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Rochester seems kinda OK to me, though I’ve spent 3:1 more time in the burbs than the city proper. The suburbs are quite pleasant and the folks are amongst the most effortlessly and earnestly polite I’ve been around, and that’s coming from someone who is not a fan of northeastern states.
For me, much of PA has that kind of depressed, weary vibe to it. Certain areas like Carlisle seem a bit nicer, but most of it has a hard-bitten vibe I’m just uncomfortable with. Far and away, if I’m going for that kind of vibe, PA redlines my senses. It doesn’t help that 3/4 of the time I was there the weather was dreary as well (bad luck?).
NJ also has a weird vibe. It sort of feels like it exists only because of what’s around it, basically NYC as well as places like Philly and Wilmington. NJ is almost it’s own silent character in movies like Clerks.
Then again, I’m a west coast kid, so the further East (and north) I go, the less familiar anything feels to me.
Honorable mentions: some obvious ones like Detroit and St Louis, sad shells with decaying ruins of what was once fantastic architecture and the vibrant life it supported. Places like that are always kind of haunting. Another would be Spokane, WA, a city which seems to exist just because...it’s there. And for the last two, I’ll bring you to my native State of California: not too far apart, exist Barstow and the Victorville/Hesperia weirdnesses. Both had a lot of planning and a lot of fail, and both are sort of disjointed feeling attempts at stretching out beyond the LA basin and San Bernardino counties for far-flung exurbs. Even from the freeway they both have this depressing vibe of dreams never realized, surviving (barely) on freeway traffic and scant other jobs.
Another would be Spokane, WA, a city which seems to exist just because...it’s there.
So I wouldn't call the vibe I get from Spokane "eerie" or "creepy", but you're right, it is kind of weird in a slightly unpleasant way. A lot of Spokane, especially south of downtown, visually looks like the Seattle area or places like Missoula or even Lake Tahoe --- hills, Craftsman houses, old-growth conifers, good landscaping --- but it doesn't have the energy and optimism of those places, it feels more tired and insular. It gives me a slight uncanny-valley effect. Also to your point, it's a sizable town but isn't really known for anything, it's just like "well, I guess this part of the country needs a city, here's a city."
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And for the last two, I’ll bring you to my native State of California: not too far apart, exist Barstow and the Victorville/Hesperia weirdnesses. Both had a lot of planning and a lot of fail, and both are sort of disjointed feeling attempts at stretching out beyond the LA basin and San Bernardino counties for far-flung exurbs. Even from the freeway they both have this depressing vibe of dreams never realized, surviving (barely) on freeway traffic and scant other jobs.
The areas east of Reno/Sparks heading into the desert are like that too. McCarran, Fernley, it's just kind of an amorphous mess with industrial areas, suburban developments, and casinos scattered randomly throughout the unattractive, dry, brown hills. No sense of history or charm out that way except in Fallon (closest place to Reno I recall hearing Western twangs).
Steubenville, OH
Wilkinsburg, PA
Wheeling, WV
Hoquiam, WA
Ogdensburg, NY
Bessemer, AL
Bowbells, ND
Council Bluffs, IA
Bovey, MN
Thunder Bay, ON
Ontonagan, MI
Superior, WI
As someone who lived in Metro Detroit for years, I agree with you. I'll add Flint, MI to the mix, as well. Huge areas of both cities look like burned-out, dystopian war zones.
But I left Detroit 10 years ago and haven't been back. Everyone in the Detroit subforum always talks about how fantastic the city looks now.
Rochester seems kinda OK to me, though I’ve spent 3:1 more time in the burbs than the city proper. The suburbs are quite pleasant and the folks are amongst the most effortlessly and earnestly polite I’ve been around, and that’s coming from someone who is not a fan of northeastern states.
For me, much of PA has that kind of depressed, weary vibe to it. Certain areas like Carlisle seem a bit nicer, but most of it has a hard-bitten vibe I’m just uncomfortable with. Far and away, if I’m going for that kind of vibe, PA redlines my senses. It doesn’t help that 3/4 of the time I was there the weather was dreary as well (bad luck?).
NJ also has a weird vibe. It sort of feels like it exists only because of what’s around it, basically NYC as well as places like Philly and Wilmington. NJ is almost it’s own silent character in movies like Clerks.
Then again, I’m a west coast kid, so the further East (and north) I go, the less familiar anything feels to me.
Honorable mentions: some obvious ones like Detroit and St Louis, sad shells with decaying ruins of what was once fantastic architecture and the vibrant life it supported. Places like that are always kind of haunting. Another would be Spokane, WA, a city which seems to exist just because...it’s there. And for the last two, I’ll bring you to my native State of California: not too far apart, exist Barstow and the Victorville/Hesperia weirdnesses. Both had a lot of planning and a lot of fail, and both are sort of disjointed feeling attempts at stretching out beyond the LA basin and San Bernardino counties for far-flung exurbs. Even from the freeway they both have this depressing vibe of dreams never realized, surviving (barely) on freeway traffic and scant other jobs.
The Victorville area is a pretty weird area for our state.. you can literally hear the power wire or transformer "sounds" in the dead of night with the vast darkness compared to anything in the basin. The movie Hills have Eyes was also filmed in that desert region aswell if I remember correctly.
The Victorville area is a pretty weird area for our state.. you can literally hear the power wire or transformer "sounds" in the dead of night with the vast darkness compared to anything in the basin. The movie Hills have Eyes was also filmed in that desert region aswell if I remember correctly.
I once street viewed Victorville & Hesperia, and also Barstow(due to knowing they were Amtrak Southwest Chief stops), and yeah agree with you that I don't think any of those communities would have much to offer someone, were they to live there.
I also get that weird sense that Lancaster and Palmdale(north of the mountains in the desert, but weirdly both communities are within Los Angeles County) wouldn't have much to offer to those living there, either. At least all these communities do have either Amtrak Southwest Chief(for Barstow to Victorville/Hesperia) or Metrolink commuter rail train service(Palmdale & Lancaster), though.
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Originally Posted by jcp123
Another would be Spokane, WA, a city which seems to exist just because...it’s there. And for the last two, I’ll bring you to my native State of California: not too far apart, exist Barstow and the Victorville/Hesperia weirdnesses. Both had a lot of planning and a lot of fail, and both are sort of disjointed feeling attempts at stretching out beyond the LA basin and San Bernardino counties for far-flung exurbs. Even from the freeway they both have this depressing vibe of dreams never realized, surviving (barely) on freeway traffic and scant other jobs.
Spokane is one of those few US cities I've kept wanting to google street view, mainly lol due to all the times I hear about Gonzaga University getting far in the NCAA basketball tournament! I hadn't yet, but I will one of these days. I thought Spokane was at least an okay city with some amenities, that'd say be comparable(including communities in northern Idaho for the Spokane metro, like Coeur D'Alene and Post Falls) to like the size of Boise or Missoula. But what do I know?
Empty downtown streets in large cities are creepy.
Agreed.
This is part of why I get a weird vibe from Cincinnati. For a 2 million metro, it's wild how little street activity there is in the urban core of the city. The area around Findlay's Market is bustling, but once you get outside that district, it gets quiet pretty quickly. Downtown is very similar in that it's not uncommon to not see a lot of people around.
Neighboring cities Louisville, Columbus, and Indianapolis have far more street-level activity despite not being as structurally urban as Cincy.
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