Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
There is no such place called South Virginia. That’s some silly nonsense. The monicker ROVA (rest of Virginia) is used colloquially when referring to parts of the commonwealth that are not Northern Virginia.
Give it a freaking rest already. Northern Virginia is Virginia (quintessentially I might add), Miami is Florida. Atlanta is Georgia.
Yeah I’m tired of “big city is big” and therefore loses its regional stature. And all the rural Georgians I’ve met (you know those “Deep South” southerners people love to talk about) have no problems with Atlanta. They may not like Atlanta politics or some… uh, other thing about Atlanta but to them, Atlanta isn’t Mars or something like that. Still Georgia, still Southern.
Florida -favorite
Virginia
North Carolina
Texas
Georgia
South Carolina
Louisiana
Tennessee
Kentucky
Alabama
West Virginia
Mississippi
Arkansas -least favorite
Metros
1. Miami
2. Orlando
3. Norfolk/VA beach
4. Raleigh
5. Houston
6. Tampa
7. Jacksonville
8. Richmond
9. Charlotte
10. DC/Northern VA
I saw the New England ranking thread, and thought I'd create a version for the Southeast states.
Your favorite southeastern states in order
Favorite City/Town in the Southeast
Best cities overall
Best economies and job opportunities
Best tourism
Best geography
Overall favorite Southeast State?
For this poll, I'm including these states--
Virginia
West Virginia
North Carolina
South Carolina
Georgia
Florida
Kentucky
Tennessee
Alabama
Mississippi
Arkansas
Louisiana
My personal choices, ranked:
12 West Virginia: gorgeous countryside, beautiful mountains. Minimal jobs, industry and in too much overall decline
11 Mississippi: the beach and coastal region is nice. Pockets of smaller quaint towns that are nice. Too much poverty and overall lack of opportunity, statewide
10 Louisiana: New Orleans has so much character and originality, and soul. Rest of the state is rough, and stagnant, slow growing, minimal opportunity
9 Arkansas: northwest Arkansas is growing well, and is beautiful. Little Rock is surprisingly better than its reputation. Rest of state sort of struggles.
8 Kentucky: I like Lexington and the region a lot. Louisville has bright spots, but has some higher crime and is a bit too parochial for me. Eastern Kentucky is loaded with poverty and little opportunity.
7 Alabama: Huntsville has some good growth and Birmingham has so much untapped opportunity. The state though overall feels a bit backwards in its culture
6 South Carolina: Beautiful coastline, gorgeous mountains and Charleston and Greenville are growing gems of cities.
5 Florida: Miami and its area is so amazing! The beaches in Florida can be stunning. I don't love the Jacksonville or Orlando areas though, and the recent politics are terrible in the state
4 Tennessee: Nashville is booming and so much attractive about the city and region; Knoxville and Chattanooga have vibrant downtowns and good job opportunity. The state is gorgeous too. Memphis and its region are sluggish though
3 Georgia: Atlanta and Athens and that region are phenomenal. Beautiful coastline and north Georgia mountains
2 Virginia: The DC metro region is one of the best in the country. Mountain and coast are gorgeous too. Some tiny bible thumping towns are not super desirable though
1 North Carolina: Stunning western mountains and great, growing and fantastic cities in Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, Greensboro, Wilmington. A beautiful coastline too
Your favorite southeastern states in order
Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Florida, Alabama, South Carolina, Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky, Georgia, West Virginia, Mississippi
Transparency, never been to Louisiana or Florida so I'm placing them where I'd think they'd rank for me. Been everywhere else though, there may not be two states worse in The Union than West Virginia and Mississippi...
Favorite City/Town in the Southeast
My favorite place anywhere is Virginia Beach...
Best tourism
VA, NC, SC
Best geography
Virginia
Overall favorite Southeast State?
Virginia, by far. North Carolina is a distant second, followed by Tennessee. Don't really care for anywhere else...
Also, not a huge qualm, but I don't really view Arkansas and Louisiana as "Southeast" because they're West of the Mississippi River. So I look at the Southeast as, the South Atlantic states, and the Mid-South/South Central states...
Most of Arkansas is more socially oriented towards Missouri, Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. It's not a southeastern place, really. My impression is that most of Louisiana is more socially oriented towards Texas...
Also, not a huge qualm, but I don't really view Arkansas and Louisiana as "Southeast" because they're West of the Mississippi River. So I look at the Southeast as, the South Atlantic states, and the Mid-South/South Central states...
Most of Arkansas is more socially oriented towards Missouri, Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. It's not a southeastern place, really. My impression is that most of Louisiana is more socially oriented towards Texas...
They're definitely southeast. Delta/Louisiana=deep south just like Mississippi. Ozarks are very similar to southern Appalachia.
Eastern Texas (small town and rural) can be southeast culturally. Not a huge difference from there eastward.
Has anyone who is answering on this poll actually been to all 12 of these states and spent adequate time in them other than buzzing through them on an interstate highway? I can't claim that. I mean, I've driven through all of them many times, but haven't spent what I all would call adequate time in about half of them. I've certainly spent enough time in Florida, for instance, in almost every region of that state, and couldn't cast a vote on the entire state, because it's so varied from region to region, culturally. However, I will say it is the most monotonous state of the group due to terrain. But even though I've driven through all of these states many times, I've spent time in 10 of the 12. I haven't spent enough time in enough of Virginia and North Carolina to really know much about how varied those states are, though I am familiar with how different the terrain is from area to area.
Sure, why not? If you've spent your entire life living in the SE, it's a fairly compact region with most places within a day's drive for road trips/vacations. I was born and spent 10 years in Louisiana, 30+ years in FL and now live in metro Charlotte. I've spent significant time vacationing and/or visiting family in all of these states.
Yeah I’m tired of “big city is big” and therefore loses its regional stature. And all the rural Georgians I’ve met (you know those “Deep South” southerners people love to talk about) have no problems with Atlanta. They may not like Atlanta politics or some… uh, other thing about Atlanta but to them, Atlanta isn’t Mars or something like that. Still Georgia, still Southern.
I've actually worked with some rural north Georgians who believe something pretty close to that.
Not here to rank the states, but just to chime in... I think it's hilarious that posters always want to subtract NOVA from Virginia. It's kind of flattering too, NOVA is arguably the best urban suburb in the country, let alone the southeast. Outside of Atlanta & Miami there isn't one southeast metro coming close to NOVA, and honestly NOVA is more urban and connected than Atlanta. Outside of professional sports VA is a tough state to compete with and that is why poster have to subtract NOVA. Because with NOVA, Virginia become that much better IMO.
Not here to rank the states, but just to chime in... I think it's hilarious that posters always want to subtract NOVA from Virginia. It's kind of flattering too, NOVA is arguably the best urban suburb in the country, let alone the southeast. Outside of Atlanta & Miami there isn't one southeast metro coming close to NOVA, and honestly NOVA is more urban and connected than Atlanta. Outside of professional sports VA is a tough state to compete with and that is why poster have to subtract NOVA. Because with NOVA, Virginia become that much better IMO.
I think that it goes beyond that. It seems that folks here often add or subtract NOVA (and sometimes the entire state) depending on what narrative they are trying to bolster.
I can understand the temptation to see NOVA differently because it's a large population center that's culturally built around Washington, D.C. That said, a state is a state is a state, and all states have places that influence them that are different from either the state as a whole and/or other parts of the same state. As you mention, Atlanta and Miami are other giant areas that are substantially culturally different from the rest of their state, but they can't really be taken out.
Without these large metro areas, VA, GA, and FL would be much different places/states for sure. Clearly they'd all be culturally and politically much more conservative. I'd argue that every state has a place or places that are substantially distinct from their state, but often just on a smaller scale. Even cultural regions can have anomalies, like how Asheville, NC is progressive for a deeply conservative region like Appalachia, or how Eureka, Arkansas is LGBT friendly in a state that isn't known for being the same. Even at the county level, there are distinct cultural anomalies. In MiamiDade County for example, where there are a lot of progressive voters, there's also one of the country's most politically conservative cities: Hialeah.
So to you, what stops a place from being Southern is infrastructure advancement? Trains and tolls (something which also exists in Georgia, Texas, North Carolina, Virginia) having methods to handle higher volume of traffic means it's less Southern? To me that, verbatim, means you can't have any form of progress and remain Southern as a city. Cities have to adopt these technologies in order to handle higher volumes of people. That sounds, verbatim, like to be Southern means being frozen in time. You cannot grow or have demand, because then, you lose your Southern qualifier of being semi-rural. How come that doesn't apply to the other regions? Is Chicago a Northeastern city now because it has a subway, and no longer Midwestern?
Yes, what has traditionally defined the South has been much more strongly tied to its history and a culture rooted in rural traditions and practices compared to any other region in the country. It doesn't make much sense to you because the South itself didn't make much sense socially, culturally, and economically for most of its history.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
