As an Alabaman, REALLY surprised Birmingham got in over Nashville or Memphis. Or St Louis. Or KC. Anybody that voted for Bham, what was your reasoning? Not that it’s wrong, just curious.
Well I didn’t vote, but I guess some things it would be particularly good for representing are
1. The Deep South
2. Mid-Sized US cities
3. Environmental Diversity
4. Civil Rights history of the US
As well as other little fun facts such as it being the only place in the world where all the ingredients for making Iron can be found within a 10 mile radius.
The sample size for this map was really small and those smaller cities were voted on by like one or two people. Also, the way the original question was posed was very vague. I would take this whole map with a large pinch of salt.
Santa Cruz at #21 is wild! It only has about 50k people in it. I lived much of my life there and would never think to put it on this list.
I'm curious how it garnered so many votes. Any voters lurking on this thread?
I’m from Santa Cruz originally myself. I think it’s a weird little town that kind of combines a lot of stuff representative of California. Like it’s a surf town and tourist beach destination with the Boardwalk but it’s also famous for hippies and there’s redwood forests just outside of town plus you have the tech industry just over the hill and it’s right next door the mostly Hispanic farming towns in the Pajaro Valley.
It’s like a little microcosm of California but feels a little different than the other similar coastal towns like Santa Barbara or San Luis Obispo or Monterrey. Plus the legacy of Santa Cruz Skateboards t-shirts and sweatshirts means that there’s been kids all over the place who know the name Santa Cruz for years.
Agreed. I always felt like it was the quintessential California town more than any other. It's what people who haven't been to California assume the state is like. Surfing, beaches, hippies, proximity to tech, major university, amazing hiking, and even a dollop of homelessness and crime.
Yeah, but it's far more of a beach town than Paso Robles (perhaps the quintessential farm town of the entire region) and has more of a beach vibe than Salinas imo (which is weird for a literal city on the beach)
There was one particular comment that got over 300 upvotes and it listed Santa Cruz. If a comment got enough upvotes I took that as this sub agreeing with a list and that boosted it.
I also recorded every individual commented city. without adding upvotes. So i can still show every commented city if you don’t like my method of adding upvotes to the score
I would 100% put Santa Cruz on the list. It's quintessentially California, it has everything you'd expect from a Californian city. It has beaches, redwoods, surf culture, hippie culture, hiking, mountains and a quaint downtown with victorian architecture. Whenever someone tells me they're visiting California I recommend a day or 2 in Santa Cruz
No doubt it's an amazing place that punches way above it's weight class (population) in terms of cultural impact. I think it's cool that it's on the list
I know that 50k is generally the cutoff for city and SC is just over. I would have never thought of putting it on the list just because I wouldn't even have thought of it as I ran through my list of cities in the US to decide which to vote for.
Ann Arbor is a quintessential college town. It didn’t have to be Ann Arbor specifically, it could have been Chapel Hill or Charlottesville or Madison or maybe Athens, but I think it’s worth putting a college town on the list.
I was thinking “oh, there’s Ann Arbor being hella full of themselves again”. It’s a fun town, but in no way representative of the American experience at large. Extremely expensive and homogenous in pretty much every way (politically, racially, ethnically, economically/professionally). Doctors, professors, and students get to live in Ann Arbor. The people who work “support” jobs are relegated to Ypsilanti and the surrounding areas.
Denver kind of makes sense to me. Being right at the edge of the plains and the rocky mountains as a very middle size metro, it's able to represent a wide swath of the middle western of portion of the country.
Houston lower than Santa Cruz? I imagine Houston to be true Americana, fairly standard culture, high diversity, and both large, sprawling suburbs and a reviving urban core. How is it so low?
Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations episode showcases his reversal of opinion about Houston through the city’s diversity. Houston has so, so many problems, but food isn’t one of them and it’s directly due to how multicultural it is.
Any of these cities lower than Santa Cruz makes no sense tbh. Especially when others like Cleveland, Nashville, Tampa, Raleigh, cincy, Minneapolis, Portland, Raleigh, or Indy aren’t on this list
If you want the most representative American city, I have always said it was Kansas City. It sits at the junction of Midwest, Southern, and Western cultural zones, with enough culture to encompass most of the rest of the country. And it’s damn near the population center of the country.
Because it’s a terrible choice. Most Americans live relatively near a coast, Kansas City is obviously not. America is very diverse culturally and racially, Kansas City…not so much. Many American cities have dramatic skylines, or interesting geography nearby…Kansas City, yeah nope.
Picking a city because it happens to be in the middle of the country is a ludicrous method.
Kansas City is extremely diverse. Just because it’s in the middle of the country doesn’t mean it’s “nowhere” There is plenty of diversity, we have an Argentine neighborhood, a sizable indigenous community, and a very large Italian American population just to name a few.
Argentine isn’t an Argentine neighborhood, it is primarily Mexicans and other Central Americans. It’s called Argentine because that was the name of the silverworks there.
Sure, it’s the median city in a way. Yet it contains almost nothing of the things that make the top 8 unique.
It kinda reminds me of how the US military designed an airplane cockpit between WW1 and WW2 to fit a median body type and it turns out that it fit virtually no one well (fascinating story can be found [here](https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/on-average/)).
If we excluded places like NYC and Chicago, really key aspects of the US would be missing. If it's a state like any other then no need to waste space on it in a list like this.
Probably because it's only sort of Western, sort of Midwestern, and sort of Southern. Without a strong regional identity it sort of just becomes a bland melange of all three with nothing to make it stand out. The BBQ is pretty good but borrows heavily from southern and Texan traditions
The act of roasting a whole pig has been around for thousand of years from a bunch of cultures. That’s what that term means. American bbq was primarily influenced by a mixture of African American cooking and German immigrant meat markets.
I don't agree with that, American BBQ may use some of the same techniques as central Europeans like slow roasting pork, but the flavors are completely different. If you compared BBQ from KC to BBQ from Texas or Tennessee, you would need to be from one of those regions to tell the difference. Someone from Asia or Europe that didn't know any better wouldn't be able to tell the difference.
Tennessee bbq is famous for its dry rub, Texas is famous for spicy BBQ, and KC is famous for its sweet BBQ. Those are all super distinct flavors. The main similarity is the cooking style and meat used.
I do feel like that is something half the people arguing in this list forget. They're picking the most diverse representatives, the outliers, versus the examples which best represent the whole (or in some cases even a reasonable sunset).
>The BBQ is pretty good but borrows heavily from southern and Texan traditions
I thought you might not be an idiot based on your first few sentences, and then you continued. Of course all BBQ borrows from traditions, but Texan BBQ is very brisket and beef focused, most other BBQ is pork focused, and yes KC BBQ includes both but combines them and makes it its own thing. I agree that KC culture is a bit of an indistinctive melange, but KC barbeque cannot be questioned.
That actually does beg a pretty compelling question; if you did two separate surveys, for those within and those outside the US, which cities would they pick?
I suspect it would be somewhat similar. SF would probably rate higher for those replying from East Asia. Detroit might drop off the non-US list. Miami would be higher if they got a lot of responses from central/south America.
In any case, it’s a bit ironic that DC didn’t rate higher.
Biggest surprise to me was Las Vegas at number 25. Its easily top 10 or even top 5 for me.
Nothing screams America and excess like Las Vegas. It doesn't have the history and culture like some cities, but that's the point. It's new. Ultra modern. The land of tipping. Unique state laws. You can easily go to gun ranges. Smoke week. Gambling... obviously. Sports obsessed people. Rich people. Poor people. Every single kind of person and ethnicity. It's also super condensed and walkable.
If you had one weekend to show America off to a foreigner and had to choose any city, I think Las Vegas would be near the top.
>Biggest surprise to me was Las Vegas at number 25. Its easily top 10 or even top 5 for me.
The biggest surprise is Savannah 100%. Shouldn't even be in the top 100, and yet it is 11th on this list. That is crazy.
Columbus almost feels too generic Middle American city. Like Indianapolis or Omaha. I see your point location wise but it doesn’t have the unique feel of Cleveland or Cincinnati. Columbus is just kind of middle. (I do like Columbus)
It represents almost nothing about America except New Orleans and, to a lesser extent, South Louisiana. New Orleans is and always has been its own creature. I say this with love.
Also this is a terrible map. But I did my best without having photoshop.
I asked r/geography “If you had to list 8 US cities that represent the US which cities would you say”. I have all the raw data incase people didn’t like my method of ranking them
- Every commented list gave the city 1 vote
- I measured metropolitan areas only. So if you listed Jersey City. I’m sorry but I added that to NYC
- I took the top 10 most upvotes comments and I added those upvotes to the cities score. I took that as this subreddit really agreeing with a particular top 8 list.
- If there were additional non-list comments that got over 40 upvotes I added that to the cities score. Example: there was a comment that said “Every list should have Boston and DC” and it got over 100 upvotes. so that boosted Boston & DC. I took that as you guys really wanting those cities there
- If there was a top comment that was negative about a city being on a list and got many upvotes I subtracted the scores.
Roughly with very poor measures. This isn’t perfect but it’s a very rough idea of what this subreddit thinks is a cultural representative city. Do you agree?
I can make another map or list if there’s any disagreement.
Full list with scores
1. NYC - 1662
2. LA - 1235
3. New Orleans - 1227
4. Boston 1175
5. Chicago - 1133
6. Seattle 1018
7. Detroit 1007
8. Denver 810
9. Dallas 775
10. Phoenix 760
11. Savannah 633
12. Miami 616
13. San Francisco - 601
14. Philly 533
15. Washington DC 523
16. Atlanta 405
17. Pittsburgh - 396
18. Santa Fe - 396
19. Birminham Al - 385
20. Ann Arbor 384
21. Santa Cruz 384
22. Houston 247
23. Charleston 240
24. Honolulu 151
25. Las Vegas 137
Can’t believe SF isn’t higher on this. There’s basically no other city in the US or world that is similar to it in topography, architecture, cultural importance, immigration history, etc. It’s quintessentially American and should be well more representative than Detroit or Seattle.
If I only included commented listed and not upvotes. San Fran would’ve been at least at 7
This is ranked by how many times people put these cities on their lists
1. NYC
2. Chicago
3. LA
4. Miami
5. Boston
6. New Orleans
7. San Francisco
8. Seattle
I know you put in a lot of work for this, but I feel like your methodology has some flaws. The fact that Miami is 4th in comments, but 12th in your final results seems like an issue.
I’d be interested to see a poll where cities were listed out individually, and the most upvoted cities made the list. I think that it would be yield better results. Your current methodology lends itself to the highest upvoted lists having a more general consensus even if individuals don’t agree 100% with the entirety of the list.
I’ll readily admit that I’m biased as a South Florida native, which is why the Miami data stood out to me, but I have lived in Colorado for over a decade, and if I were to ask people out here to name a Southeastern city, I’d get Miami way more often than Savanna.
i agree. maybe i should’ve used this method. definitely want to do another map. but i want a different topic
what’s a topic i could i ask geography?
I thought i could ask “what is the worst US city” or “what is cities are the most fun”. do you have any ideas
Yea agreed. I'd knock off any of Detroit, Seattle or Denver to include SF.
I also don't personally enjoy the city, but I found it odd that Miami was ranked so low. It's the cultural epicenter of Latin cultural in the US and the most notable city in one of the most notable states in the US.
And is sadly now becoming more known for Kensington & Allegheny avenue in a lot of minds today than anything. I’ve travelled internationally and when I tell people I am from just outside Philadelphia it’s often one of the first things people ask about.
Philadelphia has become historic to the present crowd. Most people (international included) don't hear about it, most don't even know where it is. It's sad watching a city with such a prominent past becoming overshadowed by cities of the present. By all means, Philadelphia stands as the history of the US as a whole, but forgotten to the present.
2 Isolated incidents, but when vacationing in London, and several years later in New Zealand... 2 different TV game shows caught my attention since they both had grand prizes of trips to Philly.
Me being from philly i was like.... why? Oh right, birthplace of our nation, lots of tourist stuff, got it.
Native Philadelphian who lives in denver now. I definitely really miss and have weird moments where I want Philly to get the recognition it deserves but…I also don’t so it’s still cheap lmao
There was a thread a while back that was asking why Pennsylvanians seem to be... more patriotic (in a way) than a lot of other states. One of the answers was along the lines of: Do you not realize how much early American history is right there?
If you had to pick one city to represent the entire south, Savannah would be on that list, so it makes sense. Plus, culturally speaking, it’s a titan that punches way above its weight. The Girl Scouts are from Savannah, Jingle Bells was written there, Chicken Fingers were invented there, and those are just three very random things that are small compared to some of Savannah’s more overt contributions to American culture.
That is fair, but I was expecting Atlanta to be there. As for the low country region, I guess Savannah is a bit more down-to-earth compared to Charleston (ofc, I have my biases)
I agree. Amazing place but there’s plenty of cities that I would’ve swapped it with that better represent the US imo. Like I’m surprised neither Memphis or Nashville are on the list, both are pretty culturally significant for all the American music genres born there.
It’s got Detroit and Chicago in the top.
South on the other hand only has New Orleans in the top, despite how large in population the greater south is. And New Orleans is only up there anyway because it’s New Orleans, not because of the south.
If you’re looking for generic American city that has always been Charlotte, NC. It’s just a big blah and I don’t know anyone who has a real sense as to why it got so big.
I’d make the argument that very few big cities accurately portray uniquely American lifestyles. Big cities all around the world are more similair to each other than the more rural parts of their respective countries. I think the cities that most represent the Unique American lifestyle are places that would never get voted in because they’re too small to get enough votes.
I think this is a really solid list. It *generally* represents all major areas of the U.S.
It's like if we had a World House of Representatives and had to send 8 delegates, this would be them. (searches for novelty over sized APPROVED stamp...)
Chicago is the center of middle America, Detroit is the center of industry and engineering and also the heart of the Great Lakes. Both Midwest but both with huge cultural impacts.
Right? Where’s the representation of the agricultural parts of the country? Large, densely populated cities are cool and all, but I thought this was supposed to be cities that represent the USA. No Great Plains farmland even in the top 25?
I’ll shill for OKC all day long. The site of the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in the country, lots of Native American culture and history, kind of where the south meets the west. Very “American” if you ask me.
Having lived in Miami, I can say that Miami is one of the least representative cities of the US in the US. Fort Lauderdale? Or South Florida as a whole? Sure. But not Miami
Miami definitely has a rich culture. It’s just so much different than anything else in the US
I guess it gets to the question of what it means to “represent” the USA. I was reading it as “what’s representative of the average American culture?” as opposed to “which cities do you need to represent the range of American culture?”
Just a suspicion, but I think this sub has a lot of PNW bias (me included), which probably gave Seattle a boost.
Surprising to see Houston at 22 given it’s size. I expected to see Atlanta higher as well.
Other than that, solid list with great representation. Great job OP 👍🏼
I honestly don’t understand why New Orleans is in the top 8. I’m not disagreeing, but it’s population of much smaller than any of the other cities mentioned. If I had to pick it would be
New York City
Washington D.C
Los Angeles
San Francisco
Chicago
Boston
Miami
Then 8 could be a wild card. Maybe Detroit, Atlanta, Seattle, Denver, Houston, Phoenix, Philadelphia, etc.
Honestly I think Minneapolis is pretty underrated. It shouldn’t be in the top 8 or even top 10. But I think it’d be fair for it to be in the top 15. It’s the 3rd most populated metro in the Midwest (after Chicago and Detroit), and is one of the 13 cities with all 4 major sports teams, along with having a unusually high amount of Fortune 500 companies for its size.
Edit: In case anyone is curious, the 13 metros with all 4 major sports teams are NYC, LA, Chicago, Washington D.C., S.F, Boston, Dallas. Phoenix, Denver, Minneapolis, Detroit, Miami, and Philadelphia
I think yall are forgetting this isn’t supposed to be a popularity list/list of the best cities lol. Detroit is absolutely a better representation of the US than Miami is
I'd argue that Detroit represents the USA more. The US is one of the most car centric countries on the planet, and had whole lifestyles and cultures develop around it. Detroit is the birth place of the US auto industry and thus that culture. Not to mention the other stuff that has came out of it like the US MIC, and various music genres/artists.
I feel like Silicon Valley would have been more representative of corporate America and tech culture, though that may be covered by Seattle's presence on the list.
Thats Boston. Seattle is more like 'We have boston at home'
I say this with love btw, Seattle is my fav city on the planet and im from the area and just recently moved back. I love the placex
How does NYC represent America. Most of America is a car dependent hell scape. Jacksonville, FL is the biggest city with the demographics that match national demographics
Yeah we may not have an ocean coast but one of our 5 figures of lakes can make up for it. There’s also the general manic weather here where a visitor might think we’d have just constant disdain and SAD from long winters, but summer can prove to be just as miserable with heat and humidity.
We’re kind of the “refugee capital” of the north and maybe the US in general with the largest Hmong (well second but close to California) and Somali populations, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was another 3rd ethnicity I’m not aware of on top of the strong Scandinavian background.
Happy cake day
I haven’t had a bike in a few years since I outgrew the one I had, but would definitely like to do this again myself sometime. The other debate I’m torn on is getting an electric bike but I’m still a bit cheap on that and convinced myself I can just walk down paths around my neighborhood.
Vegas is a good one. No other city exactly like it. A few imitations (eg Macao). And a perfect representation of America in a lot of ways, good and bad.
Vegas is an interesting addition. Don’t agree or disagree. I was surprised how low DC was though I admit there isn’t a lot it offers culturally that’s unique compared to others
You’re right, forget the impact Detroit has had over the past century and a half. Literal birthplace of the US Auto Industry. I can’t think of a top 10 list that doesn’t have Detroit in it when it comes to being representative of classic Americana.
As an Alabaman, REALLY surprised Birmingham got in over Nashville or Memphis. Or St Louis. Or KC. Anybody that voted for Bham, what was your reasoning? Not that it’s wrong, just curious.
Well I didn’t vote, but I guess some things it would be particularly good for representing are 1. The Deep South 2. Mid-Sized US cities 3. Environmental Diversity 4. Civil Rights history of the US As well as other little fun facts such as it being the only place in the world where all the ingredients for making Iron can be found within a 10 mile radius.
Isn’t there only one ingredient in iron?
True. Probably meant all three ingredients for making steel - iron ore, coal, & limestone.
Thank you! I was wondering if he meant steel but wasn’t sure if I was simply missing something
Oh yeah really interesting history for the city. At one point, I believe it supplied something like 3/4 of US steel exports
100% because of the million+ city in England.
The sample size for this map was really small and those smaller cities were voted on by like one or two people. Also, the way the original question was posed was very vague. I would take this whole map with a large pinch of salt.
Birmingham, England.
Yes I was thinking where's KC at 😔
Santa Cruz at #21 is wild! It only has about 50k people in it. I lived much of my life there and would never think to put it on this list. I'm curious how it garnered so many votes. Any voters lurking on this thread?
I’m from Santa Cruz originally myself. I think it’s a weird little town that kind of combines a lot of stuff representative of California. Like it’s a surf town and tourist beach destination with the Boardwalk but it’s also famous for hippies and there’s redwood forests just outside of town plus you have the tech industry just over the hill and it’s right next door the mostly Hispanic farming towns in the Pajaro Valley. It’s like a little microcosm of California but feels a little different than the other similar coastal towns like Santa Barbara or San Luis Obispo or Monterrey. Plus the legacy of Santa Cruz Skateboards t-shirts and sweatshirts means that there’s been kids all over the place who know the name Santa Cruz for years.
Agreed. I always felt like it was the quintessential California town more than any other. It's what people who haven't been to California assume the state is like. Surfing, beaches, hippies, proximity to tech, major university, amazing hiking, and even a dollop of homelessness and crime.
SLO has its roots more in a farm town than a beach town.
Yeah, but it's far more of a beach town than Paso Robles (perhaps the quintessential farm town of the entire region) and has more of a beach vibe than Salinas imo (which is weird for a literal city on the beach)
There was one particular comment that got over 300 upvotes and it listed Santa Cruz. If a comment got enough upvotes I took that as this sub agreeing with a list and that boosted it. I also recorded every individual commented city. without adding upvotes. So i can still show every commented city if you don’t like my method of adding upvotes to the score
I’m surprised Portland, OR didn’t show up somewhere.
Portland Or had a total of 78 points
it would be interesting to see the spreadsheet with weighted and unweighted scores for like the top 50
I would 100% put Santa Cruz on the list. It's quintessentially California, it has everything you'd expect from a Californian city. It has beaches, redwoods, surf culture, hippie culture, hiking, mountains and a quaint downtown with victorian architecture. Whenever someone tells me they're visiting California I recommend a day or 2 in Santa Cruz
No doubt it's an amazing place that punches way above it's weight class (population) in terms of cultural impact. I think it's cool that it's on the list I know that 50k is generally the cutoff for city and SC is just over. I would have never thought of putting it on the list just because I wouldn't even have thought of it as I ran through my list of cities in the US to decide which to vote for.
People wear Santa Cruz branded gear pretty much everywhere I've ever been so it could just be name recognition.
Boognish spotted
Upvote for Boognish
Probably as a place indicative of California outside the two big cities?
How did Ann Arbor get up there but not Minneapolis, Columbus, or St Louis
Ann Arbor is a quintessential college town. It didn’t have to be Ann Arbor specifically, it could have been Chapel Hill or Charlottesville or Madison or maybe Athens, but I think it’s worth putting a college town on the list.
I was thinking “oh, there’s Ann Arbor being hella full of themselves again”. It’s a fun town, but in no way representative of the American experience at large. Extremely expensive and homogenous in pretty much every way (politically, racially, ethnically, economically/professionally). Doctors, professors, and students get to live in Ann Arbor. The people who work “support” jobs are relegated to Ypsilanti and the surrounding areas.
Yeah I don’t trust these results.
Washington DC and Philadelphia, both past and current capitals of the USA, not breaking the Top 10 is very surprising to me!
Tbh I’m also surprised to see Denver and Savannah so high, especially above so many other heavy hitters.
I’d have expected Vegas to beat out Denver.
Denver kind of makes sense to me. Being right at the edge of the plains and the rocky mountains as a very middle size metro, it's able to represent a wide swath of the middle western of portion of the country.
DC license plates literally say taxation without representation
Houston lower than Santa Cruz? I imagine Houston to be true Americana, fairly standard culture, high diversity, and both large, sprawling suburbs and a reviving urban core. How is it so low?
Reddit hates Houston. But 100% agree with you
I live there and don’t love it. I have no idea why Dallas is so high though.
For what’s it worth, Dallas is the city I think of when it comes to Texas. And yes, I know it’s not the biggest
I feel like Houston is better too. I think Houston showcases a mix of all cultures.
Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations episode showcases his reversal of opinion about Houston through the city’s diversity. Houston has so, so many problems, but food isn’t one of them and it’s directly due to how multicultural it is.
Houston would be Top 1 to represent the Sun Belt. Mixture of South and Southwest culture.
Any of these cities lower than Santa Cruz makes no sense tbh. Especially when others like Cleveland, Nashville, Tampa, Raleigh, cincy, Minneapolis, Portland, Raleigh, or Indy aren’t on this list
Houston is way too low on this list y’all
The Johnson space center is a quintessential American institution.
Johnson
If you want the most representative American city, I have always said it was Kansas City. It sits at the junction of Midwest, Southern, and Western cultural zones, with enough culture to encompass most of the rest of the country. And it’s damn near the population center of the country.
funny enough Kansas city was only listed once
That was me
Thank you for your services.
Because it’s a terrible choice. Most Americans live relatively near a coast, Kansas City is obviously not. America is very diverse culturally and racially, Kansas City…not so much. Many American cities have dramatic skylines, or interesting geography nearby…Kansas City, yeah nope. Picking a city because it happens to be in the middle of the country is a ludicrous method.
Kansas City is extremely diverse. Just because it’s in the middle of the country doesn’t mean it’s “nowhere” There is plenty of diversity, we have an Argentine neighborhood, a sizable indigenous community, and a very large Italian American population just to name a few.
Argentine isn’t an Argentine neighborhood, it is primarily Mexicans and other Central Americans. It’s called Argentine because that was the name of the silverworks there.
Sure, it’s the median city in a way. Yet it contains almost nothing of the things that make the top 8 unique. It kinda reminds me of how the US military designed an airplane cockpit between WW1 and WW2 to fit a median body type and it turns out that it fit virtually no one well (fascinating story can be found [here](https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/on-average/)).
> Yet it contains almost nothing of the things that make the top 8 unique. Meaning it's...more representative of the US as a whole?
If we excluded places like NYC and Chicago, really key aspects of the US would be missing. If it's a state like any other then no need to waste space on it in a list like this.
Probably because it's only sort of Western, sort of Midwestern, and sort of Southern. Without a strong regional identity it sort of just becomes a bland melange of all three with nothing to make it stand out. The BBQ is pretty good but borrows heavily from southern and Texan traditions
Going by that logic Texas and southern bbq borrow heavily from German and Czech cuisine.
Barbecue is literally bastardized barbacoa, and you can see it in the etymology of the name. It has other influences, but first and foremost Mexican.
The act of roasting a whole pig has been around for thousand of years from a bunch of cultures. That’s what that term means. American bbq was primarily influenced by a mixture of African American cooking and German immigrant meat markets.
I don't agree with that, American BBQ may use some of the same techniques as central Europeans like slow roasting pork, but the flavors are completely different. If you compared BBQ from KC to BBQ from Texas or Tennessee, you would need to be from one of those regions to tell the difference. Someone from Asia or Europe that didn't know any better wouldn't be able to tell the difference.
Tennessee bbq is famous for its dry rub, Texas is famous for spicy BBQ, and KC is famous for its sweet BBQ. Those are all super distinct flavors. The main similarity is the cooking style and meat used.
But doesn’t that mean it represents the US well?
The point of “best represents” is not to be different from the thing you are representing.
I do feel like that is something half the people arguing in this list forget. They're picking the most diverse representatives, the outliers, versus the examples which best represent the whole (or in some cases even a reasonable sunset).
>The BBQ is pretty good but borrows heavily from southern and Texan traditions I thought you might not be an idiot based on your first few sentences, and then you continued. Of course all BBQ borrows from traditions, but Texan BBQ is very brisket and beef focused, most other BBQ is pork focused, and yes KC BBQ includes both but combines them and makes it its own thing. I agree that KC culture is a bit of an indistinctive melange, but KC barbeque cannot be questioned.
I was wondering where Kansas City was as well, as a born local 😭
I agree. This list is embarrassing. It looks like it was made only by people NOT from America.
That actually does beg a pretty compelling question; if you did two separate surveys, for those within and those outside the US, which cities would they pick? I suspect it would be somewhat similar. SF would probably rate higher for those replying from East Asia. Detroit might drop off the non-US list. Miami would be higher if they got a lot of responses from central/south America. In any case, it’s a bit ironic that DC didn’t rate higher.
Biggest surprise to me was Las Vegas at number 25. Its easily top 10 or even top 5 for me. Nothing screams America and excess like Las Vegas. It doesn't have the history and culture like some cities, but that's the point. It's new. Ultra modern. The land of tipping. Unique state laws. You can easily go to gun ranges. Smoke week. Gambling... obviously. Sports obsessed people. Rich people. Poor people. Every single kind of person and ethnicity. It's also super condensed and walkable. If you had one weekend to show America off to a foreigner and had to choose any city, I think Las Vegas would be near the top.
>Biggest surprise to me was Las Vegas at number 25. Its easily top 10 or even top 5 for me. The biggest surprise is Savannah 100%. Shouldn't even be in the top 100, and yet it is 11th on this list. That is crazy.
I doubt most people not from America know that Savannah even exists.
I’d argue it’s more St Louis but you’re probably from KC trying to act your BBQ is better…
I mean, the barbecue is better. But St Louis doesn’t have that western feel. It’s just Midwest/Southern
Same with Columbus. But Midwest, east coast, Great Lakes, Appalachia, South
Columbus almost feels too generic Middle American city. Like Indianapolis or Omaha. I see your point location wise but it doesn’t have the unique feel of Cleveland or Cincinnati. Columbus is just kind of middle. (I do like Columbus)
New Orleans feels like another country. Not sure how that would fit in to explain most of America.
It represents almost nothing about America except New Orleans and, to a lesser extent, South Louisiana. New Orleans is and always has been its own creature. I say this with love.
I’ve heard it called the northern most Caribbean city!
Every country needs a drunk disgusting party hole. That’s nola baby
Representative of the US's diversity?
Also this is a terrible map. But I did my best without having photoshop. I asked r/geography “If you had to list 8 US cities that represent the US which cities would you say”. I have all the raw data incase people didn’t like my method of ranking them - Every commented list gave the city 1 vote - I measured metropolitan areas only. So if you listed Jersey City. I’m sorry but I added that to NYC - I took the top 10 most upvotes comments and I added those upvotes to the cities score. I took that as this subreddit really agreeing with a particular top 8 list. - If there were additional non-list comments that got over 40 upvotes I added that to the cities score. Example: there was a comment that said “Every list should have Boston and DC” and it got over 100 upvotes. so that boosted Boston & DC. I took that as you guys really wanting those cities there - If there was a top comment that was negative about a city being on a list and got many upvotes I subtracted the scores. Roughly with very poor measures. This isn’t perfect but it’s a very rough idea of what this subreddit thinks is a cultural representative city. Do you agree? I can make another map or list if there’s any disagreement.
Full list with scores 1. NYC - 1662 2. LA - 1235 3. New Orleans - 1227 4. Boston 1175 5. Chicago - 1133 6. Seattle 1018 7. Detroit 1007 8. Denver 810 9. Dallas 775 10. Phoenix 760 11. Savannah 633 12. Miami 616 13. San Francisco - 601 14. Philly 533 15. Washington DC 523 16. Atlanta 405 17. Pittsburgh - 396 18. Santa Fe - 396 19. Birminham Al - 385 20. Ann Arbor 384 21. Santa Cruz 384 22. Houston 247 23. Charleston 240 24. Honolulu 151 25. Las Vegas 137
Can’t believe SF isn’t higher on this. There’s basically no other city in the US or world that is similar to it in topography, architecture, cultural importance, immigration history, etc. It’s quintessentially American and should be well more representative than Detroit or Seattle.
If I only included commented listed and not upvotes. San Fran would’ve been at least at 7 This is ranked by how many times people put these cities on their lists 1. NYC 2. Chicago 3. LA 4. Miami 5. Boston 6. New Orleans 7. San Francisco 8. Seattle
Interesting. I find this list excellent.
I know you put in a lot of work for this, but I feel like your methodology has some flaws. The fact that Miami is 4th in comments, but 12th in your final results seems like an issue. I’d be interested to see a poll where cities were listed out individually, and the most upvoted cities made the list. I think that it would be yield better results. Your current methodology lends itself to the highest upvoted lists having a more general consensus even if individuals don’t agree 100% with the entirety of the list. I’ll readily admit that I’m biased as a South Florida native, which is why the Miami data stood out to me, but I have lived in Colorado for over a decade, and if I were to ask people out here to name a Southeastern city, I’d get Miami way more often than Savanna.
This list feels like the correct one.
This list makes 10x more sense
i agree. maybe i should’ve used this method. definitely want to do another map. but i want a different topic what’s a topic i could i ask geography? I thought i could ask “what is the worst US city” or “what is cities are the most fun”. do you have any ideas
Yea agreed. I'd knock off any of Detroit, Seattle or Denver to include SF. I also don't personally enjoy the city, but I found it odd that Miami was ranked so low. It's the cultural epicenter of Latin cultural in the US and the most notable city in one of the most notable states in the US.
[удалено]
SF, heck NM in general is very unique... Enough that many think it's a different country LOL Source: I grew up in Albuquerque.
I think they meant San Francisco
As someone that grew up in the NOLA metro area, this pleases me greatly.
I cannot understand how Philadelphia is not one of the top cities.
Too much like Boston and NY. Like they fucked and had a kid with anger management issues and adhd.
And is sadly now becoming more known for Kensington & Allegheny avenue in a lot of minds today than anything. I’ve travelled internationally and when I tell people I am from just outside Philadelphia it’s often one of the first things people ask about.
Uhh the US literally started there
Philadelphia has become historic to the present crowd. Most people (international included) don't hear about it, most don't even know where it is. It's sad watching a city with such a prominent past becoming overshadowed by cities of the present. By all means, Philadelphia stands as the history of the US as a whole, but forgotten to the present.
2 Isolated incidents, but when vacationing in London, and several years later in New Zealand... 2 different TV game shows caught my attention since they both had grand prizes of trips to Philly. Me being from philly i was like.... why? Oh right, birthplace of our nation, lots of tourist stuff, got it.
I lived across the river in NJ as a kid and we'd take field trips to Philly. The amount of cool American history there is insane.
I blame the national weather reports. Assholes are too lazy to squeeze "Philadelphia" in between "New York" and "Washington."
As someone in Baltimore, where we NEVER get squeezed in between Philly and DC, I feel your pain, only worse. 🤣
I thought of Baltimore too right after I wrote that and should have mentioned it! Definitely is worse.
We like it that way. Keeps a great walkable city with incredible food affordable.
Native Philadelphian who lives in denver now. I definitely really miss and have weird moments where I want Philly to get the recognition it deserves but…I also don’t so it’s still cheap lmao
Philly waaaay too low. It’s where this country was born.
There was a thread a while back that was asking why Pennsylvanians seem to be... more patriotic (in a way) than a lot of other states. One of the answers was along the lines of: Do you not realize how much early American history is right there?
No way Savannah made it on top 15, I am proud! :)
If you had to pick one city to represent the entire south, Savannah would be on that list, so it makes sense. Plus, culturally speaking, it’s a titan that punches way above its weight. The Girl Scouts are from Savannah, Jingle Bells was written there, Chicken Fingers were invented there, and those are just three very random things that are small compared to some of Savannah’s more overt contributions to American culture.
I never knew about Jingle Bells, thanks!
It makes sense actually. It represents a portion of the south
Also the 3rd biggest port in the USA
That is fair, but I was expecting Atlanta to be there. As for the low country region, I guess Savannah is a bit more down-to-earth compared to Charleston (ofc, I have my biases)
Surprised Phoenix is #10. It’s ‘hot boring shithole that shouldn’t exist’ label is overused like crazy on non Phoenix Reddit
I dug Flagstaff when I went to Arizona.
Because it's the least Arizonian city probably lol
Phoenix got alot of flak. but it still made it
People love to hate on Phoenix but it’s one of the fastest growing cities, clearly people like it
New Orleans is a ridiculous choice. It’s so unique, it’s nothing like anywhere else in the US.
No one mentioned Gay, WV?
I don’t know how New Orleans is that high. Amazing city and cool city but completely unique and not really similar to the rest of the US culturally
I agree. Amazing place but there’s plenty of cities that I would’ve swapped it with that better represent the US imo. Like I’m surprised neither Memphis or Nashville are on the list, both are pretty culturally significant for all the American music genres born there.
The Midwest is underrepresented
I feel it. I think it would’ve been cool to have Minneapolis or Fargo. but they got 12 votes and 2 votes respectively
It’s got Detroit and Chicago in the top. South on the other hand only has New Orleans in the top, despite how large in population the greater south is. And New Orleans is only up there anyway because it’s New Orleans, not because of the south.
I dunno, I think being overlooked in favor of Detroit, Denver, and Chicago seems like a pretty representative Midwest experience
Sorry, but Denver is not Midwestern.
[удалено]
lol no city in TX is wild when people literally come here because they’ve heard of TX. 😂 they think we all act and dress like red dead redemption.
Dallas is a city devoid of personality. I don’t know what it is exactly, but I didn’t care for it at all.
That’s the point. When you think of a “Generic American city”, Dallas is one of the most generic ones available
If you’re looking for generic American city that has always been Charlotte, NC. It’s just a big blah and I don’t know anyone who has a real sense as to why it got so big.
the prompt was “representing the USA with 8 cities”. Do you think Dallas represents American life
I’d make the argument that very few big cities accurately portray uniquely American lifestyles. Big cities all around the world are more similair to each other than the more rural parts of their respective countries. I think the cities that most represent the Unique American lifestyle are places that would never get voted in because they’re too small to get enough votes.
I think this is a really solid list. It *generally* represents all major areas of the U.S. It's like if we had a World House of Representatives and had to send 8 delegates, this would be them. (searches for novelty over sized APPROVED stamp...)
[удалено]
Chicago is the center of middle America, Detroit is the center of industry and engineering and also the heart of the Great Lakes. Both Midwest but both with huge cultural impacts.
Probably St. Louis or KC. The daily experience of people in New York, Boston, Chicago, or LA is vastly different from most Americans'.
Not one city from the Great Plains. Embarassing
Right? Where’s the representation of the agricultural parts of the country? Large, densely populated cities are cool and all, but I thought this was supposed to be cities that represent the USA. No Great Plains farmland even in the top 25?
I’ll shill for OKC all day long. The site of the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in the country, lots of Native American culture and history, kind of where the south meets the west. Very “American” if you ask me.
OKC is a very underrated city
Denver has long been known as the "Queen City of the Plains", but yeah, agree with you
Nola needed this we're not doing well rn
Pittsburgh.
Gotta admit, Detroit is pretty dope. Take that Cleveland!
Having lived in Miami, I can say that Miami is one of the least representative cities of the US in the US. Fort Lauderdale? Or South Florida as a whole? Sure. But not Miami
oh really? i feel like if you want to represent all the different cultures here you need to have Miami for Latin America
Miami definitely has a rich culture. It’s just so much different than anything else in the US I guess it gets to the question of what it means to “represent” the USA. I was reading it as “what’s representative of the average American culture?” as opposed to “which cities do you need to represent the range of American culture?”
Just a suspicion, but I think this sub has a lot of PNW bias (me included), which probably gave Seattle a boost. Surprising to see Houston at 22 given it’s size. I expected to see Atlanta higher as well. Other than that, solid list with great representation. Great job OP 👍🏼
It definitely does but Seattle has also grown a lot in its influence
Atlanta not top 5 is pretty criminal. Capital of the south, rich in American culture, center of the civil rights movement. I could go on
New York City is the worlds city. Chicago is America’s city.
I honestly don’t understand why New Orleans is in the top 8. I’m not disagreeing, but it’s population of much smaller than any of the other cities mentioned. If I had to pick it would be New York City Washington D.C Los Angeles San Francisco Chicago Boston Miami Then 8 could be a wild card. Maybe Detroit, Atlanta, Seattle, Denver, Houston, Phoenix, Philadelphia, etc. Honestly I think Minneapolis is pretty underrated. It shouldn’t be in the top 8 or even top 10. But I think it’d be fair for it to be in the top 15. It’s the 3rd most populated metro in the Midwest (after Chicago and Detroit), and is one of the 13 cities with all 4 major sports teams, along with having a unusually high amount of Fortune 500 companies for its size. Edit: In case anyone is curious, the 13 metros with all 4 major sports teams are NYC, LA, Chicago, Washington D.C., S.F, Boston, Dallas. Phoenix, Denver, Minneapolis, Detroit, Miami, and Philadelphia
The Great Plains have essentially nothing in common with Chicago. They’d be better represented by Denver than Chicago
Boston over DC is pretty crazy
DC literally represents the country - hard to see it not in the top 2 IMO.
It's all about that tea party, baby
Detroit over Miami is ridiculous
I think yall are forgetting this isn’t supposed to be a popularity list/list of the best cities lol. Detroit is absolutely a better representation of the US than Miami is
I'd argue that Detroit represents the USA more. The US is one of the most car centric countries on the planet, and had whole lifestyles and cultures develop around it. Detroit is the birth place of the US auto industry and thus that culture. Not to mention the other stuff that has came out of it like the US MIC, and various music genres/artists.
Not like it was the Silicon Valley of last century and still has a 5 million person metro area or anything.
I feel like Silicon Valley would have been more representative of corporate America and tech culture, though that may be covered by Seattle's presence on the list.
This sub just upvotes contrarian opinions to show how much geography knowledge they *really* have lol
This is a horrible list
Agreed. Reflects poorly on this sub tbh
Seattle is America's "We have Europe at home.".
Thats Boston. Seattle is more like 'We have boston at home' I say this with love btw, Seattle is my fav city on the planet and im from the area and just recently moved back. I love the placex
Surprised Ann Arbor came up. Especially since it beat Houston
The answer is Cincinnati. I've never been to Cincinnati or know that much about it. So the answer is clearly Cincinnati.
I'm surprised it made the list with the way people rag on Detroit using old 30 year old data basically
I'm surprised how little Texas is mentioned for how big the state is.
The South very under-represented. Surprised not to see Nashville or Atlanta... Savannah is an interesting choice.
New Orleans is currently a dystopian hell hole. Recount!
How does NYC represent America. Most of America is a car dependent hell scape. Jacksonville, FL is the biggest city with the demographics that match national demographics
How is NO even in the top 10?
We got Detroit but as a biased Minnesotan, Minneapolis/St. Paul is another cultural hub that kind of flies under the radar.
it is so huge. i loved my visit there
Yeah we may not have an ocean coast but one of our 5 figures of lakes can make up for it. There’s also the general manic weather here where a visitor might think we’d have just constant disdain and SAD from long winters, but summer can prove to be just as miserable with heat and humidity. We’re kind of the “refugee capital” of the north and maybe the US in general with the largest Hmong (well second but close to California) and Somali populations, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was another 3rd ethnicity I’m not aware of on top of the strong Scandinavian background.
Kick ass city to visit without a car, great bike infrastructure.
Happy cake day I haven’t had a bike in a few years since I outgrew the one I had, but would definitely like to do this again myself sometime. The other debate I’m torn on is getting an electric bike but I’m still a bit cheap on that and convinced myself I can just walk down paths around my neighborhood.
NYC LA Chicago Boston DC I feel like those are the givens Las Vegas Miami Atlanta Would round out my top 8
Las Vegas? It doesn’t even represent reality let alone the US.
i feel like it could represent the culture in a way. at least in media
Vegas is a good one. No other city exactly like it. A few imitations (eg Macao). And a perfect representation of America in a lot of ways, good and bad.
Atlanta not top 5 reflects poorly on this sub to be honest
Vegas is an interesting addition. Don’t agree or disagree. I was surprised how low DC was though I admit there isn’t a lot it offers culturally that’s unique compared to others
Yeah I think this is a more sensible take of national history. Would probably swap Vegas for New Orleans or SF.
💀💀💀💀💀who the hell voted for Ann Arbor
Detroit beat San Francisco? Hahahah
[удалено]
I agree with New Orleans for sure. There is more culture there in a city block than most of these cities combined.
Than Detroit?
You’re right, forget the impact Detroit has had over the past century and a half. Literal birthplace of the US Auto Industry. I can’t think of a top 10 list that doesn’t have Detroit in it when it comes to being representative of classic Americana.
Having been to most US cities, ranking Detroit over San Francisco, Philadelphia, DC is just ill informed.
“America has only three cities: New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans. Everywhere else is Cleveland.” Tennessee Williams