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.
I haven’t encountered much hate for Boston from people I’ve met in the Northeast, Carolinas, or Florida. Is it just that people are too polite to trash talk it to a native or have I not visited the most Boston-hating places?
Let’s just say BostonBornMassMade didn’t make that “is it cool to call Boston racist” thread for no reason. I understand the demographics here are different than a mainstream social setting, but generally people love to label Boston as some ultra racist town. No matter how many times I try to convince people that’s just an American problem and Boston gets pointed the most for it, they just don’t buy it. It’s the same as Chicago’s misunderstanding for a generic American problem.
Let’s just say BostonBornMassMade didn’t make that “is it cool to call Boston racist” thread for no reason. I understand the demographics here are different than a mainstream social setting, but generally people love to label Boston as some ultra racist town. No matter how many times I try to convince people that’s just an American problem and Boston gets pointed the most for it, they just don’t buy it. It’s the same as Chicago’s misunderstanding for a generic American problem.
Yeah, I tried calling someone out on that too on another thread and they threw like 40 insults at me. Its best to leave the topic at rest on this forum.
There’s something unique behind the Chicago stigma. A mainstream conservative will blame Chicago’s “third world level crime” on the “liberal politicians”. While a mainstream liberal will also embrace Chicago’s crime but instead blame it on systematic racism. Regardless of the different theories, they end up agreeing that the problem exists.
And again, this is a generic American problem, not one specific to Chicago. So even here, this doesn’t explain why Chicago is the poster child. The only other thing I can think of for this is that it’s the biggest city not named NYC or LA, who the media forces to consistently have a good sense
Cincinnati is a very popular city here. I don't care for it much and I've never heard anyone praise it in real life, even when I lived in Ohio.
Pittsburgh is very popular here though receives very little fanfare in real life. This one I understand, Pittsburgh is pretty freaking awesome.
Southeast cities generally tend to be popular here. At one point, there was a Miami/Atlanta/Charlotte vs Seattle/Denver/Portland poll and I was floored when the former beat the latter so handily. Not sure that would happen in real life, at least for folks within my age group.
Austin doesn't seem to be liked here, though pretty much everyone in real life likes it or wants to visit.
Spending a lot of time in the Southwest and the Midwest, it seems like DC and NYC were the favorites on the East Coast. I don't know anyone who has visited Philly for leisure nor do I know a lot of people who have visited Boston.
Let’s just say BostonBornMassMade didn’t make that “is it cool to call Boston racist” thread for no reason. I understand the demographics here are different than a mainstream social setting, but generally people love to label Boston as some ultra racist town.
I guess that’s kind of it: I’ve heard this at least as much on CD as I have in real life. Every once and awhile a local paper will run some kind of “Boston? Racist?” headline, but in the wake of BLM and associated incidents elsewhere in the country, busing and Charles Stuart feel so distant.
I might just run in the wrong circles to hear it, though.
Jacksonville doesnt get any love on here, but it blew its census estimates out of the water. Regardless of downtown being ugly, or Jax not being as fun as the other FL big cities or its crime being touted, seems its still an attractive place in the real world for people to head to. I'm not a huge fan of Jax myself, but I see why it can be called underrated.
And I'm not talking metro Jax aka St Johns, that people here do love, i mean literally Duval.
I find the Boston homering on CD a bit obnoxious at times despite me living in New England and having attended college in the region too. Like even in this thread - we're starting to see multiple references to Boston...again. I don't hate the city and actually do keep tabs on what's happening in Boston given that it's our regional center along with NYC for me living in a place with a dual regional identity, but I'm like folks just chill. No need to respond to EVERY critique about Boston - it's a fine city, have some confidence in it.
Much more favored on C/D than in Reality
New York City (Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn)
More favored on C/D than in Reality
Boston
San Francisco
Los Angeles
Seattle
Austin
Miami
Chicago (but people, in reality, are just very ignorant on what Chicago is actually like...)
About the same
Providence
Tampa
Atlanta
Philadelphia
Washington DC
Less favored on C/D than in Reality
Orlando
Baltimore
Memphis
St. Louis
New York City (Bronx)
Indianapolis
Much less favored on C/D than in Reality
Jacksonville
Houston
Dallas
Phoenix Fort Worth
Not talked about nearly as much as in reality
Las Vegas
Honolulu
San Juan
New York City (Staten Island)
From what I've seen of Fort Worth online (both on google street view, and also downtown pics of its skyline), it seems like a city I'd like to check out for myself someday. I get it why C-D posters may not care for it as much, as it is more of a blue collar city historically. With it having the stockyards, and stuff.
And speaking of San Juan, PR, I can barely ever think of a single thread where this city has ever been discussed on C-D! I'm sure a few such threads exist, but it'd take a little bit of searching to find any rare such threads. At least infrequently, Honolulu has been discussed.
I find the Boston homering on CD a bit obnoxious at times despite me living in New England and having attended college in the region too. Like even in this thread - we're starting to see multiple references to Boston...again. I don't hate the city and actually do keep tabs on what's happening in Boston given that it's our regional center along with NYC for me living in a place with a dual regional identity, but I'm like folks just chill. No need to respond to EVERY critique about Boston - it's a fine city, have some confidence in it.
I think you just notice it more because it's already on your radar due to location. As a non homer who doesn't have any bias to the area I think the Boston representation is actually less tenacious than 5 or 6 other cities who will hijack most generic threads for three or four pages until the moderators stop it.
There’s something unique behind the Chicago stigma. A mainstream conservative will blame Chicago’s “third world level crime” on the “liberal politicians”. While a mainstream liberal will also embrace Chicago’s crime but instead blame it on systematic racism. Regardless of the different theories, they end up agreeing that the problem exists.
And again, this is a generic American problem, not one specific to Chicago. So even here, this doesn’t explain why Chicago is the poster child. The only other thing I can think of for this is that it’s the biggest city not named NYC or LA, who the media forces to consistently have a good sense
I think Chicago has more ultra-high crime areas that the other first tier cities, and it's a much larger city in terms of population than the other comparably high crime cities. As such it ends up looking pretty bad in terms of raw numbers, even though anyone who has been there realizes that the crime is isolated to certain areas and the vast majority of the city is as safe as anywhere. In fact I'd argue that most of the city feels safer than many of the west coast cities that have huge homeless problems.
My biggest issue with Chicago personally is the very long winters. I like the city itself quite a lot.
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.
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.
