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The very little time I was in Mobile made me want to go back and visit for a while and see what it had to offer. My flash opinion was positive but I had never given it any thought before that. So far, I've never made it back.
Yeah, it's one of the places where you say you'd never want to live there, but I've said the same about New Orleans. It also gets sketchy a couple blocks very quickly off the main roads But Dauphin Street is awesome, like a mini-Bourbon Street and amazing history and museums everywhere.
Actually, I fairly quickly learn to like most cities where I actually get of the car instead of just passing through. Once you get down on the ground, they're all OK
Grand Rapids, MI -- I was expecting it, and the entire rest of the state of Michigan, to be nothing but urban blight, a la Detroit. Ridiculous, I know, but sometimes you just get stupid ideas in your head and they won't let go. My first visit there (which was my first visit to anywhere in Michigan) was soon after I married my wife, whose brother and his family live there. I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I liked that city, and even after multiple visits since then, I still like it very much.
Amarillo, TX -- Another one of those places where I'd formed a negative opinion about it without having any real reason why. I had occasion to pass through and spend the night there one time, and while a single night is hardly enough to judge an entire city, what little I did see left me, surprisingly, favorably impressed. There was another city on that same trip that I also expected to dislike, and it turned out that I did indeed dislike it. But in keeping with the positive spirit of this thread, I'm not going to name it.
Baltimore, MD -- For years, my only experience with Baltimore was riding through it on the train. And let me tell you, you don't see the best parts of that city from the train. But wouldn't you know it, my job took me there when I was in my late 20s, and I discovered that Baltimore has so much more to offer than I would have ever imagined.
Valdosta, GA -- This one is a little different. I had absolutely no opinion about it one way or another, and on my first visit there, on a business trip, my initial impression was not helped by the fact that the airline misplaced my luggage. (My bag decided to spend the night in Atlanta on the way down and then joined me the next day.) My business was conducted outside of the city proper, and in fact I don't even remember if I ever saw the place. But I really enjoyed that trip, in large part because the person I ended up meeting with was a kind, sweet, attractive young woman with one of the most ear-meltingly charming Southern accents I'd ever heard. So I really can't say anything about Valdosta itself, good or bad, but I still have very pleasant associations with it.
Hartford: I thought I would hate it and it would be a **** shoe but it turned out to be really cool with amazing top tier suburbs.
Springfield Ma:: I expected like a really bad Detroit or Memphis level city. But it wasnt all that blighted imo. Just really boring and dead. But hey, atleast I didn't see a gun fight. some ways it's a pretty cool city.
I didn't expect to enjoy Los Angeles as much as I did. I enjoyed great food, great music, delightful Shakespear play in the park, met wonderful people, experienced inspiring art exhibits. I never drove, but used uber everywhere I went, so I never had to deal with traffic or parking. I'm looking forward to another visit some day.
Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
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Phoenix - My first visit was in 2012 when I moved to NM. I had previously written it off as beige, boring, and cookie cutter sunbelt sprawl. On my first visit I actually ended up really liking it. I love the Sonoran desert landscaping, Papago Park, and the Desert Botanical gardens. Phoenix, Scottsdale, and Tempe have decent nightlife and very good dining. Downtown Phoenix, though not very exciting, is growing and evolving and it has a lot of cool murals and street art. The light rail is better than expected as well. I went back for a number of repeat visits and I always enjoy my time there.
I travel for work.. honestly most cities I have been to aren’t bad. It’s hard for me to include southern cities because humidity just makes me automatically hate everyone and everything in life.
Baltimore, MD - I had a blast here, this city gets a lot of heat but I enjoyed visiting there a lot. Way more fun than DC IMO.
Any city in the Inland Empire, CA - Must just be LA and OC hating on the working class, I found riverside, Redlands, RC and Ontario to be nice areas.
Reno, NV - Probably my second favorite city after the one I currently live in (Denver) fun town, crazy people, great skiing nearby.. downtown area is fun. I enjoyed it.
Amarillo, TX - Let’s be honest, the town sucks but god damn I had a blast there. The downtown area is a lot of fun. There’s some pretty amazing restaurants in this town and it’s pretty diverse (segregated af but still)
Below are cities I really enjoyed working in as well.
Milwaukee, WI,
Duluth, MN
Syracuse, New York
Buffalo, New York
Mexico City, Mexico
Santa Fe, NM
Lincoln, NE
Lethbridge, Alberta
Love would be an awfully strong word, but I’ve developed an appreciation for Detroit.
I expected Phoenix to be not too shabby, but after visiting I’d totally live there if someone turned down the heat 20 degrees at any given moment.
For me there is no city that Ive been to expecting to hate or dislike it. I try to give every city a fair shot. But there are many cities Ive been to expecting to have no opinion on it but ended up coming away with a favorable impression. Here are some of mine:
Salt Lake City - I went up for a cousins wedding once expecting it to be naturally beautiful but for the city to just be average. I was really blown away by how nice the city was, how much there was to do and how friendly everyone was.
Amarillo, TX - I was genuinely surprised by the quality of Thai food and the diversity given its location.
Grand Rapids, MI - One of the best craft beer scenes anywhere!
I bet Amarillo gets a lot of the migrants from the larger Texas cities who want to open businesses in LCOL area.
Boston and New York (Manhattan) for me. Growing up in the Midwest, there’s definitely a feeling of disrespect by the coastal metros. You know, we’re flyover country. So pretty much my whole life before I graduated college I was anti-NY and Boston.
After college I traveled extensively for work and fell in love with both cities. I wouldn’t want to live there, but loved visiting both. New York just feels alive at all times. Really just impressive. Boston oozes history at every turn and I loved chatting sports at local pubs. The respect and appreciation by locals for the STL Cardinals history was really cool. My first visit I found myself at a pub downtown and an older gentleman started waxing poetic about the great old days with Ted Williams and Stan Musial when he found out I was from the STL area. Really cool.
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