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Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
10,749 posts, read 23,813,296 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lrfox
2) Portland, ME. The smallest city I'll mention. I lived here for over 4 years. I located in Portland based on ringing endorsements (mostly from locals) of the city's arts and cultural prowess combined with the natural setting. I was SEVERELY let down. Of every place I've lived, Portland is by far my least favorite. However, I don't consider it as much of a city I "dislike" as Miami, simply due to the fact that with Portland, I didn't do enough research and the biggest issue wasn't so much the city itself as it was the "fit" (or lack thereof).
My gripe with Portland is that it's hyped up (especially by locals) as if it's much bigger than it really is (65,000, urban area of 188,000). Tourism is the biggest game in town and the city markets itself VERY well. You hear ringing endorsements of awesome nightlife, world class restaurants, excellent arts scene, etc. The locals love to tell you how Portland rivals many larger cities in those areas. Well, it doesn't. There are good restaurants for a small town, but if you've grown up used to Boston, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, LA, etc. food, you'll laugh at the notion of Portland's restaurants being in that tier (hell, they're not even the best in Maine... go to Kennebunkport, York, or Rockland for better food). The "arts" scene is comprised of a small art museum, small city symphony and a handful of local galleries. In other words, it's what you'd expect for a city of 65,000. The nightlife is gawdawful ending at 1am and concentrated around a few dive bars on a back alley (albeit a nicely converted back alley in Wharf Street). cities like Burlington VT, Portsmouth NH and Newport RI are 1/3 the size of Portland with better nightlife options. Outside of the 1 square mile of downtown, Portland's a sleepy little seaside village.
Combined with the misleading insinuations that Portland is bigger than it is (anchored by the statistic that Portlands "MSA" contains 500k people, but spread over 3,000 square miles in an almost entirely rural, disconnected setting), I was in for a BIG disappointment. Don't get me wrong, Portland is still naturally beautiful (stunning, even). The tiny Old Port is cute, quaint and fun for a few hours of walking around. There is some great architecture in the West End as well. However, it is not a "world class" city by any stretch although that's what they'd love you to believe. I should have done some more research before I went because realistically, it IS a good city for its size (definitely top-tier for that 50,000-100,000 range). It's just not as big and wonderful as they'd like you to think.
I definitely agree with this assesment of Portland, Maine. As cute, quaint, and charming as the Old Port district may be, it really is tiny. The only exceptional place that really stands out for me is the park around Portland Head Lighthouse at Cape Elizabeth. That place is very beautiful and a great location for photography. True though, Portsmouth, Burlington, & Newport are cities I do find a lot more engaging. Now Burlington, Vermont is definitetly a city that really seems much bigger than it really is with a lot to do.
I definitely agree with this assesment of Portland, Maine. As cute, quaint, and charming as the Old Port district may be, it really is tiny. The only exceptional place that really stands out for me is the park around Portland Head Lighthouse at Cape Elizabeth. That place is very beautiful and a great location for photography. True though, Portsmouth, Burlington, & Newport are cities I do find a lot more engaging. Now Burlington, Vermont is definitetly a city that really seems much bigger than it really is with a lot to do.
Fort William's is the name of that Park and it's VERY nice (I think that lighthouse is the most photographed in the country). I also like the Eastern Promenade (nice view of the harbor) and the Cliffwalk at Prout's Neck (you can see the Ocean and as far as Mount Washington, New Hampshire which looks a lot closer than it is). Other than that, you sort of have to get an hour or more outside of Portland before you get to any of Maine's best natural spots.
Burlington is a GREAT little city. I agree with you.
Fort William's is the name of that Park and it's VERY nice (I think that lighthouse is the most photographed in the country). I also like the Eastern Promenade (nice view of the harbor) and the Cliffwalk at Prout's Neck (you can see the Ocean and as far as Mount Washington, New Hampshire which looks a lot closer than it is). Other than that, you sort of have to get an hour or more outside of Portland before you get to any of Maine's best natural spots.
Burlington is a GREAT little city. I agree with you.
Don't forget Two Lights State Park. (Yea I know, but since we are talking about Cape Elizabeth.) Fantastic location to just sit and listen to waves crash on the granite "cliffs".
Burlington is nice, just WICKED cold in the Winter.
It's interesting how we all have very different preferences. I don't agree with this description of Chicago and I know you meant it as a negative; but 1/5 of Manhattan surrounded by Detroit and Milwaukee sounds pretty appealing to me. Certainly more so than Indianapolis (which I found to be painfully boring for the most part).
You are right..gee..people have preferences??
If you don't agree with the description I gave, why are you bothering to say its appealing to you? Of course I meant it as a negative too..Detroit is one of our worst performing cities...as is Chicago actually. Google it up. You can definately be bored in Chicago or even New York IMO especially in winter and actually if you ain't into buying up bling or touring the same 10 attractions year after yearto keep your interest. Everything else can be done elsewhere with just as great if not better results because you don't have the typical Chicago teet sucking meat tooth berating your opinion like his word is the gospel. Chicago's magic can wear off really quick because its a lifestyle choice. But my description is based on the way Chicago ignores vast swaths of bad neighborhood and the highest gang violence rate in America
Last edited by dosequis man; 10-05-2011 at 09:32 AM..
Don't forget Two Lights State Park. (Yea I know, but since we are talking about Cape Elizabeth.) Fantastic location to just sit and listen to waves crash on the granite "cliffs".
Burlington is nice, just WICKED cold in the Winter.
Absolutely. I also like Kettle Cove over there near the Scarborough/Cape line.
Burlington is way too cold for me. I grew up on the coast of MA (South Coast) so it's like night and day in terms of the temperatures. Only a few hundred miles but being on the coast makes a world of difference in terms of temperatures.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dosequis man
You are right..gee..people have preferences??
If you don't agree with the description I gave, why are you bothering to say its appealing to you? Of course I meant it as a negative too..Detroit is one of our worst performing cities...as is Chicago actually. Google it up. You can definately be bored in Chicago or even New York IMO especially in winter and actually if you ain't into buying up bling or touring the same 10 attractions year after yearto keep your interest. Everything else can be done elsewhere with just as great if not better results because you don't have the typical Chicago teet sucking meat tooth berating your opinion like his word is the gospel. Chicago's magic can wear off really quick because its a lifestyle choice. But my description is based on the way Chicago ignores vast swaths of bad neighborhood and the highest gang violence rate in America
Where's the animosity coming from? I was just making an observation, not calling you out on anything. The entire reason I prefaced that post by saying that everyone has their own opinion just to reinforce that I wasn't calling you out. My observation was that Detroit (still has plenty of redeeming qualities) and Milwaukee (another cool lakeside city) surrounding 1/5 of Manhattan (the best urban space in the US) sounds more appealing to me than Indianapolis (which unlike you, I don't care for). I wasn't saying you're wrong for liking Indianapolis more than Chicago... just remarking on how it's kind of funny how staggeringly different peoples' opinions can be.
ATLANTA- I don't really dislike it, but it's wayy different from what I thought it would be the way people talk about it, I expected it to be a real big city type of feel. It didn't amaze me one bit. Most overrated city in America IMO. Outside of the trendy neighborhoods like Downtown, buckhead, ect and traffic. Most neighborhoods felt like I was in some suburb of Detroit or Chicago with 10x the amount of trees. Im used to most big cities having the street grid systems. Atlanta's layout is a MESS, it has the WORST layout I have EVER seen, and the further u get away from downtown the bigger the mess gets. I see why they got such bad traffic, who wants to drive through the worlds largest maze they call surface streets everyday. It is sprawl-ville x1000, and to make it worse, lots of their main streets lacked storefronts like most main streets in typical big cities, all they had was churches and houses, and maybe a strip mall or a store here and there. Another thing was that it was extremely hot and had lots of bugs on steroids (I sort of expected that). Overall, from my experience, I honestly do not see what all the hype is about, I mean there is absolutely nothing special about it to me, it is just a very large and dangerous suburb IMO. This is MY OPINION on it so people please don't get offended. It's just not my type of city. I was disappointed because I expected too much out of it.
Absolutely. I also like Kettle Cove over there near the Scarborough/Cape line.
Burlington is way too cold for me. I grew up on the coast of MA (South Coast) so it's like night and day in terms of the temperatures. Only a few hundred miles but being on the coast makes a world of difference in terms of temperatures.
Kettle Cove is great too, no doubt. The whole Cape area I just love to be around. Great place to raise a family IMHO.
I agree that so many people have no idea how mild the climate actually is in Southeast New England. Parts of CT, RI and MA actually have a mid-atlantic climate. But ask most people and they'll say "New England...brrrrr" lol
Heck, just going from New Bedford to Worcester can be a huge change!
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
24,544 posts, read 56,047,835 times
Reputation: 11862
Quote:
Originally Posted by Elbarto150
I created this as an alternate to the cities you were suprised you liked thread. Name a place whose reputation is high, especially as a tourist locale (beauty, entertainment), that you found to be a dissapointment. I dont want this to become a city bashing thread, and Im not trying to harp on any city in particular.
Personally, I was really shocked to find myself disliking Santa Fe. I visited with my family to check out the University of Santa Fe as I had heard great things about the beauty and alternative vibe there. I was so dissapointed. The alternative vibe along with some rich tourists and native Americans, were the only 'groups' I could identify. It was simply too limited to fit my need for interaction with people of all races/classes. The beauty is more of a personal taste thing becuase I dont like adobe at all (its all they have really) and there isnt much greenery outside of some sparsely located shrubs and trees. Finally, the weather is really dry so it can go from 80 to 40 degrees in the matter of hours, which sucks when changing clothes is the last thing on your busy agenda.
Actually I agree with you a little bit about Santa Fe. Although it was still cool, the old 'Indian' area seemed to be more about selling tourists highly priced souvenirs than learning about the native culture. Alot of the city is also bland suburbia and freeways, just in a more adobe style.
The town that really disappointed me was Key West, FL. I went down there with the thought of moving there. I stayed over a week. I decided to go in August, simply because I wanted to see it at its worst (hot weather; hurricane season).
I'm glad I visited first. What didn't I like? Here's a list:
Too hot (one morning, I stepped out of my hotel room, and the heat index was 103 at 4 am)
No surf (their precious reef, 2-3 miles offshore, prevents surf)
Dumpy houses that go for $400K (we're talking shacks here, folks); better houses are $1M or so
No jobs, unless you want service jobs (motel clerk; maid; etc.)
Way over-touristed (something like 80 T-shirt shops on Duval Street)
Overpriced (in August, the cheapest rooms go for about $70; most are $150 or so; in winter, double that)
Overpriced food ($60 for a sit down lunch?)
Crime (Lots of indigenous poor people; lots of homeless; people on the lam from up North)
No escape from hurricanes (140 miles up a 2 lane highway, stop & go lights, to the Mainland)
Too fake (too much Margaritaville-kitsch; $12 Mai Tai drinks; ersatz tropical; fake Disney)
Too Yuppie (where doctors from Indianapolis go to honeymoon with their trophy wives)[/list][/list]
I'm sure to get negative comments. But I don't care. I just know I wouldn't go back there.
Last edited by SixFive175; 12-22-2011 at 06:02 PM..
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