Most/least favored cities in your state/province

[llamaorama]

I'm not sure if Texas has an obviously dis-favored region in state politics. Areas that are on the periphery of the Houston-Dallas-Austin-San Antonio "triangle" region seem to receive greater than their expected share of highway funding and they all have large public universities, etc. If anything, it is the urban districts that get the short end of the stick.

In my experience traveling, Beaumont and Texarkana are both kind of grungy and Corpus Christi has some issues too. Conversely, the border cities like El Paso and panhandle cities exceeded my expectations. The poorest part of the state is South Texas, but in the RGV there's pockets of affluence and economic vibrancy so it doesn't come off as hopeless.

[MolsonExport]

I just did a google street view tour of East St. Louis. It is absolutely Apocalyptic.

^ yep.

[Quixote]

For CA, it’s pretty clearly the agricultural regions of Imperial County and the Central Valley (minus Sacramento) which, on top of being economically depressed, don’t have natural beauty within immediate proximity. As far as mid-sized cities go, that would include Bakersfield, Fresno, Modesto, and Stockton.

There are some saving graces, however. Stockton and Modesto are now technically the Bay Area and within a 90-minute drive of SF, while Bakersfield and Fresno are both less than two hours away from LA and Bay Area, respectively, and a few hours from the stunning natural beauty of the Sierra Nevadas.

You could do worse.

[Buckeye Native 001]

If you don't live in Phoenix (or The Valley) you might as well not be an Arizonan, at least according to how the state legislature doles out funds and support. Sure, people visit the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam (which is partly in Nevada) but working in municipal government in a city/county two and a half hours north of Phoenix, I often get the sense that we're merely props. Rightly or wrongly, this state lives and dies by Phoenix. Tucson is an afterthought (some people like that) and there's a reason why a popular bumper sticker in Flagstaff is/was "Don't PHX FLG"

[muertecaza]

Originally Posted by Buckeye Native 001

If you don't live in Phoenix (or The Valley) you might as well not be an Arizonan, at least according to how the state legislature doles out funds and support. Sure, people visit the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam (which is partly in Nevada) but working in municipal government in a city/county two and a half hours north of Phoenix, I often get the sense that we're merely props. Rightly or wrongly, this state lives and dies by Phoenix. Tucson is an afterthought (some people like that) and there's a reason why a popular bumper sticker in Flagstaff is/was "Don't PHX FLG"

Phoenix is definitely the favored city in Arizona. In trying to think of the least favored...probably Yuma? It's a city of ~100k, the fourth largest MSA in the state, bigger than Flagstaff, and yet I never even think of it. It also apparently has the highest unemployment in the nation.

[isaidso]

Not a fan of Mississauga or Oshawa.

[Buckeye Native 001]

Originally Posted by muertecaza

Phoenix is definitely the favored city in Arizona. In trying to think of the least favored...probably Yuma? It's a city of ~100k, the fourth largest MSA in the state, bigger than Flagstaff, and yet I never even think of it. It also apparently has the highest unemployment in the nation.

Yuma's economy is primarily agricultural and they're getting hit hard with Covid right now. NAU has a large satellite campus there that was allegedly supposed to become a fourth state-run university but I think the Great Recession and the amounts of ASU, UofA and NAU satellite campuses killed that.

My vote for least-favored would probably be either Yuma, Kingman or Colorado City?

[PoshSteve]

For Ohio the answer is Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati. If you love one, you hate the others - those are the rules.

[suburbanite]

Is the question favored as in which cities receive the most attention from non-municipal governments/absorb the most resources? Or is it cities that are favourites of the state/provincial population?

[LA21st]

Originally Posted by Quixote

For CA, it’s pretty clearly the agricultural regions of Imperial County and the Central Valley (minus Sacramento) which, on top of being economically depressed, don’t have natural beauty within immediate proximity. As far as mid-sized cities go, that would include Bakersfield, Fresno, Modesto, and Stockton.

There are some saving graces, however. Stockton and Modesto are now technically the Bay Area and within a 90-minute drive of SF, while Bakersfield and Fresno are both less than two hours away from LA and Bay Area, respectively, and a few hours from the stunning natural beauty of the Sierra Nevadas.

You could do worse.

That would be my choice as well, although I'm not crazy about some far flung desert areas as well.

[chris08876]

For NJ, never liked Trenton. A disgrace of a capital, IMO, and the city is falling apart and crime ridden.

Favorite would be Union City (NJ).

Both for cities. IMO, NJ really shines when it comes to its suburbs. Some suburbs, are immaculate. I absolutely love Saddle River/Upper Saddle River. Ho-Ho Kus is nice too.

Also many cases of absolute sterile and wack suburbs, but there quite a few winners in the state.

[mrnyc]

Originally Posted by PoshSteve

For Ohio the answer is Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati. If you love one, you hate the others - those are the rules.

haha yeah! — well i would say cle cant h8 on cols too much being everyone from cle moves there lol. i dont think i ever met anyone from cinci in cols, so they do better dealing with it i’m sure. otoh, cle and cinci definately don’t h8 at all because actually they don’t even recognize the other’s existence most of the time.


but seriously, there is an answer to this that is clear.


most favored: beloved, coddled by state government columbus
most unloved: the apocalyptic, abandoned suburb of east cleveland

[iheartthed]

I don't know know if NY has a least favored city. At least from NYC it's kind of taboo to speak ill of other parts of the state, other than the occasional swipe at Long Island. But I imagine that upstate gets annoyed at sharing a state with NYC.

Michigan... Detroit was the least favored city from about 1970 through the bankruptcy in 2013. The most favored city was Oakland County. Since the bankruptcy, I think Detroit has regained title of most favored, but also remained the least favored city.

[kool maudit]

In this part of Sweden, and the capital aside, I'd say Uppsala is the sweetheart and Södertälje is the goat.

[JManc]

NYC is definitely the most favored city in NYS. Several neglected cities upstate probably share the least favorite banner.

[Buckeye Native 001]

Originally Posted by PoshSteve

For Ohio the answer is Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati. If you love one, you hate the others - those are the rules.

Cincinnati hates everything outside of 275. Columbus is probably most-favored because of being the capitol and home to a giant-ass university that brings in people from all over the country/world. Hard to pick a place that's least-favored, since the state is comprised of so many different little regions. From what little experience I have with Cleveland, it struck me as being it's own worst enemy?

Cleveland and Cincinnati hate each other only when it comes to sports teams (neither professional football team has anything to brag about). Cincinnati hates Cleveland because of some sort of fucked-up inferiority complex (I think it hates being in Ohio?). Cleveland just shrugs, doesn't give it much thought, and worries about Cincinnati giving itself a heart attack with all the stress, defensiveness and anger.

Again, Cincinnati hates Ohio and even the Chamber of Commerce/tourism boards refuse to acknowledge that it's part of Ohio ("Cincinnati, USA"). It's bizarre. And don't even think about calling them Kentuckians (or as some people say, "Cincitucky")

[austlar1]

The city (not a very big one) in Texas that almost everybody seems eager to avoid or to leave would be Lubbock, an utterly charmless municipality of about 250,000 stuck in the middle of West Texas nowhere. It is the seat of a major and rather mediocre state university (Texas Tech), which is the main reason anybody ever ventured there in the first place. I have never known a single soul who wanted to remain there for any longer than necessary, but I guess I'll probably hear from a few Lubbock defenders here on this forum. Austin probably still rates as the most favored city in Texas since so many folks from other large Texas cities often seem to express a desire to live there. There are plenty of detractors, however, who do view Austin with a jaundiced eye for one reason or the other.

[twinpeaks]

Originally Posted by mrnyc

haha yeah! — well i would say cle cant h8 on cols too much being everyone from cle moves there lol. i dont think i ever met anyone from cinci in cols, so they do better dealing with it i’m sure. otoh, cle and cinci definately don’t h8 at all because actually they don’t even recognize the other’s existence most of the time.

can you translate?

[edale]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

I just did a google street view tour of East St. Louis. It is absolutely Apocalyptic.

It's shockingly bad. I remember driving into St. Louis from the east, and I was looking forward to stopping by the IL river cities to check them out and get some good views of STL. Coming from Cincinnati, I assumed the IL side would be just about a continuation of STL like Covington and Newport are for Cincy. In actuality, that couldn't be further from the case. East St. Louis is a bizarre world of abandonment and rural looking neighborhoods with Downtown STL as a backdrop.