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I'm treating east as east of the Mississippi River.
Most Overrated:
Manhattan: Great and all, one of the world's urban gems, but there is still a whole city in the remaining four boroughs that people often seem to forget about. Places like Astoria, Long Island City, Downtown Brooklyn, and Williamsburg have made great strides in recent years. Places like Harlem and the Grand Concourse area are nothing like they were in the '80s. Riverdale in the Bronx was one of the very few places in NYC that suffered few effects from the fires, heroin and crack that ravaged the rest of the borough for decades; today, Riverdale remains a place that makes you forget you're in NYC. Nonetheless, I still wouldn't call the rest of NYC underrated at all.
Boston: Seems like just a great place to visit, but I hear so many gushing and gushing about it. It seems as if it can't NOT be overrated. And if Boston is anything like San Francisco, then I'll put it this way: I could probably visit for about two days, catch a game at Fenway Park, then just move on down I-95.
South Florida: Great for the high quality beaches and the Keys, and I enjoy visiting, but the suburban lifestyle is something I can find anywhere else in the USA, minus the Northeastern transplant attitudes. But man, oh man, the Keys are awesome! Yet I still list South Florida b/c at the end of the day, Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach are where the people live, and not Monroe County (the Keys).
Atlanta: I could write a series of novels on how horribly, horribly overrated Atlanta is. Being a two-time visitor, several days each time, was way more than enough for me to know how not great that place is. What a dump.
Least Overrated: I will just regard this as plain ol' underrated.
Baltimore: horrible crime situation, yes, but a city that is earnestly trying, with some success, to regain its old glory. I wish them nothing but the best. An easily overlooked jewel in the early historical development of America.
Kentucky: I know, I know, this is a state and not a city. I pick on it a lot since I moved away for various reasons, but for visitors, central and northern Kentucky actually has quite a few historically relevant sites that are some real gems. Western Kentucky has its own kind of BBQ and eastern Kentucky has the Red River Gorge, Natural Bridge, and Cumberland Falls and its moon bow. It is a beautiful state that honestly gets overlooked as more people visit and move to TN, NC, VA, etc. from the more northern states. I think it's due to the stigma (and having the Creation Museum as well as some of the most extreme of the Tea Party card-carriers in the country doesn't help).
Birmingham, AL: Not sure I'd live there, but I found a surprisingly intersting city when I visited in 2010. It's in some respects what Atlanta probably used to be 50 years ago. As a side note, the best peanut butter, chocolate and strawberry smoothie I've ever had was in Five Points South. The only downside is that it didn't seem as friendly as other Southern cities I've been to, but it still has many beautiful areas. Just stay away from the city west of I-65 and you're pretty much fine. An important city in the late 19th century industrial development of the South after the Civil War, as well as the rest of the U.S.
Last edited by EclecticEars; 08-04-2014 at 11:19 PM..
I've heard this from people in Northern NJ: "What happens in Atlantic City, stays in Atlantic City." Now where do you think they ripped that off from?
That doesn't necessarily mean that they think it's on par with Vegas. In fact, since they're both tourism-driven gambling towns, I think the phrase is entirely apropos (albeit on a much smaller scale).
That doesn't necessarily mean that they think it's on par with Vegas. In fact, since they're both tourism-driven gambling towns, I think the phrase is entirely apropos (albeit on a much smaller scale).
Hey man, what happens in Foxwoods, stays in Foxwoods
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In fact, since they're both tourism-driven gambling towns, I think the phrase is entirely apropos (albeit on a much smaller scale).
