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Which cities do you find to be the most unique to their region? Meaning it's very different from the other cities found in the same region? Below are the regions and my choices:
Midwest - Chicago. While there is a midwest feel to it, it's way too cosmopolitan, big, and feels more like an east coast city than a midwest one. No other city in the midwest like it. Close second is Minneapolis.
South - Miami. No other city in the south is like Miami. You actually don't even feel like you are in the south when you are in Miami, you feel like another country, or just a different state altogether. Close second is New Orleans.
Mid-Atlantic/New England - NYC with DC a close second.
West Coast/Pacific Northwest - San Francisco. It's like an east coast city and California had a baby. Not other city in this region is like SF.
Southwest/Mountain - This one is tough none stand out to me.
Which cities do you find to be the most unique to their region? Meaning it's very different from the other cities found in the same region? Below are the regions and my choices:
Midwest - Chicago. While there is a midwest feel to it, it's way too cosmopolitan, big, and feels more like an east coast city than a midwest one. No other city in the midwest like it. Close second is Minneapolis.
South - Miami. No other city in the south is like Miami. You actually don't even feel like you are in the south when you are in Miami, you feel like another country, or just a different state altogether. Close second is New Orleans.
Mid-Atlantic/New England - NYC with DC a close second.
West Coast/Pacific Northwest - San Francisco. It's like an east coast city and California had a baby. Not other city in this region is like SF.
Southwest/Mountain - This one is tough none stand out to me.
I agree with New Orleans. There are elements of it that are classically Southern like the Garden District/Uptown but there are also elements that are similar to the north (industrial history, heavy European immigration in the 1800s and early 1900s) and obviously its unique aspects like the food and music.
If you consider Washington DC a Northeast city then its decidedly more modern than the rest. The NOVA suburbs physically resemble the Atlanta and Charlotte suburbs but are culturally more like New Jersey and New York.
Columbus, Ohio is surrounded by Rust Belt cities but isn't Rust Belt itself, with a significant white collar economy and modern infrastructure. VERY different than Cleveland, Toledo, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Flint, etc. Cincinnati to a lesser extent.
Midwest--I get that Chicago is just a bigger version of a lot of Midwest cities, but off the top of my head, I can't actually think of any city that is too different from the rest of the Midwest besides Chicago. It's the only one with substantial public transit, by far the most urban and diverse, has beaches, and is much larger than anything around it. I can't think of another city that different from the rest of the region.
South--Miami for being so heavily Latino and attracting such a large population of Jews and other retirees from the Northeast. New Orleans for being New Orleans.
New England--None really stand out. Maybe Stamford for being so much more connected to NYC than anything else in New England. Similarly, Boston for being so much more diverse and big-city feeling than the rest of New England.
Mid-Atlantic--DC. I include NYC with Mid-Atlantic. But NYC's history matches the region a bit more. DC stands out for its history, which includes its more modern history of suburban sprawl. It seems like the rest of the region is urbanizing immensely in their respective cores, but DC continues expanding outward. It also doesn't have the same demographic histories of the other regional cities.
West Coast--Arguments can be made for quite a few. LA for being more vibrant and fast-paced and cultural than the rest. SF for being denser and built more like the East Coast. Portland for being unbelievably white in a region that's heavily Asian and Hispanic.
Southwest--Santa Fe for being so much older historically influenced by the Spanish rather than Americans expanding westward later on.
Mountain--I was initially going to say SLC for being so religious, but then I remembered the influence Mormons have in Idaho as well. So, bear with me, but I'm saying Denver. Most of the other major cities of the Mountain region are much smaller and/or much more religious, leading them to often be much more conservative than Denver.
Park City, UT. You don’t fell like you’re in Utah there. In all honesty I think a lot of people pick on Salt Lake City just because it’s in Utah. While I haven’t lived there, I’ve been there enough to say it isn’t like what I expected it to be before going for the first time.
Chicago is not all that different than other cities. It's more like a really large combo of Cleveland, Milwaukee, and Buffalo.
It's pretty different.....you don't have the diversity, energy, nightlife, nor modern architecture like you do in Chicago anywhere else in the Midwest. Chicago is a cosmpolitan city, I really can't say any other Midwest city is.
Which cities do you find to be the most unique to their region? Meaning it's very different from the other cities found in the same region? Below are the regions and my choices:
Midwest - Chicago. While there is a midwest feel to it, it's way too cosmopolitan, big, and feels more like an east coast city than a midwest one. No other city in the midwest like it. Close second is Minneapolis.
South - Miami. No other city in the south is like Miami. You actually don't even feel like you are in the south when you are in Miami, you feel like another country, or just a different state altogether. Close second is New Orleans.
Mid-Atlantic/New England - NYC with DC a close second.
West Coast/Pacific Northwest - San Francisco. It's like an east coast city and California had a baby. Not other city in this region is like SF.
Southwest/Mountain - This one is tough none stand out to me.
Minneapolis is very Midwestern. It's not rural, but it's Midwestern.
I get your point about Chicago having an eastern feel, with the urban density, row houses, public transit, etc. Minneapolis is much less that way and it's architecture, attitude, and general feel define Midwestern cities in my mind. Sure, it's way more liberal than the surrounding countryside, but what city isn't?
Minneapolis and Kansas City are the most quintessentially Midwestern large cities in my mind. Everything east of the Mississippi has a bit of that east coast feel (save maybe Indianapolis). Chicago has a very Midwestern sensibility to it as well, but your point about it feeling east coast makes sense.
[quote=frimpter928;54534848]Which cities do you find to be the most unique to their region? Meaning it's very different from the other cities found in the same region?
Midwest - Chicago definitely sticks out, followed in my opinion by both St Louis and Cincinnati which have a decidedly European feel.
South - Asheville wins this one in my opinion with historic well-preserved art-deco architecture surrounded by mountains. Miami's cosmopolitan feel and Atlanta's split commerce centers (downtown, Buckhead and Perimeter Center) make each fairly unique.
Mid-Atlantic/New England - Washington DC doesn't have the vertical mass of other cities in the Northeast and it's Parisian-design definitely sticks out in this region. I would also throw Portland ME into the conversation as well with it's old port/maritime feel.
West Coast/Pacific Northwest - San Francisco and Seattle each has unique qualities that set them apart from the rest. Albuquerque and Santa Fe are standouts as well.
Minneapolis is very Midwestern. It's not rural, but it's Midwestern.
I get your point about Chicago having an eastern feel, with the urban density, row houses, public transit, etc. Minneapolis is much less that way and it's architecture, attitude, and general feel define Midwestern cities in my mind. Sure, it's way more liberal than the surrounding countryside, but what city isn't?
Minneapolis and Kansas City are the most quintessentially Midwestern large cities in my mind. Everything east of the Mississippi has a bit of that east coast feel (save maybe Indianapolis). Chicago has a very Midwestern sensibility to it as well, but your point about it feeling east coast makes sense.
Just noting the irony, Minneapolis is on both the east and west side of the Mississippi River.
Just noting the irony, Minneapolis is on both the east and west side of the Mississippi River.
But entirely in Minnesota.
I guess I should have qualified that with "eastern Midwest states", which while not officially delineated, Minnesota wouldn't be considered a part of.
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