What city is the most out of place in your state?

[Masswich]

Here in Maine, I vote for Portland, it's the only biggish city around and feels a lot more like Massachusetts than Maine in many ways.

[jsk1983]

For Colorado, I'd say Pueblo. While the other Front Range cities and metros are generally prosperous, affluent and attractive, Pueblo is more blue collar and economically depressed, has two downtowns that are struggling, and a viewscape along I-25 that is more reminiscent of a Texas city, with its proliferation of billboards and high rise signs, than other Colorado cities where sign codes tend to be very strict. The landscape is also more desert-like than the high prairie of cities to the north. Among a string of cities that includes Fort Collins, Greeley, Longmont, Boulder, Denver and Colorado Springs, Pueblo is the odd one out.

Let's compare:

Typical commercial strip in a Front Range suburb.



Commercial strip in Pueblo.



Colorado Springs may be uber-conservative, but if I'm driving around town it still feels like Colorado. Pueblo feels more like a smaller version of ...



El Paso! Which just happens to be my nomination for Texas. Chihuahua Desert landscape, Southwestern architecture, defining mountain range, dominant Mexican culture, leans very Democrat, and less fanatically Texan or enthusiast about stereotypical Texas cultural icons. In a way, it feels like an outpost of Texas, but it's far more Southwestern or Mexican than Texan. I have a soft spot for the place, though.

Anyhow, I think Pueblo is perhaps one of America's most geographically displaced cities, along with that exclave of Wisconsin called Buffalo, New York.

Does Milwaukee remind you of Buffalo too?

[dvdneal]

I'm in Kansas, cities in general are out of place, but if I have to pick one it would be Lawrence. It's more accepting and has it's own style that just sets it apart. It would be normal anywhere else, but not here.

[Whose Yur Planner]

Columbus, Indiana - the architectural examples

The winner - Gary

Gary is not out of place for either Northwest Indiana or Northern Indiana in general. It's out of place for the lower 2/3rds of the state. Northern Indiana and the rest of Indiana are two different states.

[Tide]

I'm going to say Fayetteville...military town, lots of people from elsewhere, (nickname 'Fayette-nam') because the town hasn't changed much since the 1960s.

I agree in a sense that Fayetteville is a forgotten city in NC but not out of place - you've been to Goldsboro, Jacksonville, or Kinston right?
In a state where the military isn't high on the list like Mountain Home ID.

Has anyone said Spokane Washington yet? Geographically separate from most of the coastal population but still a large city in its own right but a completely different flavor of people than Seattle/Tacoma.

[beach_bum]

I agree in a sense that Fayetteville is a forgotten city in NC but not out of place - you've been to Goldsboro, Jacksonville, or Kinston right?
In a state where the military isn't high on the list like Mountain Home ID.

I guess that is more what I was thinking, its such 'large' city (6th largest in NC), yet no one goes there or lives there unless they have a military connection or supporting the military economy (or my visiting a good friend from HS that was stationed there for a while!).

[Gedunker]

Gary is not out of place for either Northwest Indiana or Northern Indiana in general. It's out of place for the lower 2/3rds of the state. Northern Indiana and the rest of Indiana are two different states.

That's a fact.

And that's why I would argue that Columbus is the most out of place city in Indiana. The world class architecture in downtown Columbus just sets it too far apart from the rest of the Hoosier state.

[kjel]

I agree in a sense that Fayetteville is a forgotten city in NC but not out of place - you've been to Goldsboro, Jacksonville, or Kinston right?
In a state where the military isn't high on the list like Mountain Home ID.

Has anyone said Spokane Washington yet? Geographically separate from most of the coastal population but still a large city in its own right but a completely different flavor of people than Seattle/Tacoma.

Spokane is an oddball. I always consider it to be part of Idaho

[Linda_D]

Does Milwaukee remind you of Buffalo too?

I've always thought of Buffalo as belonging more in northern Ohio than in Wisconsin, but it definitely has a Midwestern flavor. Wisconsin for me is always Madison and LaCrosse as I never visited Milwaukee.

I remember riding the bus home from grad school in Nebraska a few times, and always feeling that I was "home" when coming into Cleveland. Both cities had the same "look" and "feel". Buffalo has much more in common with Ohio cities like Cleveland, Toledo, Akron, Youngstown, etc than it does with upstate NY cities like Rochester and Albany.

[Dan]

Here's some pictures around Buffalo ...











Just kidding. It's really Milwaukee.

[jsk1983]

Here's some pictures around Buffalo ...











Just kidding. It's really Milwaukee.

If it wasn't for the Pabst sign I would of believed you.

[dw914er]

For California, it is defiantly the state of Jefferson, but than again, this state is so mish-mash it could stand to break up to a good 3 state chunk not divided between north and south, but rather between East(Inland)/West(Coastal CA)/State of Jefferson.

I would have to agree. The entire vibe north of Sacramento is completely different than the vibe changes you get from the typical norcal vs socal or coast vs valley areas.

Spokane is an oddball. I always consider it to be part of Idaho

It pretty much is.

[Mastiff]

Oregon? John Day...

JOHN DAY, Ore. -- Removed from the hassle of urban life, residents of this eastern Oregon ranch and timber region are a self-reliant lot. Hard winters and a depressed economy have forged hardscrabble attitudes toward outsiders and "the government."

Grant County voters have raised eyebrows by passing two ballot measures on May 21, Oregon's primary day.

One bans the United Nations in Grant County; the other would let local residents cut trees on federal land, whether or not the U.S. Forest Service says it's legal or environmentally acceptable.

The two measures -- passed by about 2-to-1 margins -- arise from anger and frustration felt by many residents who sense they no longer control their lives, their livelihoods or the land.

"We intend to push the limit, push the envelope on this," said Dave Traylor, a stocky, bearded jack-of-all-trades who helped write the measures.

Home to about 7,500 people, Grant County is a a place where cowboy hats, hay farms and horse trailers are ubiquitous, where the high school teams are the "Prospectors," and the two local radio stations play either Christian or country music.