Cities where the population has an "attitude"?

[zman]

Greenwood Village, Colorado- Snob City

Really? Maybe that is because you lived on the North side of the metro area... you'r just not good enough
Nice mention, truthfully, I went to HS there and my grandparents lived there too. The only snobbish thing I got from the town was an annexation of the surrounding incorporated areas that included high revenue generating retail spots, but "gerrymandered" around any residental in the way... Hence the reasons why the City of Centennial was born.

Fort Collins

Man, Fort Collins is so laid back and unassuming, I love it. A fantastic to live near (I lack the salary for living there) and a great place in which to hang out. Good beer too!

[Brocktoon]

No, but I know enough about them to make a guess. Relax. Maybe try contributing something more concrete about New York instead of belittling others.

How do you know enough without going there...because you sat next to someone from Los Angeles on the train? They took effort to learn and experience where you are from but you judge them and have not even been to where they are from...if anyone is smug it is you to make such a statement with little to no experience.

Seana point is valid... since you want to be a planner... you will learn quickly not to make sweeping generalizations about people based on limited or no exposure to them or their situation. I know you are young and have lived a sheltered and privileged life but if you want to be successful you need to approach things with an open mind and limit your prejudice to your few interactions with a group or people.



Fearless prediction: IP you read my and Seana's post and took it personally instead of as constructive critisism by which you can grow.

[hilldweller]

I would think that the Cambridge, MA area, as well as parts of Boston proper, would be smugness/snootiness central.



Mike

The Peoples Republic of Cambridge does have kind of a holier-than-thou attitude about it. However, Boston's suburbs are far worse for the smug factor than the gentrified areas of the City IMO.

[Seabishop]

...I imagine just about all of the above can be said of other large mega-places like Los Angeles, Boston, and New York though, places that take over large geographical regions, and have animosity towards tourists and outsiders who don't know how things are done there. As well as blue collar enclaves with street attitude and pretentious white collar enclaves chock full of smug.

My 2 cents ...

Cyburbia isn't an academic journal. It makes sense to casually think that some people in very large cities might have an attitude that things revolve around them or that the way they do things is the best. We all have some common knowledge about places we've never been to. That is the entire point of this thread and everyone here is making sweeping generalizations about cities and their residents. Rather than just throwing out accusations he's the only one who's admitting these traits about himself.

[Dan]

Man, Fort Collins is so laid back and unassuming, I love it. A fantastic to live near (I lack the salary for living there) and a great place in which to hang out. Good beer too!

That's why I said it has a "live and let live" kind of attitude. I'm reluctant to call it "Boulder Light"; it has a Boulder-ish feel, but much mellower and more relaxed; it doesn't take itself as seriously.

[illinoisplanner]

How do you know enough without going there...because you sat next to someone from Los Angeles on the train? They took effort to learn and experience where you are from but you judge them and have not even been to where they are from...if anyone is smug it is you to make such a statement with little to no experience.

Seana point is valid... since you want to be a planner... you will learn quickly not to make sweeping generalizations about people based on limited or no exposure to them or their situation. I know you are young and have lived a sheltered and privileged life but if you want to be successful you need to approach things with an open mind and limit your prejudice to your few interactions with a group or people.



Fearless prediction: IP you read my and Seana's post and took it personally instead of as constructive critisism by which you can grow.

Wow, way to come to conclusions about everything and add more personal attacks to this thread. How do you how well I may or may not know the place? You don't...so quit assuming. And what does it matter anyway if I've personally encountered attitude from a particular place or not, if I know plenty of people who said they have. I thought I made that clear in my post anyhow. And no, I don't live a sheltered and privileged life. Far from it. You don't fu##in' know the s#!t I've been through or the experiences I've had. And I already have plenty of planning experience...so don't try and lecture me. And enough with the ageism too. This isn't a serious thread about planning anyway. It's a thread about people throwing out place names of places with bad attitudes, based on their experiences. Some have lots of experience, some have a little. Big deal. Enough with the personal attacks. Nobody was even talking to you anyway, so why are you jumping down my throat?

Which is more likely?
(1) I was belittling others; or
(2) illinoisplanner incorrectly concluded that I was belittling others.

Quit trying to derail the thread with your little popularity contest..it's not working. Back on topic...what do you think of New York anyways? Does it have attitude or does it not? If so, to what degree? You're the one that lives there, right? I'm just the idiot that's seen stuff on TV and knows people who've had the fortune of visiting there. So, please enlighten me.

You two need to quit it. If you want to argue with one another, do it in a private message or email. Everyone else can quit fanning the flames... One more post like this and the thread is going to be closed, so either back on topic or no topic, your choice. - Mastiff

[jmello]

I would think that the Cambridge, MA area, as well as parts of Boston proper, would be smugness/snootiness central.

How many native Bostonians go to Haaaar-vaaaard? Not many. Transplants and college students don't count. Go watch Good Will Hunting. "How you like them apples?"

I do know what you are getting at. There is a definite: "We do it better than everywhere else" vibe in Boston, but that stays at home. Bostonians do not bring their attitude with them like Yankee fans do.

[kjel]

How many native Bostonians go to Haaaar-vaaaard? Not many. Transplants and college students don't count. Go watch Good Will Hunting. "How you like them apples?"

I do know what you are getting at. There is a definite: "We do it better than everywhere else" vibe in Boston, but that stays at home. Bostonians do not bring their attitude with them like Yankee fans do.

I love Boston and I would say the attitude is more of a pride thing than anything else.

[Rygor]

That's why I said it has a "live and let live" kind of attitude. I'm reluctant to call it "Boulder Light"; it has a Boulder-ish feel, but much mellower and more relaxed; it doesn't take itself as seriously.

I have a friend who was a planner where I'm at but then moved out to Fort Collins and is now a planner there and he absolutely LOVES it.

Seriously? I worked in Palo Alto for close to two years. Trust me, it's plenty smug, though probably ranks just middle-of-the-pack for smugness within the Bay Area (most smug metro in the US, IMO). Marin County, Berkeley, the Oakland Hills, and Menlo Park through Burlingame on the Peninsula are definitely more smug than Palo Alto, with a few of the other Silicon Valley cities also probably ahead.

For big cities in the US, no one can touch San Francisco for smugness, though when you actually live here you figure out that it's pretty well concentrated in just a few specific demographics.

A good measure of smugness for each city in this area is to measure the number of Priuses per capita.

There's definitely a sense of "look how much smarter we are than the rest of the country" present pretty much everywhere in the Bay Area.

My wife was just in Palo Alto and San Fran for about 5 days for a conference. I asked her how the "smugness factor" was out there, and she said aside from one college student she ran into everyone there seemed pretty nice and laid back. She attributed it to all the fiber in their diets and the weed (erm..."medical" marijuana). Maybe she just didn't hit the right places to encounter much smugness.

[JMplanner]

I wouldn't really call Davis a "liberal enclave" just based on where it is and some of the large programs of the university, and I haven't ever really noticed much a 'tude there, aside from some of the more militant "Bicycles rule!" folks. I would say that Fort Collins has a pretty similar vibe to Davis.

The majority of Davis does not have a huge attitude. The few outspoken, loud ones often drown out the majority. The loud ones seem to be transplants from Berkeley in the 70s and never moved back.

And there isn't much militant Bike activites. As far as I have seen, nobody has taken out any cars because of their ideological differences.

Anybody else have experience with Davis?

[thiqued]

Chicagoans definitely have an attitude.

I've come to think of Chicago as a city where everyone is mad about everything, no matter what happens. Check out the comments section of basically any Chicago Tribune article--most of them end in flame wars. Everyone is always at battle: suburbanites vs. the Cook County government, fixed gear bikers vs. motorists, the Olympics vs. everyone, rich kids who "don't take the CTA" vs. hipsters with "street cred," and on and on. I think we have too many attitude problems to count.

[Gotta Speakup]

High up on the attitude list of Bay Area cities would have to be Los Gatos, which is Spanish for big attitude. Of course it is full of families with perfect jobs, perfect teeth, and is the site of the headquarters of Netflix. And it's beautiful. But wow! Go to dinner there and check out the 'tude!

[eightiesfan]

High up on the attitude list of Bay Area cities would have to be Los Gatos, which is Spanish for big attitude. Of course it is full of families with perfect jobs, perfect teeth, and is the site of the headquarters of Netflix. And it's beautiful. But wow! Go to dinner there and check out the 'tude!

I'd also add a few other South Bay towns to the list. Atherton, Los Altos Hills and Palo Alto are all fairly smug. Of course the North Bay has it's fair share of places with attitude as well, in fact too many to list. I'd say the Bay Area is near the top of the list in attitude.

[Seabishop]

What about Montreal? Is there still the alleged disdain toward English speakers or is that a thing of the past?

[Maister]

Toronto at the top of the list, absolutely. Even when Torontonians are in Buffalo and dealing with its residents, they'll criticize the city, and often the United States, to locals' faces. If a Buffalonian visits Toronto, they'll often be greeted with "have any good fires lately, eh?" and other insults about their town.

Even tough I'm politically liberal, I've found a lot of collective 'tude in liberal enclaves like Santa Fe, Boulder, Ann Arbor and Ithaca. I wonder if Eugene, Davis, Chapel Hill, Madison and other such communities are similar. Some cites with that certain "vibe" do seem to have more of a "live and let live" environment; Lawrence, Fort Collins and Austin among them.

Rochester, New York has an awful lot of smug. Denver too, although it was more intense during the dot-com days.

Okay, we already know the answer but gotta ask anyway......do your current digs exude any 'tude?

[Whose Yur Planner]

Lexington, Kentucky has a major, horse culture attitude. It's also home to UK.

[btrage]

We got an attitude here too and if you don't like it......

Actually we're a tale of two attitudes, one is of dispair and the other in of oblivious.

Since I've moved back to Metrot Detroit, from West Michigan, I've actually found that, in general, Metro Detroiters are more friendly and less smug than their West Michigan counterparts. Not that people in West Michigan are mean by any stretch of the imagination. But people in West Michigan dearly cling to the "Detroit is such a horrible place, I can't belive you live there" attitude. Again, these are just generalizations, as I know many West Michganders who do not share this viewpoint.

[Raf]

I live in the happiest place in america.. so no.. now spend your retail dollars and eat at all our restaurants, than leave...

[Gotta Speakup]

Every so often, I have to go all college professor on you all (maybe its part of my Boston attitude?):

I know this is just a topic meant to be fun but....

Whenever one of my students makes a comment in class like people in Boston are snobs or children in families with incomes below the poverty line never learn about the value of work, I challenge them to think of how we could test these statements. How would you test prevailing attitudes in a city/region? By survey? By putting trained impartial observers out on the street? By secondary data sources like voting records?

I bet you will find more diversity of attitudes among city residents than between city residents. There are all kinds everywhere.

End of lecture.

Have you noticed that all people from Springfield are clumsy?

[DetroitPlanner]

I live in the happiest place in america.. so no.. now spend your retail dollars and eat at all our restaurants, than leave...

If only you had a Macy's.

[mike gurnee]

Lexington, Kentucky has a major, horse culture attitude. It's also home to UK.

I second that. Also the smaller towns in surrounding counties.

[TOFB]

Ames, Iowa

[Mud Princess]

Have you noticed that all people from Springfield are clumsy?

You mean these people?

[amandawhale]

I’m won’t deny of NY of having smug thought it has a brilliant minded people too.LOL...

California - over populated