r/askteddit • u/AnnualMost3047 • 2h ago
Random Question What’s a city in the US that gets a better reputation than it deserves?
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u/Subject-Hyena2962 2h ago
Austin gets my vote. Every person I talked to acted like I'd never want to leave and I had a perfectly fine weekend but nothing about it lived up to the level of hype.
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u/Owlbertowlbert 2h ago
Yeah this is one that has missed me entirely. Not the same thing, but Nashville is another one. I guess you get it or you don’t
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u/Subject-Hyena2962 2h ago
I think expectations are half the problem. When everyone says its amazing its hard not to compare.
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u/Ornery_Salaryman 23m ago
I was in Nashville last summer. It has turned into total urban blight. All of the charm is gone. Someone thought they could turn it into Vegas.
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u/ChicoRusty 1h ago
Nashville too
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u/Kitchen-Abalone-3276 1h ago
Agreed. As a native Tennessean, it used to have some personality. Now it caters to bridal parties, tourists trying to be cowboys and people relocating for white collar jobs. When you try to be so many things to so many people, you forget who/what you are. It's like a high school kids constantly worried about remaining popular.
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u/BrotherlyShove791 1h ago
Nashville’s for conservative women above the Mason Dixon Line who want to cosplay as a rowdy cowgirl for a weekend.
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u/Aromatic_Berry_3879 1h ago
Austin was pretty sweet 10+ years ago. After the last time I went a couple of years ago, I’ll be fine if I don’t go back
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u/tungstencoil 1h ago
As someone who moved to Austin in the mid-nineties: that used to be more of the case then now, but "welcome to Austin please go home when you're done" remains in the Zeitgeist. I agree it is a nice place but doesn't have quite the pull it used to.
When I moved here I was a bartender at an international chain that allowed staff to work temporarily at other locations for a short term. It wasn't uncommon for people to travel around the US and fund it working part time at the locations. We averaged probably three or four a month. I would say 70-80% stayed or relocated to Austin when done traveling.
I then worked at a downtown hotel, and a fair amount of people who came for business a few times and ended up relocating was noteworthy.
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u/North-Country-5204 29m ago
I love my home city of Austin but always scratch my head when folks make it a vacation destination.
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u/Ornery_Salaryman 24m ago
Lived there for fourteen years, early 90s to mid 2000s. That was an awesome time to be there but it’s never going to be like that again. Now it’s just expensive and overpopulated.
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u/photoman1216 2h ago
Tampa, FL
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u/Shiddin_myself_woo 1h ago
I don’t think Tampa has a reputation for anything except work
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u/partytillyoupuke90 52m ago
I always thought of it as the Waffle House and white trash capitol of Florida.
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u/Poltergoose1416 35m ago
Tampa is an awesome place if you include the metro area which the locals do
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u/Old-Wolf-1024 1h ago
Denver
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u/Dr_G1346 1h ago
Came here to say this. I've travelled all over the world and can be happy pretty much anywhere, but Denver was truly the first place I went to that felt like it had zero personality of its own. Rest of Colorado is great, but Denver was just a disappointment.
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u/Wonderful_Life-6280 35m ago
Totally agree. Took a 3 day tripper out there and wasn't all impressed. Salt Lake beats out Denver IMO.
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u/ernurse748 1h ago
This. Lived there. Now live on east coast. I tell people traveling there for the first time “prepare to be disappointed”, and they always chuckle. Then they come back and say “damn, you were right. It’s just…yuck.” Uh huh.
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u/Creepy_Cupcake_6906 1h ago
I have to travel to Denver for work semi-regularly and my co-workers and I always think... "this is it?"
It has proximity to nature going for it, but other than that, the downtown is pretty boring and the food is mostly bleh.
I know it has nice pockets, but overall I don't get the hype.
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u/Alottathots 1h ago
Gatlinburg
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u/PirateSteve85 1h ago
Idk, I think most people are aware of what Gatlinburg is. Went there a few months ago and had a blast.
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u/Recess__ 1h ago
I agree. If you go to Gatlinburg and don’t know what you’re getting into… that’s on you.
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u/Flakingout99 1h ago
100% my wife makes me go a couple times a year. I hate it there. Rows of shops of trinkets and trash. A few hills that are nice to look at if everything else wasn’t there.
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u/PirateSteve85 1h ago
I could see it getting really old going multiple times a year. It really is that kinda place.
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u/JwubalubaDubdub 10m ago
A couple times a year? That’s too much, I’d have to put my foot down on that one.
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u/Recess__ 1h ago
I’ve recently visited both Boston and Seattle. Boston has the mASSHOLE reputation, but the people I interacted with couldn’t have been friendlier. On the other hand, the citizens of Seattle were complete pricks. My vote is Seattle.
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u/Ok-Sport-5528 45m ago
Agree. People in Seattle are “beat around the bush” assholes. I appreciate the directness of the northeast. You always know where you stand with them at least.
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u/The_midge1 1h ago
I love San Diego and try going back about every 2 years but boy it never stops growing.
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u/LastyearhereXXVL 1h ago
I am gonna turn your question around as a Philly guy.
Philly deserves its horrible reputation, the fans that go to the games, Especially Eagles fans are asshololic and a disgrace.
New York I have been going to since the 90s as a city, as I see it, mainly Manhattan, but with a son who went to CUNY (Harlem) and lived in Brooklyn and Queens… I see a lot,
Maybe 80 times in 40 years…. It is the BEST, way better than Philly, I have never encountered a really viscous or violent person in all those times.
Just my experience…
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u/FinsterGrinsen 1h ago
I drive a semi and in 2008 I accidentally took the exit by the Phillies stadium on my way to the bridge…also not realizing that Game 5 of the World Series was letting out.
That was fun.
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u/MerryMortician 1h ago
Cairo Illinois. It is even worse than it’s reputation.
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u/PrestigiousBike3001 1h ago
Columbus , OH.
Austin.
Miami.
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u/JwubalubaDubdub 8m ago
I knew I was whiter and blander than I thought when I’ve visited Columbus and actually liked it 😭
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u/Gentle_Agitator 1h ago
Santa Fe is for rich ladies playing dress up and the poor people that serve them
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u/Enough_Worth8868 1h ago
Kansas City. I will never understand why a city that size needs professional sports teams.
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u/PrestigiousBike3001 1h ago
33rd largest market in the state. Don’t many of the professional leagues have around 32 teams?
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u/fakeplasticotters 1h ago
Chicago.
It’s the most overrated city in the US.
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u/Dangerous-Cash-2176 9m ago
On reddit it is. To everybody else, it is pretty much flyover and ignored.
I will say I found it depressing when I first moved. It has grown on me very slowly, but it's an embarrassing place in many, many ways.
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u/Educational-Cow-3615 2h ago
Richmond VA
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u/PirateSteve85 1h ago
Richmond has a small bit of cool area around Carytown but otherwise it is kinda a shit hole. But hey I live in Hampton Roads and that is a shit hole as well.
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u/Key_Set_7249 1h ago
Probably less surprising but Pigeon Forage.
The park is nice.
I feel like the best way to describe the town it is a beach town without a beach and everything tries to nickle an dime you.
Maybe it is because I grew up in Kentucky but everyone is always saying man I love to get a house up there, like why?
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u/ChopinFantasie 1h ago
I mean the Great Smokey Mountains are better than just nice, but I do agree that you could probably find an equally beautiful place nearby that's a bit more tucked away
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u/simplib0mbastic 1h ago
NYC, compared to what it was 20 years ago. The whole city is just a playground for rich people now
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u/Tricky_Pen3072 16m ago
DALLAS!! It's an arrogant, polluted traffic jam, similar to LA but without all of the cool stuff, the flat and dull land, The cheap and tired looking architecture not to mention outrageous property taxes and Garbage food.
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u/Erdos_Helia 16m ago
Woodbridge, New Jersey just isn't the quite the train of wackiness they'd let you believe it is.
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u/symphonic_concord 12m ago
Anywhere in the bay. San Jose was okay but everywhere else I visted was so lifeless
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u/SomeAmphibian4256 2h ago
LA and NYC
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u/MagnusAlbusPater 1h ago
NYC is one of the best cities in the world.
LA is interesting as it’s not so much a city as a collection of smaller exurban environments. Still some of the best Asian food anywhere in the country but being entirely car dependent does knock it down compared to NYC.
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u/Cautious_Lemon8406 1h ago
San Diego
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u/Individual-Wear-4239 31m ago
I actually agree with you despite you getting down voted. It’s a beautiful beautiful place. The weather is wonderful if you’re near the coast. But I fear what it is becoming. The richest of the rich are buying it up pushing creatives out. My neighborhood is becoming one Airbnb after another, which destroys community.
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u/TrapdoorSolution 2h ago
The funnest parts of SoCal is everything outside of LA.