Which Southern City Or Cities Needs The Most HELP???

[lajohn_24]

IMO I think Columbia, SC needs a lot of help. Eventhough it is a beautiful city, it's skyline is very scattered and needs a lot of filling in, and a few taller and iconic skyscrapers. As the capital of SC and in the middle of two major cities (Atlanta and Charlotte), it needs to represent more.

[GarfieldPark]

Birmingham is the one that seems to stand out from my perspective. Its slow population growth seems to be a real anomaly.

[CVG]

Skylines are nice but overrated, from the outside looking in Columbia seems to be doing pretty good. If the census estimates are accurate Birmingham seems to be struggling bigtime.

[eweezerinc]

Jackson, MS. Even Oprah can't help that state.

[desertpunk]

Columbia SC isn't really that big and much of the state's recent economic successes have been elsewhere. It actually looks quite nice for a city of only 130,000.

I guess the one city my fingers are crossed for the most is Memphis. It's a great American city and it's time for the skyline to reflect that. A few skyscrapers is all I ask.

[JRQ]

Richmond has great density, now all we need are one or two signature towers to tie it all together

[kingchef]

i have to agree w/ desertpunk, memphis really needs to do something about its skyline. we can't just continue to build 14 to 18 story buildings, when midtown and east memphis have 20 to 34 story buildings scattered 16 miles out of the business district to germantown parkway. some of these national hometown developers keep a great deal of the competition out of the city. chicago, dallas, la, nyc, etc. are some of the locations where developers want to get into the scraper business in memphis. i say, let 'em come!

[CVG]

According to census estimates Memphis, Birmingham, and Norfolk/Virginia Beach are the only 3 Southern metros with over 1 million people that are losing the domestic migration battle. Thats a really bad sign heading forward, hopefully they can do something to reverse that trend.

[WeimieLvr]

Originally Posted by CVG

According to census estimates Memphis, Birmingham, and Norfolk/Virginia Beach are the only 3 Southern metros with over 1 million people that are losing the domestic migration battle. Thats a really bad sign heading forward, hopefully they can do something to reverse that trend.

It is a bad sign to be losing population amidst so many cities with large gains, but I kinda like the skylines of Birmingham and Memphis. They both have pretty nice density and a mix of older/classic towers with some more modern ones. I hope they all can turn things around in the near future...maybe the economy will keep improving and that will restart the southern population boom.

[JRQ]

"Needs help" sure is a broad question.... Are we scrutinizing skylines here, or everything?

[nostyle]

I think just skylines. The OP has only posted twice ever and is probably brand new, under the impression that the topic of skylines dominates a message board called "skyscrapercity". That, and his original post pretty much critiques Columbia's skyline (and nothing else) from the get-go.

[royal rose1]

In my life I've lived in Japan, Germany, Hungary, South Carolina, Virginia, all over North Carolina, and all over California. I've now lived in North Carolina 9 years, and I must say, North Carolina seems to be the only southern state that's gotten it's shit together.

The whole South is a hellhole, and outside of Raleigh, almost all major southern cities have disgusting crime rates. I'm grateful to live in Raleigh, I moved here 2 years ago from Fayetteville, and that place is no exception to what I've said. Also, its sad to see places like Charlotte that are so nice, yet have such horrible areas and high crime rates. The South needs a savior, glad to see its starting to get some attention.

To directly answer your question though, I think the areas that DON'T need too much help are Raleigh, Atlanta (except for crime), Nashville, Northern VA, Charleston, Charlotte (once again except for crime), Asheville, and literally that's all I can think of haha. Every other city is shit, I'm just glad I go back to Cali and North to NYC for well over half the year.

I will also say the worst areas that need tremendous amount of help are ALL of Alabama and Mississippi, basically every sizable city in Louisiana, just about every major city in Florida (in terms of developing some type of culture, and lowering crime and unemployment), and a lot of small towns in between the large cities, for instance High Point in NC is about as nice as Senegal.

[annie_himself]

Originally Posted by royal rose1

The whole South is a hellhole, and outside of Raleigh, almost all major southern cities have disgusting crime rates. I'm grateful to live in Raleigh, I moved here 2 years ago from Fayetteville, and that place is no exception to what I've said. Also, its sad to see places like Charlotte that are so nice, yet have such horrible areas and high crime rates. The South needs a savior, glad to see its starting to get some attention.

The whole south is a hellhole? If you think Charlotte has horrible crime, then nevermind..

[royal rose1]

Originally Posted by annie_himself

The whole south is a hellhole? If you think Charlotte has horrible crime, then nevermind..

I speak with bias, I'm from San Diego, where our murder rate is at a level comparable to Western Europe. Raleigh isn't too bad either, at around 3.3.

But Charlotte is getting into questionable territory, with murder rates around 7 per 100,000, while Atlanta is 17.3! That is an absolutely disgusting rate, especially for a metro with an average GDP of $36,000 per person, comparable to Charlotte. I don't understand Atlanta.

[WeimieLvr]

Originally Posted by royal rose1

In my life I've lived in Japan, Germany, Hungary, South Carolina, Virginia, all over North Carolina, and all over California. I've now lived in North Carolina 9 years, and I must say, North Carolina seems to be the only southern state that's gotten it's shit together.

The whole South is a hellhole, and outside of Raleigh, almost all major southern cities have disgusting crime rates. I'm grateful to live in Raleigh, I moved here 2 years ago from Fayetteville, and that place is no exception to what I've said. Also, its sad to see places like Charlotte that are so nice, yet have such horrible areas and high crime rates. The South needs a savior, glad to see its starting to get some attention.

To directly answer your question though, I think the areas that DON'T need too much help are Raleigh, Atlanta (except for crime), Nashville, Northern VA, Charleston, Charlotte (once again except for crime), Asheville, and literally that's all I can think of haha. Every other city is shit, I'm just glad I go back to Cali and North to NYC for well over half the year.

I will also say the worst areas that need tremendous amount of help are ALL of Alabama and Mississippi, basically every sizable city in Louisiana, just about every major city in Florida (in terms of developing some type of culture, and lowering crime and unemployment), and a lot of small towns in between the large cities, for instance High Point in NC is about as nice as Senegal.

You obviously don't know much about the MANY places in NC and the South that are beautiful, safe, interesting places to live. What an ignorant statement to make. You can't profess to have been everywhere, so you don't know what you're talking about. Maybe you could go back to wherever for the entire year and that would make you happy...God knows there is no crime in NYC or CA. LOL!

How much time did you spend in Senegal?

[royal rose1]

Originally Posted by WeimieLvr

You obviously don't know much about the MANY places in NC and the South that are beautiful, safe, interesting places to live. What an ignorant statement to make. You can't profess to have been everywhere, so you don't know what you're talking about. Maybe you could go back to wherever for the entire year and that would make you happy...God knows there is no crime in NYC or CA. LOL!

How much time did you spend in Senegal?

Yeah, you're right. Living in the South for nearly a decade disqualifies me from having any knowledge of the South...

Are you stupid, arrogant, or just blind? In San Diego, the murder rate is 2.0 per 100,000. In San Jose its the same. These are both cities with well over 1,000,000 people! There are no cities that large in the South, and if there were, you can bet the murder rate would be at least 6 per 100,000. Believe me, the only reason I'm here is for in-state tuition, the minute I graduate I'll be out of the South! I'm already trying to transfer to another school. Like I said, pretty much the only sizable southern cities with reasonable crime rates are Raleigh, at around 3.5, and Virginia Beach at around 3.

Just so you know btw, out of the top 10 cities with lowest murder rates (cities with over 250,000 people), 7 of the cities are in the west and 5 are in CA. Yeah, safety in the West isn't a myth.

And there are nice cities in the South, plenty of them. But safety is hard to come by. Also, I've visited every major city in the Carolinas, I know what I'm talking about! The ghetto of Charlotte isn't safe by any means.

[annie_himself]

Originally Posted by royal rose1

Yeah, you're right. Living in the South for nearly a decade disqualifies me from having any knowledge of the South...

Are you stupid, arrogant, or just blind? In San Diego, the murder rate is 2.0 per 100,000. In San Jose its the same. These are both cities with well over 1,000,000 people! There are no cities that large in the South, and if there were, you can bet the murder rate would be at least 6 per 100,000. Believe me, the only reason I'm here is for in-state tuition, the minute I graduate I'll be out of the South! I'm already trying to transfer to another school. Like I said, pretty much the only sizable southern cities with reasonable crime rates are Raleigh, at around 3.5, and Virginia Beach at around 3.

Just so you know btw, out of the top 10 cities with lowest murder rates (cities with over 250,000 people), 7 of the cities are in the west and 5 are in CA. Yeah, safety in the West isn't a myth.

And there are nice cities in the South, plenty of them. But safety is hard to come by. Also, I've visited every major city in the Carolinas, I know what I'm talking about! The ghetto of Charlotte isn't safe by any means.

Safety is hard to come by?
Yes, I had to laugh at that one.
That is a very ignorant post. The ghettos of Charlotte are just as safe as the ghettos of San Diego..

Did the OP specify only skylines?

[WeimieLvr]

Originally Posted by royal rose1

Yeah, you're right. Living in the South for nearly a decade disqualifies me from having any knowledge of the South...

Are you stupid, arrogant, or just blind? In San Diego, the murder rate is 2.0 per 100,000. In San Jose its the same. These are both cities with well over 1,000,000 people! There are no cities that large in the South, and if there were, you can bet the murder rate would be at least 6 per 100,000. Believe me, the only reason I'm here is for in-state tuition, the minute I graduate I'll be out of the South! I'm already trying to transfer to another school. Like I said, pretty much the only sizable southern cities with reasonable crime rates are Raleigh, at around 3.5, and Virginia Beach at around 3.

Just so you know btw, out of the top 10 cities with lowest murder rates (cities with over 250,000 people), 7 of the cities are in the west and 5 are in CA. Yeah, safety in the West isn't a myth.

And there are nice cities in the South, plenty of them. But safety is hard to come by. Also, I've visited every major city in the Carolinas, I know what I'm talking about! The ghetto of Charlotte isn't safe by any means.

No safety is not hard to come by. If you are as intelligent as you profess, you understand that even the most statistically dangerous city is not very dangerous in most areas and the majority of crime is confined to particular areas for the most part. Calling the entire city of Charlotte a ghetto and characterizing it as unsafe is just irresponsible. Let's be realistic here...and a bit more mature than resorting to name-calling.

No, living somewhere for 10 years doesn't make you an expert. You must be pretty young to have the limited views that you have. Sorry, but you are coming across that way.

[royal rose1]

Originally Posted by WeimieLvr

No safety is not hard to come by. If you are as intelligent as you profess, you understand that even the most statistically dangerous city is not very dangerous in most areas and the majority of crime is confined to particular areas for the most part. Calling the entire city of Charlotte a ghetto and characterizing it as unsafe is just irresponsible. Let's be realistic here...and a bit more mature than resorting to name-calling.

No, living somewhere for 10 years doesn't make you an expert. You must be pretty young to have the limited views that you have. Sorry, but you are coming across that way.

Please read over my post, I said "the ghetto of Charlotte." I'm actually a huge fan of Charlotte, I would never call the whole city "ghetto." Southern cities are overall far more dangerous than western cities, it's a known fact, please just look at any data and stop debating me. I'll say this, safe small cities aren't hard to come by. Is that good?

And just to show my point on a large scale, look at this map. The only two "black" states are in the South (not racially).
http://filipspagnoli.files.wordpress...s-assaults.jpg

[drewdave]

Originally Posted by royal rose1

Believe me, the only reason I'm here is for in-state tuition, the minute I graduate I'll be out of the South!

Don't let the door hit you on the way out, I guess? I'm from Raleigh (lived here my entire life), but there are many other "great" cities in NC/SC and the rest of the South. To think otherwise is ignorant beyond belief. You can't form judgments about places by statistics alone.