No ugly people allowed: neighborhoods of the beautiful people

[Dan]

Right now, I'm sitting inside a coffee house in the Village of Wiliaimsville, New York, a traditional village northeast of Buffalo. Williamsville itself isn't particularly affluent, but it's one of the more pedestrian-oriented areas of the Northtowns, it's very quaint in that Ye Olde Coloniale Newe Englande way, and it's ensconced among the mostly upper-income east-of-Millersport Highway neighborhoods in the surrounding Town of Amherst.

Anyhow, back to the coffee house. Everybody in the place, everybody. is thin, attractive, and neatly dressed and groomed. Tables are filled with perfect stock photo couples, or BFFs "indulging" in some chocolate-laced pastry in scenes that seem straight out of Sex in the City. Everybody walking or jogging by the storefront is equally in shape; there's a lot of the ponytail-through-the-baseball-cap crowd. Although Buffalonians seem to embrace "authenticity" in every aspect of their lives in a way that is unmatched anyplace else, there's an awful lot of evdence of ... uhhh, surgical enhancement. I'd consider myself to be average-looking, and I feel like the ugly duckling among this village of swans.

I think every major city has an area like Williamsville; not just a neighborhood where there's a lot of attractive people, but a place where one seldom sees unattractive folks. Where's your neighborhood of the beautiful people in your part of the world?

[illinoisplanner]

In the Chicago suburbs, I don't think I've ever seen a place that's exclusively beautiful people like you mention, but there certainly do tend to be some suburbs that have a fair amount of beautiful people. Places like St. Charles, Geneva, Barrington, Crystal Lake, Algonquin, and Naperville come to mind. Lots of young people, young families, and even the people in their 50s looking pretty good. Most are well-to-do, white bread, middle-upper middle class. You go out to eat or to a bar or someplace like you mention or gaze out your window and see who's on the bike/jogging paths, and most of the people look pretty good or at least well-groomed.

[Rygor]

Living in a college town, the closer you get to campus, the fewer "ugly people" you see milling about. Everyone is between the ages of 18 and 24, generally dresses in the latest fashions, and tries to look as good as possible to try to attract the opposite sex.

[Queen B]

On the opposite end of that.
The town where my husband and I started our married life was full of not attractive people. I was the first to notice. He and I stood out as very attractive in this location. Anywhere else we average.
One day I mentioned it to him and he said, no that can't be. So we made a game of it. If we saw someone and had the opportunity to start a conversation we asked where they were from inevitably they were not from around there. We would just laugh to ourselves.
At Walmart ( the only large store around) you would just look around and the children weren't even cute.
It was not until we went to the nearest large city that you could see the drastic difference. My husband had to agree.

[imaplanner]

I lived in Santa Barbara for 7 years - I think I might have only seen a small handful of ugly people in that time- and they were all from out of town.

[dandy_warhol]

On the opposite end of that.
The town where my husband and I started our married life was full of not attractive people. I was the first to notice. He and I stood out as very attractive in this location. Anywhere else we average.
One day I mentioned it to him and he said, no that can't be. So we made a game of it. If we saw someone and had the opportunity to start a conversation we asked where they were from inevitably they were not from around there. We would just laugh to ourselves.
At Walmart ( the only large store around) you would just look around and the children weren't even cute.
It was not until we went to the nearest large city that you could see the drastic difference. My husband had to agree.

The BF and I do this in our current town. It is a great boost for the self-esteem.

[Queen B]

The BF and I do this in our current town. It is a great boost for the self-esteem.

Isn't it!!!

[Raf]

I lived in Santa Barbara for 7 years - I think I might have only seen a small handful of ugly people in that time- and they were all from out of town.

So true.

My wife and I live in San Luis Obispo. College town. Filled with very very beautiful people. There are some "granades" wow a jersey shore reference, but overall lots and lots of good looking guys and gals.

This has given my wife a bit of self-esteem downer since all she sees lately are these co-eds with their skinny jeans jogging as she is also trying to loose her baby pounds. As for me, I am trying to get fit in support of her efforts. So far, not so good, but hey we will get there.

[biscuit]

Shadyside is the commercial center of Pittsburgh's young and affluent, and where you will find attractive, well dressed people typing on Macbook Pros in coffee shops at 2:PM on a workday. There are other places here to mingle with the attractive, but the East End in general has the local reputation of being where the young rich and pretty live. Personally, I like the the hipster neighborhoods that have better bars and restaurants, but that's a different thread altogether.

Personally, I found Charleston, SC to have some of the best looking people as a proportion of the overall population. Again it's the combination of wealth and youth, neither of which I have.

[MacheteJames]

I visited Montreal recently and never saw so many good looking people in one place in my life. Everyone was thin, fit, and attractive, and it was blatantly obvious who the American tourists were, with their fanny packs, guts hanging over their belts, and baseball caps.

On the opposite front, the city of Yonkers, NY has been beaten over the head with the ugly stick in a big way. I have no idea what's up with the the gene pool in that community but everyone appears to have just let themselves go in that town.

[stroskey]

So glad to hear others wonder about this topic. In our college town neither my wife nor I were anything special but in our new home we're both on the upper-end of the spectrum. Now there are some drop-dead gorgeous women here but they never seem to be out and about when I am (but I've seen them at the gym so I know they're out there.

I've always kind of thought as generations come and go, the more-attractive women will go to the men with more money so in time those with more money will be naturally more attractive because of their parents. Good-looking wealthy people find each other and the cycle continues.

Someone at work mentioned this very pretty girl walking down the street with her druggie boyfriend and said he would easily win her over because he could take her out to eat and whatnot but I mentioned he would never have the opportunity to meet her because even though she is attractive where would they meet, who's friends would they hang out with, etc. He was depressed after that.

[Queen B]

I visited Montreal recently and never saw so many good looking people in one place in my life. Everyone was thin, fit, and attractive, and it was blatantly obvious who the American tourists were, with their fanny packs, guts hanging over their belts, and baseball caps.

On the opposite front, the city of Yonkers, NY has been beaten over the head with the ugly stick in a big way. I have no idea what's up with the the gene pool in that community but everyone appears to have just let themselves go in that town.

All I have to say is Yonkers. Doesnt it say something about the gene pool if the town is named Yonkers???

[Jazzman]

Right now, I'm sitting inside a coffee house in the Village of Wiliaimsville, New York, a traditional village northeast of Buffalo. Williamsville itself isn't particularly affluent, but it's one of the more pedestrian-oriented areas of the Northtowns, it's very quaint in that Ye Olde Coloniale Newe Englande way, and it's ensconced among the mostly upper-income east-of-Millersport Highway neighborhoods in the surrounding Town of Amherst.

Anyhow, back to the coffee house. Everybody in the place, everybody. is thin, attractive, and neatly dressed and groomed. Tables are filled with perfect stock photo couples, or BFFs "indulging" in some chocolate-laced pastry in scenes that seem straight out of Sex in the City. Everybody walking or jogging by the storefront is equally in shape; there's a lot of the ponytail-through-the-baseball-cap crowd. Although Buffalonians seem to embrace "authenticity" in every aspect of their lives in a way that is unmatched anyplace else, there's an awful lot of evdence of ... uhhh, surgical enhancement. I'd consider myself to be average-looking, and I feel like the ugly duckling among this village of swans.

I think every major city has an area like Williamsville; not just a neighborhood where there's a lot of attractive people, but a place where one seldom sees unattractive folks. Where's your neighborhood of the beautiful people in your part of the world?

Sounds the entire country of Japan. Seriously - everybody's in shape, the women are beautiful, and if you go down to Okinawa, the girls have a year-round all-natural tan to boot.

[Super Amputee Cat]

In the Chicago suburbs, I don't think I've ever seen a place that's exclusively beautiful people like you mention, but there certainly do tend to be some suburbs that have a fair amount of beautiful people. Places like St. Charles, Geneva, Barrington, Crystal Lake, Algonquin, and Naperville come to mind. Lots of young people, young families, and even the people in their 50s looking pretty good. Most are well-to-do, white bread, middle-upper middle class. You go out to eat or to a bar or someplace like you mention or gaze out your window and see who's on the bike/jogging paths, and most of the people look pretty good or at least well-groomed.

Lots of FIBs out that way.

[illinoisplanner]

Lots of FIBs out that way.

Didn't know you live in Wisconsin.

By the way, some of us live out that way and like it.

[Maister]

I've long wondered at the relationship between attractiveness and wealth; there's almost certainly a correlation. A higher percentage wealthy people meet that bench mark for attractiveness that the dominant culture has set. Do wealthy people tend to be more attractive because they are wealthy, or do attractive people tend to be more wealthy because they are attractive?

[dandy_warhol]

I've long wondered at the relationship between attractiveness and wealth; there's almost certainly a correlation. A higher percentage wealthy people meet that bench mark for attractiveness that the dominant culture has set. Do wealthy people tend to be more attractive because they are wealthy, or do attractive people tend to be more wealthy because they are attractive?

I think wealthy people tend to be more attractive because they can afford to be - personal trainers, chefs, trips to the spas, sunscreen, 16 layers of makeup, etc.


Attractive + Attractive doesn't always = Attractive Kids. Have you seen some of the mutts that the celebrities are popping out?

[jsk1983]

I think wealthy people tend to be more attractive because they can afford to be - personal trainers, chefs, trips to the spas, sunscreen, 16 layers of makeup, etc.


Attractive + Attractive doesn't always = Attractive Kids. Have you seen some of the mutts that the celebrities are popping out?

A lot of it is probably peer pressure/societal expectations, etc.

[DetroitPlanner]

Didn't know you live in Wisconsin.

By the way, some of us live out that way and like it.

My brother-in-law loved it there but he is a FIP. My sister? Not so much.

[illinoisplanner]

My brother-in-law loved it there but he is a FIP. My sister? Not so much.

Well I guess I am too then if I love it out here, aren't I? Haters.

I guess some people just love to derail threads with their disdain for suburban Chicago or the people that live there.

[Mud Princess]

All I have to say is Yonkers. Doesnt it say something about the gene pool if the town is named Yonkers???

Umm, the name Yonkers is derived from a Dutch word meaning "young gentleman"... I've heard worse!

Attractive + Attractive doesn't always = Attractive Kids. Have you seen some of the mutts that the celebrities are popping out?

Meeeeeooooww! (=catty)

They can have plastic surgery when they grow up.

[DetroitPlanner]

Well I guess I am too then if I love it out here, aren't I? Haters.

I guess some people just love to derail threads with their disdain for suburban Chicago or the people that live there.

Not at all! There is a lot about your area that I like.

It is a bit like bizarro world for me though because I grew up and sill live in a very tight urban environment where there are typically homes on 35' or 40' wide lots. My sister was the one who hated it there, but she had to take the train everyday into the City then walk down to the Board of Trade for work.

[illinoisplanner]

Not at all! There is a lot about your area that I like.

It is a bit like bizarro world for me though because I grew up and sill live in a very tight urban environment where there are typically homes on 35' or 40' wide lots. My sister was the one who hated it there, but she had to take the train everyday into the City then walk down to the Board of Trade for work.

Oh OK, sorry I took it the wrong way. Just two posts mentioning "FIB" or "FIP" or whatever kind of set me off.

[nrschmid]

People on the west coast are body conscious, people on the east coast are fashion conscious. Chicagoans don't give a damn!

Or so a good friend of mine told me, a very wealthyt CPA who is fairly good-looking, lived on both coasts, and now lives in the Trump Tower.

I live in a much smaller metro area deep in the Great Plains. There are a handful of body-conscious/fashion conscious people here, many of which were already described. I was on vacation this past week down in Texas (DFW, Houston, and Galveston). There was a higher percentage of these "attractive" people. However, these metro areas are far bigger than my own.

I'm a fitness nut myself. Growing up and living in Chicagoland most of my life, even though it's not the coasts, there is still a ton of motivation to stay active and in shape no matter what your age. Mom and dad (early 60s) still have passes to the local gym, bought a Wii Fit, and do their fare share of golfing and walking. I think it partly has to do with your frame of reference. If you grew up in a community that didn't really take fitness/attractiveness as seriously as other things (family, worship, work) then you would probably be less motivated to do the same.

IMO, Oprah isn't THAT beautiful, but she has the money to make herself look good.

[DetroitPlanner]

Oh OK, sorry I took it the wrong way. Just two posts mentioning "FIB" or "FIP" or whatever kind of set me off.

We use P for people in Michigan because we know that while you may not know where you are going and wander all over the road looking at flora, fauna, and hydrology, that you are going to most likely leave some money in the state. We know what butters the bread here (tourists, produce, and cars).