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Cities like San Fran, NYC and New Orleans offer a "european style" vibe of city experience and cosmopolitan living that others in the US can't really offer on the same level.
In recent years, you might add Boston, Chicago and possibly LA to that list.
Anyway, a different topic.
In "recent years" you can add Boston or Chicago?
Boston has been called "America's Walking City" for decades and has always been quite walkable.
Oh absolutely, that aspect influenced his attitude towards city offerings, and that quote, for sure.
Of course it was a bit tongue in cheek at the time, but I think also had some truth to it as well. In the 1920s/30s, the gay lifestyle was definitely much more acknowledged and a "thing" (not necessarily accepted) in cities like San Fran, NYC and New Orleans, and those cities attracted the creatives, artists and lovers of fine art, food/drink, theater, and anything considered perhaps "debaucherous" in other areas of the United States at the time.
Interestingly though, those same 3 cities are amongst my favorite in the US, even today. They seem to have a creative spirit about them that embraces the "cosmopolitan and free artist," that some other US cities may not capture or have an abundance of, as well.
You’re ignoring the fact New Orleans and Cleveland were far different than they are today. They aged poorly moreso than the quote
The bizarre nature of that quote has a lot more to due with what the world was like in 1940 compared to today than anything else.
Phoenix, Las Vegas, San Jose and Inland Empire are up there. Virginia Beach/Newport News is also pretty bad when it comes to “city” feeling.
I would say the city that gets this crown is probably Fort Myers//Cape Coral. Just that entire area of SW florida is built up with miles and miles of suburbia but no real cores or anything.
A couple of honorably mentions would be Killeen and Fayetteville but I don’t know if they are really big enough to count.
In the future, Sioux Falls might start appearing on lists like this. It’s downtown isn’t terrible for of a city of its size currently but if it keeps growing at the pace currently and the downtown area doesn’t expand outside of the area it’s currently in, it’s going to start feeling very sunbelty, even more than now.
Tennessee Williams obviously must not have visited Philadelphia and Boston to limit it to those 3. Philadelphia are just as much City- like. There are a lot more, but those two are glaring omissions. Maybe he was limiting it to the 3 general areas (North, South and West), picking one city from each?
Yeah it’s obviously an exaggeration but it’s based on a true subject.
When Tennessee Williams made that quote most of the big cities beyond the east coast had only become big cities within the lifetimes of people who were alive back then. They were the Phoenixes and Orlandos of that era. Detroit, for example had only been a major city for a few decades.
It was also likely that he was talking about the cultural life of places more than the built environment. The cultural life of American cities has evolved profoundly since then.
Virginia Beach is unparalleled when it comes to this. It makes the anemic urban cores of Riverside, San Bernardino, Las Vegas etc...look like an actual "old city" traditional downtown.
Next up has to be Fort Meyers/Cape Coral. Most of Florida is endless Euclidian copy and pasted suburbs, but the Fort Meyers metro (more specifically Cape Coral) takes it to another level.
The best thing that area offers is Sanibel Key, which is the antithesis to urbanism (and quite pleasant to be honest).
San Jose...they biggest, wealthiest city in the Bay Area but not even considered as the regions capital.
They have a cute, well built up urban core though. You at least feel like you're somewhere.
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