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 spent two months working in El Paso. You're not missing anything with it not being discussed much. What an unlikable city...
Boise is beautiful and is pretty cool. People keep mentioning Kansas City but it gets talked about plenty on here and it really ain't that great...
The South Carolina cities aren't the most popular cities here but they do come up enough that they aren't rarities. Columbia is a pretty cool city, haven't been to the other two...
I went to New Mexico a few times while I was in El Paso, to Las Cruces. That's a forgettable city and part of NM. Not much to talk about...
We don't hear about Providence or Hartford much, Providence is definitely in better shape but I enjoyed Hartford too...
Rochester is another rough city I enjoy that isn't brought up a ton but is mentioned enough on here...
Hampton Roads suffers from being located off the beaten path and the identity issue of people associating Norfolk as its alpha city rather than viewing Norfolk-Virginia Beach as twin cities the way they view Minneapolis-St Paul. Virginia Beach is my favorite city I've ever lived in and if more people were aware of what it offers as a city we'd hear more about it...
I vote for ABQ. Its not spoken about and neither is the state New Mexico. I have never met anyone who said they are visiting NM or planning to move there but I have seen a few ex-military people move out that way.
Columbus, Ohio is probably the least spoken about major city that is doing well and growing. Surprising since it's in a region that is seeing most of its cities decline.
But the majority of people know most cities located in the states Florida, Texas and North Carolina cities are growing but I do not think they know Columbus is as well. Perhaps the perception of Ohio is to blame
Which is really unfortunate, and as I have said in another thread regarding Cleveland, how little people know about Ohio and its assets. Cincinnati is really not spoken about on here like some of its peers, but it is a growing city with a large Fortune 500 based and diverse economy. Ohio is 7th in population, but 5th for Fortune 500 based economies.
I know Tacoma, Washington has been brought up in a few threads I have read recently, but Tacoma and Spokane seem extremely underrated and not spoken of as much as I thought they would be given the popularity of Washington.
Somewhat tangential to the topic, but a region that's more populous (as a metropolitan area) than many of the ones listed in the poll, but isn't in the poll and is rarely talked about it relative to other similarly or less populous metropolitan regions is the Norfolk - Virginia Beach - Newport News are which is better known as Hampton Roads. It's a historic area that was colonized early and it has a fairly large population, but maybe because it never had a single city in the region that really became well known (none are state capitals nor the center of any particular industry) so the region as a whole seems to be seldom talked about.
Somewhat tangential to the topic, but a region that's more populous (as a metropolitan area) than many of the ones listed in the poll, but isn't in the poll and is rarely talked about it relative to other similarly or less populous metropolitan regions is the Norfolk - Virginia Beach - Newport News are which is better known as Hampton Roads. It's a historic area that was colonized early and it has a fairly large population, but maybe because it never had a single city in the region that really became well known (none are state capitals nor the center of any particular industry) so the region as a whole seems to be seldom talked about.
I agree regarding lack of press and feel Norfolk's Ghent neighborhood is especially well-deserved of more attention.
I have been there before. It was one of the cities I just have no opinion on.
I was in Lexington once. Have nothing against that city(and it had a few nice areas like its downtown, and near the U of KY campus), but I wouldn't say a lot going on vs. bigger cities mentioned in this thread. Like Louisville, Omaha, etc. The outer areas of Lex(like near whatever that circle outer bypass road is called), just feel like typical sprawled areas to me.
I remember in the past checking out Country Boy Brewing, during that brief stop I did in Lexington. That place was a nice microbrewery. Hope this place got through COVID, and is still open.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OyCrumbler
Somewhat tangential to the topic, but a region that's more populous (as a metropolitan area) than many of the ones listed in the poll, but isn't in the poll and is rarely talked about it relative to other similarly or less populous metropolitan regions is the Norfolk - Virginia Beach - Newport News are which is better known as Hampton Roads. It's a historic area that was colonized early and it has a fairly large population, but maybe because it never had a single city in the region that really became well known (none are state capitals nor the center of any particular industry) so the region as a whole seems to be seldom talked about.
I think once in the city neighborhood street view vs. street view comparison thread, that someone brought up a street view of the Ghent neighborhood. It did look nice.
I remember street viewing a few parts of Norfolk, and agree that city looked nice. Virginia Beach looked nice, too. And is it just me, or Newport News didn't make much of an impression on me the one time I ever street viewed a few parts of there? Newport News always seems to be stereotyped online in a bad way(and where some derisively call it 'bad news'), for whatever reason. Like to me it didn't look quite as bad as Petersburg, VA(which I've both driven through, and street viewed), but it still looked on street view more, more depressed than I'd prefer. Ah well, not everywhere is gonna be as well off as other areas are.
Btw, Newport News and Petersburg didn't score as badly on areavibes, as I was thinking their liveability scores would be at. Newport News is at 76, and Petersburg was 62. I was more imagining(for both places) that NN would only have a livability score in the low to mid 60s, and Petersburg only in the 50s.
Last edited by SonySegaTendo617; 07-11-2023 at 11:59 AM..
I was a little confused because I couldn't decide if we were supposed to vote for the 5 cities we liked the most or choose among those we consider obscure.
Once it became evident we only got one vote it was easy and I voted for Birmingham.
Because I also like Charleston and Portland quite a bit but hardly consider them obscure.
Cincinnati belongs on that list and I like it too.
Newport News has new “town center” areas just like every other large suburb. I don’t think it will ever shed its blue collar baggage (the area around downtown never had nice housing, just bottom rung laborer housing for railroad and shipyard workers, downtown had very nice housing though, still has pockets of nice houses there) though. The new housing comes with all of the amenities of anywhere else (Whole Foods, Target, Starbucks…). There are good jobs and well landscaped strip malls (again, anywhere USA). City Center and Port Warwick are particularly nice new town centers. And of course there’s water everywhere. Lots of nice beaches and riverfront parks. Christopher Newport University is shooting up the ranks and has developed into a very, very pretty campus with lots of residential life (whereas it was a commuter school
20 years ago).
Newport News was bad news, but the news hasn’t been bad in 25 years. I’m not surprised by a livability index in the upper 70’s.
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.
