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Portland has taken a nosedive, IMO. All the stores leaving, pics of tents on streets in neighborhoods and downtown...would be one of my very last choices to live. I guess it might be unique in that fact that it used to be a desirable city.
Heh. I drove through Portland yesterday on my way back to Olympia. It was a beautiful sunny day and everyone was out and about just enjoying the nice spring weather. There are some neighborhoods in Portland (like Irvington and Laurelhurst) that are just stupid gorgeous. Especially around this time of year.
Portland, like other west coast cities, is blessed with desirable natural features and many other tangible advantages. It can certainly take some steps backward (and it has in some ways) but it has too much going for it to fail.
Location: Miami (prev. NY, Atlanta, SF, OC and San Diego)
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Originally Posted by nadnerb
Heh. I drove through Portland yesterday on my way back to Olympia. It was a beautiful sunny day and everyone was out and about just enjoying the nice spring weather. There are some neighborhoods in Portland (like Irvington and Laurelhurst) that are just stupid gorgeous. Especially around this time of year.
Portland, like other west coast cities, is blessed with desirable natural features and other advantages. It can certainly take some steps backward (and it has in some ways) but it has too much going for it to fail.
Been a few years since I’ve been but the restaurant scene was excellent. Hopefully that has not fallen off.
This is a fun thread and there are many unique cities in the US.
I used to think NOLA was #1 by a landslide, but after having been to Charleston and Key West, and seen pictures of Mobile, it seems NOLA is just the MOST city of its kind.
Miami is absolutely unique in the US - maybe not as much internationally, but in the US, for sure.
Las Vegas is definitely unique as well, for obvious reasons, though I view it more as a fake place than a real city.
NYC is certainly unique as well
Wash DC is purposefully unique as opposed to organically. Doesn't feel fair, really.
I don't find Portland, Seattle, SF all that unique....as they are a lot like each other in certain ways. Also, having been to Lisbon, the similarities between it and SF were shocking.
Can't put Chicago here either. It's Milwaukee on steroids.
As for smaller cities....
Bisbee, AZ is one of the most unique places in the US.
Heh. I drove through Portland yesterday on my way back to Olympia. It was a beautiful sunny day and everyone was out and about just enjoying the nice spring weather. There are some neighborhoods in Portland (like Irvington and Laurelhurst) that are just stupid gorgeous. Especially around this time of year.
Portland, like other west coast cities, is blessed with desirable natural features and many other tangible advantages. It can certainly take some steps backward (and it has in some ways) but it has too much going for it to fail.
Yeah nothing is black and white. Even during peak Covid, encampments and riots in Seattle, I was living in Upper Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle proper and life went on as normal. Kids were out waiting in line at the Molly Moons, and the stores and sidewalks were hopping. Life was good. Same with places like Laurelhurst in Portland. Seattle has cleaned up a lot since then, but in a lot of Seattle's residential neighborhoods, there wasn't much that needed cleaning anyway. You wouldn't know it from of the rhetoric going around though, especially from people who have just a superficial understanding of the city. The corollary is also true of cities in Texas or Florida.
Idk if these are the most unique, but I'll just give a list of ones I thought were unique:
NOLA, Memphis, San Antonio, Santa Fe, Sedona, St. Augustine, Boston, SF, NYC, Honolulu. I'm sure there are others I've missed or never been to, but I find these ones to all be very neat and special.
A lot of the places people are listing are more tourist-y spots. There's plenty of more "mundane" cities that are quirky, but not in a "look at me" way.
Birmingham's sprawl primarily goes into its most difficult terrain. It also has a water port despite the city not being on water (granted it's pretty small and primarily ships out coal... mostly not mined in the metro).
Tulsa's demographic makeup is probably one of the most unique of major cities in the US.
Salt Lake City... is there another city central for a religion like Salt Lake?
Aleutian Island cities - desolate towns full of Russian churches and Alaska Natives
Bisbee - Artsy Arizona town in the middle of nowhere
Butte - Weirdly impressive and preserved architecture
Chimayo - The Road to Chimayo feels like a drive through a different country
Columbus, IN - Modernist Indiana town full of world-class architecture
Dubuque - Hilly river town that gets completely ignored
Key West - historic architecture + rainbow crosswalks + coral reefs nearby
Laie - Native Hawaiian Mormon city
Marfa - Artsy Texan town in the middle of nowhere
Pago Pago - Tropical paradise in the South Pacific that’s the only American city in the Southern hemisphere
San Antonio - UNESCO missions + Tex-Mex capital
San Juan - Extremely old Spanish colonial city that’s maintained its culture
Sandusky - Ohio lake town home to the world’s greatest amusement park
Tucson - Some very Mexican-style neighborhoods adjacent to a National Park
Tulsa - Art Deco/Native American influence
Aleutian Island cities - desolate towns full of Russian churches and Alaska Natives
Bisbee - Artsy Arizona town in the middle of nowhere
Butte - Weirdly impressive and preserved architecture
Chimayo - The Road to Chimayo feels like a drive through a different country
Columbus, IN - Modernist Indiana town full of world-class architecture
Dubuque - Hilly river town that gets completely ignored
Key West - historic architecture + rainbow crosswalks + coral reefs nearby
Laie - Native Hawaiian Mormon city
Marfa - Artsy Texan town in the middle of nowhere
Pago Pago - Tropical paradise in the South Pacific that’s the only American city in the Southern hemisphere
San Antonio - UNESCO missions + Tex-Mex capital
San Juan - Extremely old Spanish colonial city that’s maintained its culture
Sandusky - Ohio lake town home to the world’s greatest amusement park
Tucson - Some very Mexican-style neighborhoods adjacent to a National Park
Tulsa - Art Deco/Native American influence
Great list of some real gems. I'll add:
Tecopa, CA and the other towns in Death Valley
Roswell, NM --- downtown full of alien-themed stuff including the UFO McDonald's (there are even a few businesses in Roswell, GA that capitalize on the name, iirc)
Santa Fe, NM --- town that goes all-in on the Pueblo architectural style by having an extremely strict building code. Also an enclave for artists and rich art collectors
Supai, AZ --- town at the bottom of the Grand Canyon with no roads, only accessible by mule
Coaldale, NV --- 1930s-90s ghost town abandoned because environmental regulations meant that the gas station that served as the town's source of revenue was no longer legal
Point Roberts, WA --- only accessible by driving through Canada
Cairo, IL --- there are more dilapidated towns, but Cairo seems unique in how significant it was (with some beautiful architecture still standing) and how far it's fallen
Whittier, AK --- town with its entire population living in one apartment building
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