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ST. LOUIS is hands down the best "hidden" treasure. Built as a top 4 city, this city today is the 18th largest MSA in the US. It has all the amenities of a larger city but without the larger city hassles like endless traffic and overpriced housing. It has history, architecture and a seemingly endless number of neighborhoods with architecture from the early 1840's to today's more modern infill. St. Louis gets bad press because of crime, but that's only because St Louis City is not in St. Louis County, so the numbers are skewed. As a region/MSA, St. Louis is safer than Oklahoma City and Nashville.
I just can't fathom why! What are we doing so wrong!?
Richmond is a bit on the underrated side too, but at least it has more exposure being located along the I-95 corridor. I used to say that Hampton Roads was hurt by essentially being a cul-de-sac and not along I-95, but the same is essentially true of Charleston and it's hardly overlooked.
Richmond is a bit on the underrated side too, but at least it has more exposure being located along the I-95 corridor. I used to say that Hampton Roads was hurt by essentially being a cul-de-sac and not along I-95, but the same is essentially true of Charleston and it's hardly overlooked.
True, but honestly I think the problem is the area is de-centralized, and around the nation it's perceived as having little local identity to distinguish it.
Richmond is a bit on the underrated side too, but at least it has more exposure being located along the I-95 corridor. I used to say that Hampton Roads was hurt by essentially being a cul-de-sac and not along I-95, but the same is essentially true of Charleston and it's hardly overlooked.
Hampton Roads is pretty well-known amongst the military culture and even federal civil service. Getting a federal civil service job over there is surprisingly hard, even harder than to get one in DC. You are competing with veterans who love the area as well as seasoned civil service employees who served their time in DC and are now looking for more space and closer access to the beach. It's a great area that's managed to avoid becoming another NoVa with too many wealthy Northeasterners, but I doubt that will last forever. But it's indeed a very nice area, and I would say not being on I-95 has helped the area rather than hurt it!
Hate to engage my homerism, But Virginia Beach-Norfolk, despite having 1.7 million people. Basically no exposure outside of Virginia.
Well if you live in a Navy town you certainly have heard about Virginia Beach-Norfolk. I haven't been personally but my partner who works for the Navy has gone there several times on business as well as many of our good friends, either enlisted or contractors and I haven't heard it described in particularly glowing terms. It's a good sized and developed area but lacking many of the more aesthetic qualities that would contribute to a hidden treasure description.
I would 2nd (or 3rd) St. Louis or Sacramento.
St. Louis has all the infrastructure, stunning architecture and cultural institutions of a much larger city (which it once was, in terms of population) but without all the hassles of an overpopulated rat race kind of place. You do notice the dearth of people downtown where a bit more would certainly liven things up (baseball game days excluded) but the nearby well defined neighborhoods, parks and museums are absolutely first rate.
Sacramento has a great location on the Delta and near the foothills giving it some interesting geography/topography, wonderful tree-lined streets, a fairly dynamic downtown (improving) and surrounding old neighborhoods with quick access to Tahoe and other recreational areas. So much more affordable than the coastal cities here but with many of the same attributes.
Hampton Roads is pretty well-known amongst the military culture and even federal civil service. Getting a federal civil service job over there is surprisingly hard, even harder than to get one in DC. You are competing with veterans who love the area as well as seasoned civil service employees who served their time in DC and are now looking for more space and closer access to the beach. It's a great area that's managed to avoid becoming another NoVa with too many wealthy Northeasterners, but I doubt that will last forever. But it's indeed a very nice area, and I would say not being on I-95 has helped the area rather than hurt it!
Well of course Hampton Roads is known among Navy/military folks; it's among their primary industries. Incidentally, military personnel and students are really the only people I know who move to the region.
In terms of exposure, not being along I-95 has hurt the area.
Is Raleigh a hidden treasure any more? Kar54's list seems to some very good choices. Perhaps Richmond VA, Louisville KY and Huntsville AL are some others.
I'd say yes and no.
Raleigh has certainly experienced explosive growth and continues to do so but its rather recent stature as one of the 50 largest cities in America and the lack of strong and long-lived city brand keeps it off the radar to a great extent. Adding the fact that its metro was statistically diminished when the Triangle was split into two unequal pieces. Essentially, the entire Triangle had grown and reached the million person threshold just in time for it to be broken apart. Now the Raleigh metro population alone is above the former combined metro from a dozen years ago but the visibility of the Triangle being a 2+ million person metro area is all but unknown to most.
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