

Jacksonville, Houston, and Dallas do not belong on this list. No one with thorough knowledge of their culture and history would question their southernness.