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This is how stuff gets started. Nowhere did I mention my apartment in my post. I was really being serious about showing you guys around (if you wanted of course) but you think everything is a damn joke. I'm done though. DEUCES
IF you wanted to show me around the next time I passed through, which may not be for awhile, as I only go to Ohio once every three years or so, I wouldn't have a problem with that. I have not seen all of Indy mind you...I have only ever passed through it on I-70 on my way to see relatives in Columbus (Indy's twin IMO) and Cleveland, stopped at its downtown one time and spent the night there. In that sense, i probably have not experienced the city in its fullest. So in the long run, Colts may be right after-all, for the most part I have only glimpsed out the window at it and spent a night in a hotel there. Maybe there is more to Indy than meets the eye. Also, it does have a very nice downtown. I will say that it looks much cleaner and a little more evenly spaced than St. Louis. Indy was one of the cities in the Midwest which managed to escape becoming part of the rustbelt. St. Louis' downtown is more dirty and buildings are a lot more crammed together. I have never really stopped and explored Indy though. Never been to the North side of it. I've only ever been to the downtown and passed through the south side of it on I-465.
I was surprised I liked Denver, but was also surprised that I really didn't like Seattle.
I agree... Denver is a pretty cool place. The thing I love about it, aside from the downtown itself, is the close proximity to ALL kinds of outdoor activities, and the mountains really are beautiful.
Haven't been to Seattle, but it's definitely one of the places on my list to visit. I guess I always assumed I would love it there, but I'll have to reserve my opinions until I've been there! I'm not a big fan of rain, but having a coffee shop on every corner would be a little slice of heaven!
Providence, Rhode Island: That city absolutely blew me away when we vacationed there several years ago to check out the campus of Brown University. We were impressed by just how compact and easily-walkable the city was, along with its cleanliness. We enjoyed all of the neat stores in the Providence Place Mall that we had never heard of before, such as Crate & Barrel, Dave & Buster's, The Cheesecake Factory, Filene's, a store dedicated exclusively to Bonsai trees, etc. I personally wasn't "out" at the time, but a little part of me teared up when I saw a same-sex couple walking around downtown hand-in-hand; I wish Scranton could be that socially-liberal. Our family enjoyed a free Celtic concert along the downtown riverfront, which was illuminated with torches and accentuated with passing gondolas, giving it a Venetian flair. We ate at a great little Italian place up in the Atwells Avenue area, and we enjoyed browsing a really neat bookstore near the Brown campus. Providence truly is an underrated city that is overshadowed by nearby Boston. My biggest gripe with the city was probably the horrific traffic congestion.
Binghamton, New York: If there was ever a city that was the brunt of cruel jokes, that city would be Binghamton, a city of 50,000 in the Southern Tier of Upstate New York. Living roughly an hour south of the city I decided to venture there for my first NY photo tour. Anyone who has ever heard Binghamton mentioned on this forum probably heard it prefaced by "At least we're not as dumpy as..." or followed by "...is a sewer." With how admonished and hated this city was by everyone, it was kind of difficult for me to not feel sorry for it, so I headed on out to capture its best images in a rather lengthy photo tour of this seat of Broome County. I was expecting to be shot at and/or be faced with block after block of urban blight, but neither scenario occurred. I found the city's streets to be littered with newer vehicles (debunking the local complaints about a "poor" economy), sidewalks were abundant, litter was scarce, and best of all was the fact that so much of the city's historic architecture had been preserved, especially in its downtown area and in the West End. The town was by no means "charming," but I felt as if its bright spots were being totally overshadowed by its negative residents. Here is my photo tour of Binghamton; you be the judge!
Williamsport, Pennsylvania: Just like Binghamton, Williamsport has a terrible reputation for crime and a stagnant economy. When I visited Williamsport for my photo tour several months ago, I found myself pleasantly surprised! I fell in love with the town's massive historic district, dined at an awesome downtown brew pub, and noticed that the downtown vacancy rate was incredibly low. I stopped at the chamber of commerce to inquire about walking tours in the historic district, and the people couldn't have possibly been any friendlier or more helpful---one man even ran after me to hand me a brochure he found (that was worth its weight in gold, may I add). The campuses of Lycoming College and PA College of Technology infused a lively, youthful flair into the downtown area, and I left the city with nothing but positive thoughts (other than being turned-off by its relative isolation to other cities). I can't wait to return again at some point in the future for another visit. Here's my photo tour of Williamsport; you be the judge!
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: If one were to spend a few hours reading the Pittsburgh sub-forum's threads (as I have), you'd think the city was worse off than Baghdad! However, a weekend visit several years ago for a Pirates game yielded much more favorable results for us. We enjoyed the view from Mt. Washington, the city's cleanliness, South Side, and the city's unique patchwork of neighborhoods along its many hills. Pittsburgh might just be America's most underrated large city.
Scranton, Pennsylvania: I must admit that every time I take the 10-minute jaunt from my suburban cul-de-sac home into the city proper I find something new that catches my eye and strengthens my resolve to move to this "up-and-coming" city in the future. Just this past Saturday a few friends and I went to La Festa Italiana, a popular annual downtown Italian food festival, and we sauntered around the downtown. We scoped out Outrageous, a unique gift store, followed by Marquis Art & Frame, which featured all sorts of art work. I was elated to see signs promoting an upcoming downtown used bookstore and an upcoming location for the NJ restaurant chain called "R U Hungry?" We also did some shopping at Poochie, a new gourmet dog bakery, where I purchased a bone-shaped "My Dog Digs Scranton" bumper sticker that I've since received several compliments on. It seems like a new store, restaurant, or gallery is opening up in the city's downtown on a weekly basis, and I can't wait to be a part of the renaissance myself with my upcoming firm and jazz cafe (that should be a nice complement to the new Blues Cafe). I might also open an organic foods market downtown to cater to the expected residential influx into the downtown in the next 5-10 years with a new medical college, continued expansion of the University of Scranton and Lackawanna College, and several upcoming loft/condo projects. The city has come a long way in just the past five years alone, and I think anyone from the Tri-State Area that used to bash it for being a "dump" needs to give it a second look to see all that is happening here as of late.
I can't honestly say that I was ever SURPRISED by any one place I've been.
I usually go places with a completely blank mind in terms of assumptions made. I'm always open to new experiences, I like to travel and I love to see new things
I will say that I was SURPRISED by the Twin Cities. Again I iterate that I had no real negative concepts, I just went there for one thing and I wasn't at all looking to find a good time there. It's vastly different than what I had ever imagined.
Now, let's just keep this between us, because the last thing any of us want are New Yorkers or Californians finding out that we're not backwards hicks who can't color coordinate. They might start coming here and that scares me
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: If one were to spend a few hours reading the Pittsburgh sub-forum's threads (as I have), you'd think the city was worse off than Baghdad! However, a weekend visit several years ago for a Pirates game yielded much more favorable results for us. We enjoyed the view from Mt. Washington, the city's cleanliness, South Side, and the city's unique patchwork of neighborhoods along its many hills. Pittsburgh might just be America's most underrated large city.
A weekend can harldy give you time to make an evaluation. What seems good at first can turn out bad, etc. Cleanliness? Right now there's a thread on how dirty the place is compared to western cities. And it's right on! My parents used to be amazed at how clean Denver is compared to their hometown, Pittsburgh. Unique patchwork of neighborhoods? You need to get out more! Most every city of a certain size has that. No, it's not under-rated. Not by a long shot.
Omaha pleasantly surprised me, though that's kind of a back-handed compliment. Like what did I expect, eh? Well, I didn't expect hills. I expected it to look like a mini-Chicago.
A weekend can harldy give you time to make an evaluation. What seems good at first can turn out bad, etc. Cleanliness? Right now there's a thread on how dirty the place is compared to western cities. And it's right on!
A weekend is not a good comparison, you're right but I lived there for almost a year. I was pleasantly surprised at Pittsburgh. I enjoyed it. And yes, my husband and I WOULD move back there if our families were not here in the south. Liz
Dallas. It helped that I had incredibly low expectations. Ditto for Cleveland.
Ocean City, Maryland is a recent one. It's a beach city with a year-round population of only 7,000 people but a very popular summer getaway for people in the DC-Baltimore area. I had strangely never been there until recently and to me, the area that has always carried a very trashy reputation of just greasiness, drunkenness and sleaze. While there was a bit of that element as there is in any beach town, I was very surprised by how scrubbed clean and modern it was, and that the beach was decent and there was a good diversity of people, and not just a cavalcade of bikers and drunken frat guys and high school students as I expected.
Last edited by dullnboring; 09-05-2007 at 10:49 PM..
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With how admonished and hated this city was by everyone, it was kind of difficult for me to not feel sorry for it, so I headed on out to capture its best images in a rather lengthy photo tour of this seat of Broome County. I was expecting to be shot at and/or be faced with block after block of urban blight, but neither scenario occurred. I found the city's streets to be littered with newer vehicles (debunking the local complaints about a "poor" economy), sidewalks were abundant, litter was scarce, and best of all was the fact that so much of the city's historic architecture had been preserved, especially in its downtown area and in the West End. The town was by no means "charming," but I felt as if its bright spots were being totally overshadowed by its negative residents. Here is my photo tour of Binghamton; you be the judge!
However, a weekend visit several years ago for a Pirates game yielded much more favorable results for us. We enjoyed the view from Mt. Washington, the city's cleanliness, South Side, and the city's unique patchwork of neighborhoods along its many hills. Pittsburgh might just be America's most underrated large city. 
