The "black sheep" city of your State

[krazeeboi]

Originally Posted by Rwarky

In my State I gotta say it's Greensboro, but others may say it's Fayetteville.

It's not Greensboro at all; it's at the crossroads of the state and gets many major events and conventions. Fayetteville it definitely is.

[max_cool]

In Arizona, it's gotta be Flagstaff. It's a college/mountain/ski town in a "desert" state. It's got a vibe akin to Boulder, CO whereas the rest of the sate has a vibe akin to, well, Phoenix.

[alex3000]

In California, hhhmmm ... There isn't a clear candidate. Bakersfield, maybe?

[desertpunk]

...or Tulare.

[ThatDarnSacramentan]

I'll stick with Fresno.

[diablo234]

What about Redding?

Some people there have been proposing to form their own state (with Redding as the capital) so it has to be different from the rest of California I would assume?

[ThatDarnSacramentan]

Originally Posted by diablo234

What about Redding?

Some people there have been proposing to form their own state (with Redding as the capital) so it has to be different from the rest of California I would assume?

Oh, you mean the State of Jefferson or whatever it is? I think Redding is more Californian than Fresno because Redding has natural beauty going for it and, as stupid as it might sound, one of the most Californian things I can think of is I-5, which Redding is on. Admittedly, Redding is pretty conservative as is a lot of Northern California. The reason I say Fresno is because, if you've ever seen Fresno, it could be anywhere in the Midwest: fairly boring, dead downtown surrounded by farmland.

[Manitopiaaa]

They want to call it the state of Jefferson? How does that relate to Northern California. They should call it the State of Reagan, or Eastwood, or Haggard after people who are closer to the area.

[ThatDarnSacramentan]

Reagan would be SoCal if they wanted to secede (which they don't since they're the majority of the population). I don't know why they want to call it Jefferson, but once you get up around Yreka and Weed, you'll see billboards off of I-5 talking about Jefferson. You even see cars with bumper stickers advocating secession (and these people want southern Oregon too).

[JeremyCastle]

The State of Jefferson includes the counties of Southern Oregon as well.

[SDfan]

I say let them go, it'd be nice to start cutting CA up. San Diego should grab Imperial Co, southwestern Riverside Co, and maybe Yuma, we need an eastern outpost. I'd advocate for northern Baja too, but that may be going too far...

But back on topic, Redding is more California than Fresno and its shenanigans.

[cajun504]

Monroe Sucks

[tjfd88]

Back to Indiana, while I wholeheartly agree with Lake County, I would also consider Evansville a bit of a black sheep as well. While Indiana government focuses on Indianapolis more than any metro area in the state, they will focus on the Region first before they deal with Evansville. It's way down in that southwest corner all on its own with no really big city within 100 miles of it. The fact that Interstate 69 is being extended to there from Indianapolis should how much it is isolated from the rest of the state.

[kingchef]

i think the leading black sheep for tn would be nashville for several reasons.
1. nashville is really not a city or urban area, but more like a collection of small country towns that are strung together by hill people and country, blue grass, and gospel singing. hunting and fishing. they are a city which never really develops its own ideas or identity, because of insecurity and a desire to be accepted and liked by real urban cities like memphis, louisville, st. louis, tampa, dallas, and atlanta to name a few. nashville seeks media attention both nationally and locally in every story that seems to come down the pike. they got their feelings hurt and became angry when the flooding in that part of the state was not covered in a manner that fell in the national spotlight, even though other areas of tn were flooded and needed attention also, particularly in memphis, the largest city and county in tn. nashville claimed that it was being slighted by the major news outlets, on what they considered to be a major news story. they failed to mention how the news in chattanooga and clarksville, and knoxville covered the story.

after the flooding, they became upset because they didn't feel that the town was given enough attention when some b list entertainers tried to host a program to raise money for an alleged recovery effort, and their wasn't, according to them, enough coverage to make the program a success. they also felt that their town should be commended for doing things on their own to help themselves ih their distress. in all, it made them a black sheep of tn because they had the resources that most other tn cities didn't have at their disposal. nashville is the capital of tn, and it should be able to take care of itself w/out so much whinning. these are just a few of the reasons i heard about nashville being a whiner, when it always has a headstart on other cities in the state. memphis, which is considerably larger than the other cities of the state, as is their county, which is over 300,000 residents larger than davidson county, did pretty well w/ the disaster. nashville should toughen up and stop whinning.

[Middle-Island]

Utica .... Newburgh

As bad as Niagara Falls might be, its image still gets associated with the natural wonder.

[DasWolf]

Madison.

I love Madison because I am liberal, however most of rural Wisconsin wishes Madison would be wiped off the map.

[kingchef]

daswolf, i would be willing to say that most states have a city in their particular state that some, if not many, despise or hate. i know that when i lived in nashville many of the people there seemed to hate memphis because they saw if as a much more urban area, much more liberal, and always ahead of the other cities of the state. while this may be the very things that most cities admire about memphis, nashville residents, even those who had never been to the city, simply hated memphis because of its urbanity, its size, its museums, institutions, the river, and the fact that memphis mantains so much political power. w/ all these things, memphis has never been a city that pushed other cities in our state around. things move along on the principle that "it's a memphis thing." memphis does its own thing w/out trying to follow the tone that nashville wants to set.

after living in both cities, i definitely know that memphis has its own vibe----music, rhythm, lifestyle, pride, and pace. it doesn't seek out the trends that many of the smaller cities seems to chase, yet i think this is what gives memphis its charm and distinct flavor. if you live in memphis, memphis will have to live in you. there is so much that goes on there daily, but little of it is known. the city is on a long list of successful firsts in the history of the united states and urban culture, though many do not know it. consequently, because memphis is the largest city in the state, the largest county in the state, the leader in medical advances and medical care in the state, and has the three leading tourist attractions in the state, i would say that nashville might like to brand memphis as a black sheep of the state, but that is really a very samll number from a somewhat rural area of the state. it would be wonderful for the capital of the state to be in memphis, as so much of the population of the state lives there and so many huge companies are headquartered there.

[djrules5454]

Originally Posted by hyrule-mpls

Duluth with out a doubt. (for Minnesota)

I agree. It's a great place, but it's a little out of place in a farming state. Then again, so is the whole Iron Range.

[Jennifat]

Originally Posted by djrules5454

I agree. It's a great place, but it's a little out of place in a farming state. Then again, so is the whole Iron Range.

Every other US city on the Great Lakes is in a "farming state", so I'm not sure what that has to do with anything. I'd call it the black sheep just because it has a very depressed economy and has been losing population for decades, unlike the other three population centers in the state (St. Cloud, Twin Cities, Rochester).

[xXFallenXx]

Anything in the Central Valley that's not Sacramento.