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What is the melancholic vibe? Kind of subjective I guess. But Atlantic City, NJ would be my choice, mostly off the boardwalk, but some parts of the boardwalk too
Agreed, AC definitely has this vibe. It's beach, boardwalk, casino fun combined with a hint of sadness and despair even if somewhat unfounded.
Buffalo: amazing urban bones and public/institutional architecture but streets that can look, because of being bereft of visible people, like something out of a painting by de Chirico.
Some cities (I'm looking at you, Miami) are like a sun-splashed frat party where everyone is on Valium and has a smile eternally etched into Botox-enhanced jaws. That's not what I'm talking about here.
I'm also not talking about economic depressed places, where everything is boarded up and the Boomers are loaded up on opioids. Dayton, Ohio is depressing. It's not really melancholy.
I.'m talking about which cities have a noticeably melancholic aesthetic, which is easy to sense and hard to describe. It's a little romantic, poetic. It's smart people sipping lattes alone or with a book in a cafe. It's maybe a little less gregarious than a typically American city. It's more contemplative, even somewhat solemn. It's like fall in Boston or Chicago in the fall, beautiful but living in the shadow of the winter to come.
Some European cities are known for this, especially Lisbon and Paris (and I think Amsterdam, too).
Neat question. I'm struck by the analogy to fall in Boston or Chicago. I find the fall months with the clear blue deep skies more 'melancholy' then rainy, cloudy weather. I have no idea how to describe it but I've always mentioned to my friends that the weather I find most 'depressing' is cold weather with blue skies....or those times in early December where it gets dark really early and the sky turns that deep wintry blue around 3pm.
All that to say, I'm not sure what my answer is! Hahaha
I am surprised people haven't said Detroit. For me spending a lot of time there you see the great bones and what the city once had, and where it is now and what it's gone through. It has so many scars. It feels like a city that continues to try, but can't get out of the rut it's been in.
The poll seems to be mostly about clouds and light rain. I'd say prosperity, scenery, and the built environment should also be factors.
A variety of cities are known for being both fairly gray-weathered, not terribly scenic, a little rough around the edges in their built environments (and not in the best ways), and generally not very prosperous. Long snowy winters would be a big factor.
In truth, culture is probably as big a factor as any of these, and that can offset what it's like living in a place. But that's even more subjective and hard for an observer to dig into.
There's a difference between melancholy and depressing.
Seattle in winter is a touch melancholy, but it doesn't feel depressed. It's still a pretty vibrant place with lots of pedestrian traffic. There's construction everywhere, and people deck out with the Christmas lights. But it does fit the OP's idea of melancholy: lots of boutique coffeeshops, independent bookstores, 50 shades of grey clouds in the winter, 90s grunge, and a modern cold Scandinavian architectural style.
I voted New York because of the movie ‘Once upon a time in America’ but the whole rust-belt also has a melancholic vibe to me: the industrial building style and art deco, the grit, the de-industrialization and ecomic struggles, the depopulation, the notion that the better days lie in the past, the cold and gloomy weather. Still, it’s the most appealing region in the US to me.
Agreed with Seattle and Pittsburgh. I think those two really take the discussion, but definitely open to hearing other opinions.
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