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This thread was inspired by a post I read a while back where someone from Raleigh moved to Richmond, VA and mentioned that they felt like Richmond VA had a lot more of a southern feel culturally than Raleigh NC. I was wondering if any of you have moved or visited an area north of where you are from, or where you have lived and noticed an increase of southern culture. Example - Someone from Atlanta may have moved/visited NC/KY and noticed people had stronger southern accents, lifestyles, etc.
I feel as if big cities don't show a lot of Southern lifestyle.
Houston sure doesn't. Neither does Dallas. Austin DOES NOT IN ANYWAY. San Antonio is closer to Mexican than southern. New Orleans is it's own thing. Oklahoma city is centered around Native American Culture more, El Paso is not even in the South. Raleigh kind of reminds me of a mini Dallas. Miami is more Cuban than it is Southern. Orlando is a giant theme park. Jacksonville is too enveloped with the beach. Memphis is more like St. Louis, Kentucky is closer to Ohio and Indiana.
Maybe Atlanta a little, but that's really cause it's the heart of the south. Texas, Florida, and Louisiana do their own thing. Virginia has a hard time maintaining a southern identity when Washington DC is almost in the state itself.
Knoxville maybe, Nashville... Obviously Birmingham. Richmond too... and Charlotte... Little Rock.
After visiting Indianapolis, IN, I noticed a lot of southern-sounding accents. I wouldn't say that Indy felt particularly southern, but perhaps it has attracted a lot of transplants from further south.
Nashville and Birmingham are the two largest cities that still feel overwhelmingly southern (populations are still over eighty percent southerners).
Raleigh-Durham is probably half relocated yankees. Charlotte is about one-third non-southern. Memphis feels southern, but it's not quite as southern in feel as Nashville and Birmingham, in my opinion. Richmond is southern, but about like Memphis, a bit less than Nashville and Birmingham in southernness. Louisville is southern, but given that it's right on the Ohio River, it's a bit diluted.
The largest southern metros (Atlanta, Miami, Houston, Dallas) are very diluted. Of these, Atlanta feels the most southern, though it feels only like half the population is southern (realistically, about sixty percent is).
The most southern feeling metros, however, are the smaller ones, such as Montgomery, Macon, Columbus, GA, Columbia, SC, Jackson, MS, Baton Rouge, Knoxville, Monroe, LA, Chattanooga, Greenville, SC.
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