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You know--I really think it will come down to what you are looking for. The idea of cosmopolitan is going to deliver different concepts about what that means.
Does it mean "genteel" as in historical, literary, intellectual, and quality? That is Oxford. The university has a magnificent campus and will host a presidential debate.
However, if it means "action" as in near to the beaches and casinos, goods and services, interesting foodstuffs and restaurants, multiple housing options, plenty of golf courses--then Hattiesburg is your best bet.
Oxford is unique. It touches the soul. Hattiesburg has more choices.
I do disagree about Hattiesburg being just a strip mall kind of place. It does have that element but also some local interesting variety. For example, there are two good Thai restaurants and several sushi places, Robert St. John's Purple Parrot fine dining, independent bookstores, cafe bars, and two universities that provide arts and entertainment.
You need to spend a few days in both. Two good choices for you.
Oxford is a wonderful place to visit, but one of the most boring places I've ever lived (especially if you are young).
I think what causes the mix of opinions on this subject is the use of "sophisticated" and "liberal" as if they are connected. Some will read "sophisticated" and think classical music, art museums, and historic preservation... ie "classy". Which isn't necessarilly liberal or conservative.
Oxford might be more "classy", but Hattiesburg is beyond a doubt more liberal.
Oxford has an air of privilege, while Hattiesburg feels more common. But hey, I'm a gizmo geek so if you don't have at least a best buy, I don't like you. I also thought Ole Miss was the better school - till I realized that no one gives a poop about either one outside of MS, especially not here in DC (where I since moved).
I have lived in Hattiesburg on and off my entire life, and I have also been to oxford numerous times with friends that attended ole miss. It definitely depends on what you're looking for when you're comparing the cities. Oxford has historical value and is a gorgeous place. The old homes and unique city center is great. But my opinion is that Hattiesburg is more cosmopolitan. Hattiesburg, in fact, does have recording studios and yes Hattiesburg has had stories from numerous nationwide publications, i.e. National Geographic, The USA today, the today show touting Hattiesburg's high quality of life.
I agree to an extent that Hattiesburg would have a transient feel to someone who doesn't live here, but to the residents, you could not ask for a better location. We are almost dead in the center of New Orleans, Mobile, the coast, and Jackson.
To respond to a previous post stating that Oxford has Memphis and Hattiesburg has Jackson as the closest big city. Hattiesburg has New Orleans, world-renowned for tourism, food, culture, etc. Again, personal preference, I would choose New Orleans over Memphis.
In Hattiesburg, we have several local restaurants that have amazing food which have also received recognition. Oxford has a few venues that do offer great live music, but as far as diversity, I give Hattiesburg the upper advantage. Oxford, for younger people, comes across as a fraternity/sorority town, even off campus at night.
Hattiesburg is much larger, and those all the figures provided are out of date. Since Hurricane Katrina many residents from around the entire coastal region now live in Hattiesburg. Look at estimates from 2006+ and you will find that the city proper now has give or take 50,000 and the metro is around 150,000.
Many boutiques have moved into the area and we have had some for several years. Unlike Oxford, you may have to drive all points of the compass to find them, but they are there. Hattiesburg is a lot more spread out than Oxford and that’s why the “shopping” mentioned seems somewhat more robust than Hattiesburg, because it’s more conveniently located. Most of Hattiesburg’s shopping that is consolidated is overrun by big box chains.
Oxford is a nice little town to visit, but outside the arts scene at Ole Miss, the town has little to offer. While there are some charming restaurants on the town square, it's still just your basic tiny southern town. I actually enjoyed going to college there, but I can't imagine trying to live there as an adult.
Hattiesburg, on the other hand, has grown a lot in the past few years. The downtown area is getting rebuilt and refurbished, and USM brings in some really impressive concerts and shows. The productions done entirely by the university are worth seeing too. H'burg definitely doesn't feel as gentile as Oxford, which positively reeks of old south money, but H'burg can match Oxford for the arts scene and far surpasses it for general resources.
I am going to have to disagree with a few of these points. Hattiesburg's art scene is a fairly large one with festivals held in the Fall and Spring each year. There have been many efforts in the past three years to really promote the arts in and around the area and from my experiences, I say it is working. Also, the music scene in Hattiesburg is so much better than in Oxford. Yes, Hattiesburg hosts artists from Oxford, but also from places all over the country. If you are into Indie type stuff, the Thirsty Hippo is always host to amazing artists. If you are more into popular stuff, the Bottling Company has grown to such great heights in the past year and has had major artists perform. The music and arts scene in Hattiesburg is great and without a doubt better than that in Oxford. It is diverse, growing, and on going.
The Oxford music scene is actually rated much higher than Hattiesburg. I've seen it ranked in the Top 10 College Town Music Scenes.
[quote=tennreb;3341156]The City of Oxford's population is about 20k, which is a good thing. After living in Knoxville, which has 500k in its metro, you realize that size doesn't matter when it comes to cosmopolitan. Oxford is much more cosmopolitan than Knoxville.>>
Knoxville's metro is 700K, and growing about 2 per cent a year. That is not including two counties touching it to the east, both of which that have more population than that of Lafeyette County, which liberally I will place at 45K. Oxford has a very nice square of about 1-2 miles, and have spent some good weekends there. After you get past the square and college, the rest (about 5 miles) seems pretty suburban/cookie cutter to me. In the rural areas of Lafhyette county there are some nice neighborhods here and there, but Knoxville has 20 miles of uninterrupted very large houses on an almost continuous lake.
Yes, Oxford is better than any town in Northern MS (that's not saying much) but to compare it to a metro that is larger than of Jackson, MS is crazy.
And no matter how many cocktail dresses are worn or fraternity tents rise, there is no comparison between UT fotball and Ole Miss football, unless you don't care about the game itself. Last year, we made more money in 1 game than Ole Miss probably made their whole season (what was their attendance, like 10,000 a game?).
If you can't find more to do in Knoxville than Oxford, you must have stayed in all the time or had friends that just went to one or two places over and over, kind of like my Flying Saucer friends in Memphis (
The City of Oxford's population is about 20k, which is a good thing. After living in Knoxville, which has 500k in its metro, you realize that size doesn't matter when it comes to cosmopolitan. Oxford is much more cosmopolitan than Knoxville.>>
Knoxville's metro is 700K, and growing about 2 per cent a year. That is not including two counties touching it to the east, both of which that have more population than that of Lafeyette County, which liberally I will place at 45K. Oxford has a very nice square of about 1-2 miles, and have spent some good weekends there. After you get past the square and college, the rest (about 5 miles) seems pretty suburban/cookie cutter to me. In the rural areas of Lafhyette county there are some nice neighborhods here and there, but Knoxville has 20 miles of uninterrupted very large houses on an almost continuous lake.
Yes, Oxford is better than any town in Northern MS (that's not saying much) but to compare it to a metro that is larger than of Jackson, MS is crazy.
And no matter how many cocktail dresses are worn or fraternity tents rise, there is no comparison between UT fotball and Ole Miss football, unless you don't care about the game itself. Last year, we made more money in 1 game than Ole Miss probably made their whole season (what was their attendance, like 10,000 a game?).
If you can't find more to do in Knoxville than Oxford, you must have stayed in all the time or had friends that just went to one or two places over and over, kind of like my Flying Saucer friends in Memphis (
Yes, Knoxville is pretty large, but that is about it. It's not about having nice houses. It's about the way of life. In Knoxville, it's boring. The people are boring, the campus is boring, the town is just boring. There are no good restaurants. No decent shopping. The nightlife is somewhat OK. Knoxville isn't a horrible place, just a typical mid-sized American city. The only redeeming factors are good college sports (just the game itself because the atmosphere surrounding the games doesn't exist) and close proximity to the mountains. Other than that, it is just a sprawling, boring town.
I agree that Oxford is a nice town. I am not originally from Oxford, but graduated from Ole Miss. I moved to this town in 1990 as a freshman and still live here today. Throughout the last few years, a lot of Oxford's charm has been stripped away. The town has basically overlooked the people that actually live here. It's a college town and of course that's what Oxford caters to. Condos, townhomes, and anything else that can be built near the square, is totally ruining the charm of the square. As a single teacher, I would never be able to afford a house in Oxford. Once I am done with this last degree, I must leave. There isn't very much available under 100s. that would be really nice or close to town. Oxford earned the title of one of the greatest retirement towns also. Of course people whom are looking for second homes may find one here because Oxford caters to them and Ole Miss alumni (gameday weekends) also.
Oxford is also very clique-ish. It is very hard to integrate within different groups. There are so many lawyer, doctor, banker, etc. families in this town it is unbelievable. Long as I have been here I have never seen a town where people suck-up to be friends are aquaintances with one another. All the stay-at-home moms shop all day and attend parties at night with hubby. Don't dare have a party and and leave someone out. Major meltdown they almost need a week of prozac until they recover.
Also this town has a history of racial situations that occurred in the 1960s when everything was segregated. Many of these things then are still present in this town today: churches, square, grove on gamedays, clubs (junior auxillary, garden club) etc. Oh and did you forget that Ole Miss was ranked another year as one of the #1 party schools in the U.S. Boy are we proud of that! There are many great people that live in this town and many with a little money that are SNOTS & SNOBBS that ruin it for us lower middle-class people that have to work over 40 hours a day or that work 2 or 3 other jobs just to keep up with the cost of living in this town.
I love this town but it has really taken a turn for the worse. I have seen many good people leave this town because they simply can't afford to live here anymore and they were born and grew up in this town. It's just isn't fair but life isn't I guess. Oxford really needs to take a step back and look at the people that actually call this home permanently and not those that call it home temporarily or as their second home.
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Oxford probably has more events and intellectualism than Hattiesburg, that's probably true. Square Books (is it still around) seems at least one bastion for liberals to hang out. Still, I agree that Hattiesburg is less cultured although more down to earth, but much bigger - meaning it doesn't suffer from Oxford's reputation for being a snotty elitist town. Personally, I think it's a coin flip between the two towns.
If the town's themselves don't lend a straight answer, then your next task is to decide upon the biggest cities within a reasonable driving distance. For H'burg, that's New Orleans (or Biloxi, if you're really into beaches); for Oxford, Memphis.
Oxford-Memphis distance is abut 70 miles. Hattiesburg-Biloxi is about the same. Hattiesburg-New Orleans is about 100 miles. Both N.O. and Memphis definitely have strengths and weaknesses relative to each other. The main Memphis strength is that a) it's growing somewhat faster than N.O, b) corruption, while bad, still doesn't hold a candle to N.O's c) crime, while definitely bad, again, still doesn't approach N.O's. d) I think Memphis is somewhat cleaner than N.O. e) no hurricanes (no explaination needed, tragically)
On the other hand, N.O. has Mardi Gras, a somewhat more liberal social climate (though Memphis PROPER is not exactly know for being a Conservative bastion either - Midtown is probably the Mid-South's most liberal place outside N.O.), warmer weather, Miss Beaches are only an hour away.
IN the end, it will boil down to precisely what you want in life. Regardless, if you want a full spate of cosmopolitanism, you WILL have to drive 70 to 100 miles to the bigger cities, regardless of whether you end up in Oxford or Hattiesburg.
Yes, Knoxville is pretty large, but that is about it. It's not about having nice houses. It's about the way of life. In Knoxville, it's boring. The people are boring, the campus is boring, the town is just boring. There are no good restaurants. No decent shopping. The nightlife is somewhat OK. Knoxville isn't a horrible place, just a typical mid-sized American city. The only redeeming factors are good college sports (just the game itself because the atmosphere surrounding the games doesn't exist) and close proximity to the mountains. Other than that, it is just a sprawling, boring town.>>
With the growth in Knoxville, a lot of people disagree with you, and I would rather live in a metro area with access to a lot more recretational and shopping opportunities than Oxford which is basically in the middle of nowhere with nothing exciting close to it except the casinos and Memphis, and that is an hour. My guess is you moved to Knoxville not wanting to move there, you only lived there a very short time and didn't develop any menaingful ties or relationships, and you basically didn't give it a chance. But hey, everyone has a difference of opinion, that is what makes life interesting.
However, to generalize that the people of Knoxville are boring (all 700,000 or 180,000 of them, whichever stat you want to use) and then compare to Oxford is strange. I think we can all agree that Oxford would be another speck on the map like Senatobia, and all the other MS towns until you reach Jackson if not for the college. Also, Oe Miss has brought nearly all of the amenities that would make the town "cosmpolitan".
I consider the Ole Miss students (about what 10,000 out of the total 45,000 county populace) to be fairly uniform (90% greek, all dress the same, etc.), which in my opinion is pretty boring. As a matter of fact, a running joke among a couple of a couple of my friends who work in HR is how similar or identical an interview with an Ole Miss grad is, it is like they are "programmed" to think alike in their 4 years.
Just my two cents, depending on your tastes, Knoxville people are more boring and less cosmoplitan compared to New York or even Nashville, but not Oxford, unless you consider wearing khakis, polos and greek letters all the time the pinnacle of that lifestyle.
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No Diversity
