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Eh. It's close to Duke right? That's a pretentious group.
Duke is in a different city.
Heck, the OMB says that it's not even in the same metro as Raleigh.
Per my previous post, I comment how I feel about both Durham and Chapel Hill.
Pittsburgh. Lots of people with a Bachelor's Degree or higher. Those people still enjoy drinking beer, watching football, and getting dirty on the weekends. Our only pretentious areas are a pocket of the Lower East End of the city (Squirrel Hill, Shadyside, etc.)
Yes, Pittsburgh immediately came to mind for this thread.
I think Philadelphia and Chicago are still great examples of this too, at least as far as large metro areas. A great balance between blue- and white-collar/"creative class."
I personally love when areas have a really good socioeconomic balance between white- and blue-collar, and especially when it's racially cross-sectional (I personally think the lack of a notable blue-collar white community is what really leads to pretentiousness in a given city).
It's tough to say. Some places are highly educated and seem to me to be unpretentious based on my standards of highly pretentious area(CambridgeMA about as pretentious as it gets this side of the St.Lawrence River). But on the ground these places may be considered highly pretentious relative to the area eg:
Madison Wisconsin
Huntsville Alabama
Caramel Indiana
Frisco Texas
IMO, Raleigh is less pretentious than its neighbors which have more pretentious universities. Raleigh's largest is a land grant, not a upper echelon private university or the oldest public university in the country.
That said, the Triangle as a whole is less pretentious than its education level may suggest.
If you exclude ITB from Raleigh; this makes sense. Otherwise...quite silly. There is a high level of pretense associated with living "ITB" in Raleigh and even more "we don't go there" in reference to other cities/towns in the area. More-so than even Chapel Hill and certainly more than Durham. If not just a different flavor of pretense for all three.
The Triangle overall though, being one of the most educated metros in the country, is far more subtle than similarly-educated Bay Area/Silicon Valley, DC, and Boston.
Pittsburgh. Lots of people with a Bachelor's Degree or higher. Those people still enjoy drinking beer, watching football, and getting dirty on the weekends. Our only pretentious areas are a pocket of the Lower East End of the city (Squirrel Hill, Shadyside, etc.)
Except Pittsburgh (metro) overall is not exactly "well educated"...it's right around national average, although it's way above national average among younger population (25-34), then those people are the one that live in the like of Squirrel Hill/Shadyside/etc.
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Otherwise, for the OP, metros like MSP somewhat fits also? I'm not familiar with the Twin Cities at all, though.
I disagree. They’re both very regionally inclined /provincial in the sense those from outside of those regions can feel excluded in many circumstances from my experiences.
Having grown up in Chicagoland: hearing this somehow doesn't surprise me but what makes you say that?
Seattle can be pretentious in that it's not blue collar anymore (it used to be) and now is missing the old laid-back vibe. There's a lot of money and more haves-have nots and even for hiking, biking and camping- it's often about the expensive gear and instagram shot. There's more conspicuous consumerism and "I'm more environmental than thou" than there used to be.
I disagree. They’re both very regionally inclined /provincial in the sense those from outside of those regions can feel excluded in many circumstances from my experiences.
I don't want to dismiss your experience, but I couldn't disagree more about Chicago using my own anecdotal experience as a gauge.
While it may not be as warm and welcoming as some smaller cities, it is one of the more inclusive big cities in North America. While it is a melting pot from across the midwest, I had folks in my circle from every corner of the United States. It felt like in nearly every neighborhood I lived in, people were friendly, curious, and well traveled.
With Philadelphia - while not as provincial as other East Coast cities like Boston - I'd certainly agree with you more.
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