Quote:
Originally Posted by Crawford
Certainly Miami, New Orleans and Savannah, and college/tourist towns like Charlottesville or Asheville. But yeah, that scene isn't common in the South. But again, it's one street, for a few blocks, with mostly mall chain stores.
And I get the appeal. There are a few residential blocks, near the Battery, that are outstanding and unique, by any standard. And there's a larger prewar area that's pretty solid. I just wonder why Charleston is such an outlier, and so endlessly praised/beloved for being different, when 98% of it looks like any other newer Sunbelt metro, and the people moving there are in typical sprawl.
Like why not Mobile, or Richmond, or Knoxville? No one from Syracuse or Dayton goes crazy for those places, and they too have a few special blocks, milder weather, and water?
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98% of everywhere in the Sun Belt looks the same, so this isn't a fair criticism.
As for the differential appeal, again part of it is geographic. Northeastern transplants by and large move to only VA, NC, SC, GA, and FL. They don't transplant into the interior south. They'd never really look at a Mobile or Knoxville. I don't think either city can compare to Charleston though, because they are the typical southern "old" cities - where there's some nice buildings in a downtown few people live in, with the nearest intact residential neighborhoods basically semi-suburban in built form.
Richmond is a different story, and a very underrated city. It has a relatively big historic core, with lots of rowhouses and near-rowhouses.
The Fan is an amazing collection of historic buildings. It really should get the same attention as Charleston and Savannah, but is overlooked. I guess in part because the location isn't as picturesque?