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San Francisco has the worst rep on citydata because its far west and there seems to be a lot of west coast haters on here and SF haters from other cities in west coast. SF is the 2nd most urban city in US or Canada (over 19k ppsm), most beautiful, most ethnically diverse, best high end food city in US by Michelin stars, most mild weather (METRO), most diverse geographically (METRO has rainforest in redwood forest to semi arid desert like climate, to snow capped mountains often, waterfalls, cliffs, valleys, lakes etc), SF is very successful and historic, most progressive politically and socially, most accepting of differences, winner of outstanding city awards from reputable magazines world wide, most powerful community METRO, resilient, and many other great things but yet theres east coasters who try to compare DC and philly to SF when it's not even close. SF is 2nd to none. The nyc of the west but offers so much more because of nature and weather too. Undisputed top 3 city in US along with LA,NYC, Chi imo. I actually like SF more than LA. NYC is the only city that rivals SF. I'm just saying though... we all got opinions and ways we measure a great city so this is my take. Feel free to agree or disagree, I'm just stating my angle with reason.
I’m looking at the phrase “unfair reputation” for what it is, and I frequently see certain cities being unfairly overpraised on CD. These cities have somehow managed to portray an image of being “booming”, “progressive”, even “second tier.” But in reality, they are no better than their peers, cities of similar size.
So I’m voting for Denver, because it has gotten plenty of undue praise— certainly more so than Houston, Orlando or Phoenix receive.
I don’t see Denver getting praise over it’s peer cities very often on here. But over the last few year Denver has had a booming economy/population growth and is moving in a more progressive direction. I feel like that’s fair to say.
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Originally Posted by Phil P
I'm not entirely sure why that one was taken, but that's how it looks normally. Civic center park over to the capital building is full of dozens of people with their carts and trash around, at least it was 3 months ago when I took that way home from work. There's not pics of the capitol building with homeless people, probably because the city of Denver doesn't want that broadcast.
Ive never seen homeless people right on the steps of the capitol. Civic center park sure, but we can’t act like it’s hard to find photos like this in most major cities.
San Francisco has the worst rep on citydata because its far west and there seems to be a lot of west coast haters on here and SF haters from other cities in west coast. SF is the 2nd most urban city in US or Canada (over 19k ppsm), most beautiful, most ethnically diverse, best high end food city in US by Michelin stars, most mild weather (METRO), most diverse geographically (METRO has rainforest in redwood forest to semi arid desert like climate, to snow capped mountains often, waterfalls, cliffs, valleys, lakes etc), SF is very successful and historic, most progressive politically and socially, most accepting of differences, winner of outstanding city awards from reputable magazines world wide, most powerful community METRO, resilient, and many other great things but yet theres east coasters who try to compare DC and philly to SF when it's not even close. SF is 2nd to none. The nyc of the west but offers so much more because of nature and weather too. Undisputed top 3 city in US along with LA,NYC, Chi imo. I actually like SF more than LA. NYC is the only city that rivals SF. I'm just saying though... we all got opinions and ways we measure a great city so this is my take. Feel free to agree or disagree, I'm just stating my angle with reason.
Well said. I disagree on nearly all your points but I respect unapologetically stating your opinion. That’a basically all anyone is trying to do on these forums.
Ive never seen homeless people right on the steps of the capitol. Civic center park sure, but we can’t act like it’s hard to find photos like this in most major cities.
Last time I drove by they were right on the front lawn, dozens. IDK what it's like now with the shutdown. I will say the city of Denver has tried to address the problem and they have been proactive at it, it's just the city has really had a flood of these people come in and they can't just ship them out on the next train. They keep getting sued by activist groups unfortunately. It is what it is sadly, but no, it's not the norm everywhere; Little Rock or places like that don't have the same homeless situation.
Last time I drove by they were right on the front lawn, dozens. IDK what it's like now with the shutdown. I will say the city of Denver has tried to address the problem and they have been proactive at it, it's just the city has really had a flood of these people come in and they can't just ship them out on the next train. They keep getting sued by activist groups unfortunately. It is what it is sadly, but no, it's not the norm everywhere; Little Rock or places like that don't have the same homeless situation.
Almost all major cities do have this problem, although it may not be to the extent as that picture you posted. Little Rock is not a major city.
I think the OP should have added his honorable mention cities to the poll. The cities he put in the poll are exactly as he describes them and I believe a lot of people feel the same way about all of them. Miami and Detroit however would have had a better chance of winning. Detroit has become America’s favorite underdog city. The op says it’s mostly ghetto and that would be correct. He also says it has a really cool downtown for a midwestern city and that is also true. Those who love Detroit will make a strong argument based on Detroit’s downtown redevelopment. Miami is a world city in my opinion. It is a major international destination and it’s the seat of Caribbean culture in the US. It is a unique city in the country, a unique city in Florida and those who chose it would make that strong argument. IMO Miami and Detroit would have led this poll if the OP had included them in it.
You couldn't pay me to live there because of the atrocious climate but Phoenix gets a lot of hate on here for being 'sprawly' so I will go with Phoenix.
It isn't a bad city outside of the heat/desert environment. The road system is well-designed, there is a live-let-live atmosphere, and it's a blend of native born and transplants.
Two really hated ones not on the list which are really unfairly judged: Detroit and Cleveland. To a lesser extent Buffalo and Chicago.
Same can be done with Phoenix. Phoenix ranks 5th in population at 1.6 million, but that's in 517 sq miles. Boston blows past Phoenix population in ~200 sq miles despite it "only" having 685k in 48 sq miles.
So while on paper they are larger, functionally they're not (which isn't a detractor)
But a huge '*' need to be on that. Phoenix has the largest municipal parks in the country. The largest being South Mountain Park which is about the same size as the city of Boston. Then you have Phoenix Mountain Preserve, Sonoran Desert Preserve, etc.. There are over 200 miles of trails in city limits.
So yes, nowhere near the density of a place like Boston but you can't just look at the size vs the population.
But a huge '*' need to be on that. Phoenix has the largest municipal parks in the country. The largest being South Mountain Park which is about the same size as the city of Boston. Then you have Phoenix Mountain Preserve, Sonoran Desert Preserve, etc.. There are over 200 miles of trails in city limits.
So yes, nowhere near the density of a place like Boston but you can't just look at the size vs the population.
Yes, this. Can't stress this enough. Just because it has a large border, doesn't mean all of that land is really inhabited by people. As mentioned above some carved out sections within the city boundary are just extremely large parks/preserves/recreation area, but the populated metro as a whole is mostly grouped or condensed together with large portions of unpopulated land surrounding it. The cacti, rabbits, and coyotes that inhabit that land don't get counted in the census. The metro area is just about at 5 million and surpassed Boston as the 10th largest metro. No it's not as dense as Boston, but the populated area is not fully occupying 517+ square miles. If it ever eventually fills up with people, well then .. that'll be A LOT of people.
The fact Denver converted from being a rather boring, car/sprawling metro area to building an exciting downtown and, especially, having gone All In on mass transit; building a 100+ mile LRT + (electric) commuter rail network costing $billions has gained my instant respect.
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