The “Water Cooler” is a feature on Claycord.com where we ask you a question or provide a topic, and you talk about it.
The “Water Cooler” will be up Monday-Friday at noon.
Today’s question:
What’s your favorite “big city” in the United States, and why? (cities with a population of over 500,000)
Talk about it….
Had lots of fun in Dallas. Good food and nice people.
San Francisco
San Francisco. Why? Because I was born and grew up there. Although the
City has turned into a politically liberal mess, some of the old neighborhoods are still nice. The neighborhood I grew up in was mostly Italian and Maltese. It’s still a nice quiet part of town and has plenty of free parking.
San Francisco is still my favorite, but it sure has degraded since Willie Brown
was mayor, and has lost altitude to the present time.
Born & raised in the Mission of San Francisco. It was kind of a melting pot for the city. I still go into the City sometime.
Have been in a bunch of them and can’t say I care about any of them. They all have some culture, restaurants, and museums but how often are you in those places. The rest of the cities suck.
San Diego. Just plain beautiful.
I loved tromping through San Francisco and Seattle. Gorgeous and you never knew when you would come upon something extraordinary. Both were safe, clean. Both were known for art and cuisine. The gardens and architecture were stunning and inspiring.
Sad.
Cheyenne, Wyoming. Still good people there. Normal people.
There’s barely 500,000 people in the entire state. Cheyenne is not a big city. Nice place to be, but definitely not a big city. (Maybe the two are related??)
Cheyenne: 64,165 (2020)
Wyoming: 578,759 (2019)
Have driven across lower Wyoming; a great drive….
S,
did you see Lincoln peering out at ya on 80?
don’t know how I missed that… Or my memory ain’t what it outta be….
I looked it up, I musta seen it…
That looks like a great sculpture of President Lincoln. I’d really love to see that. The things I learn about here on Claycord! Thanks Glen.
Bozeman, MT.
Used to be San Francisco – no longer.
Boston is very history driven; like that
NYC. Great restaurants, Central Park, walking over the Brooklyn Bridge, the High Line, biking down the path on the Hudson River, Shake Shack in Madison Square Park, the Museums. I’m sure I couldn’t live there, but its a great place to visit.
+1
Los Angeles, for many reasons.
100% agree. Year round bikinis makes it better then all others combined. So many food options..beautiful locations, people
New York and San Francisco. I moved to New York in 1969, I had been an au pair in Westport Ct. After a long visit to my native Denmark I and a few of my au pair girl friends decided to get office jobs and live in New York. It was the late sixties and I was single, I had the time of my life. Although it took me 6 months to get use to the noise, crowds etc. looking back I’m amazed how easy it was to make friends in such a huge city. I left New York 1 and 1/2 year later with my boyfriend to live in New Orleans. Didn’t care for New Orleans, too hot and humid, and after New York a cultural chock, although the food was great. Then moved back to New York with my boyfriend, it little different since I was not single. Left New York for Milwaukee with my then husband in 1974, fortunately only for a few months then my husband was transferred to San Francisco. I have been in the Bay Area since, have been single since the mid eighties, use to go into the City almost every Friday, in the eighties and nineties, love North Beach, the café’s, City Light bookstore. Perry’s was a popular hang out, as was Mulherns, Lily’s and the Royal Exchange. Don’t go into to the City much anymore, traffic, parking etc. is an issue.
Hanne, you mentioned the Royal Exchange. I was working at One Embarcadero when I turned 21 and went there for my first legal drink; had a screwdriver on my lunch hour. I couldn’t wait to show my I.D.
Can’t say I like big cities. There are a few activities I enjoy that happen to be in big cities, but I go and get out…
A critical component to the question is “when” was your favorite city. For example, 1870 Chicago was really different from today. As for what and when is my favorite city, I don’t know; I haven’t seen them all!
San Antonio, Texas, for the RiverWalk
I’ve traveled to many of our big cities. Most are memorable for various reasons.
Las Vegas. Something for everyone. I love to people watch when I’m not playing.
SF. Grew up here. Loved it more in the ’80s/’90s.
Boston. Lots of history.
Washington DC. The museums, monuments, and history are amazing.
New Orleans. This place is “different”. Bourbon street is awesome.
I am NOT a fan of big cities. Being born and raised in the East Bay Area, of course SF is the closest to a “big city” I am most familiar with, and though I’m not sure it’s really all that big of a big city, I’d choose SF. It ranks near the top of the most beautiful cities. Some big cities I’ve seen a small part of are NYC, LA, London, and Mexico City. I can easily say that they have loads to offer, but after seeing them once or twice for a short time it’s okay if I never see them again. Some exotic medium size cities I’ve seen (as in compared to say, Sacramento), and seen more of and liked are Boston, Austin, San Antonio, Atlanta, Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Seattle, and San Juan, Puerto Rico. That’s all I can think of for now.
San Francisco – always loved it – great memories. I have a stack of Herb Caen books on my coffee table. So sad to see a once beautiful city so filthy and dangerous. Can’t imagine ever going there again…. makes me sad.
I might add, I haven’t been to the city recently. I haven’t yet crossed the “new” Bay Bridge!!🤣
The major cities are cesspools for crime and have zero nature let alone culture minus some small cities in Europe and Central Park in New York City which isn’t that impressive. It’s like living in a prison it’s all concrete there are so many cultures there is always conflict and most of the cities smell…most of them have overpriced food and housing and most of them are filled with liberals and bums no thanks. I prefer actual civilization not Petri dishes for disease famine and political zombie zones. We need to go back to nature and ditch the hive mind zones of eternal conflict and massive pollution/material consumption. Most people live a synthetic lifestyle stuck on their phones And television and Internet being programmed. City lifestyle is overrated and who wants to kick it with a bunch of lipstick liberal cosmopolitans who would sell their own mother out to virtue signal. Or be surrounded by crime. To each their own I guess
San Antonio, loved the trip! San Diego is beautiful!
It’s really comical to see how many people here have a problem comprehending the question.
Favorite big city in the Unites States with a population over 500,000, and why?
I used to like Seattle: much cleaner than SF, nice restaurants and hotels etc. Ive lost respect for it now that it’s been hijacked by “CHUMP” or whatever they call themselves.
It’s a tie between Los Angeles in the 1950s and San Francisco in the 1960s. Still go into San Francisco regularly to visit museums and galleries, but it’s not the beauty it once was. Same for a sprawling Los Angeles, but a much more casual experience.
San Diego! Beaches, Old Town, beaches, Gaslamp quarter, Fishing. Did I mention beaches?
Aside from the cretins who have turned my hometown into an overtaxed, fun-sucked cesspool, San Francisco is a beautiful City.
New York. No question. Spent the last two summers there. Cleaner, safer and better-run than SF. Not full of druggies shooting-up on the corners and everywhere else. Their transit is better, too. $2.75 will get you anywhere the subway goes. No ridiculous extra charge for distance travelled. A ride is a ride. Even if it’s an hour and a half ride to Coney Island. And there are parks everywhere. Clean little tables and chairs in every one. And we haven’t even talked about the food (falafel trucks!) or the museums. San Francisco used to be the best place – clean, safe and fun. Now it’s a cesspool.
New York, NY
Washington DC
San Francisco, CA
Philadelphia, PA
Podunk, IA
I liked Manhattan when I went because it’s just awesome and I got to visit the WTC two years before it fell. But the pizza is not as good as they say.
Did not like Brooklyn, Newark, or Atlanta. Too much crime.
Grew up outside Los Angeles. Awesome city BITD and truly the center of California. If it doesn’t exist in LA it doesn’t exist. The mecca for live entertainment. Far more than the SF Bay Area. Not even a far comparison. I would not live there today.
Vacationed in San Diego almost every year until 1994. Loved it. Best weather in California. Great beaches and fishing. I always tell out-of-staters, “San Diego is where Californians vacation.” Kind of conceited but true enough,
Without a doubt, San Francisco is the most scenic city on the West Coast. It’s something special, no doubt. Totally beautiful. The problem is the city leaders; the fact it attracts crazies and those with all sorts of twisted sexual proclivities; that it celebrates the most outlandish mental defects at the expanse of normal people and basically makes it impossible to raise a family there. IOW, great place to visit, but I would never live there. The most family-unfriendly city I know of.
The locals call it “Bag Lady by the Bay”. It’s sad to see wealth and poverty in the same city block. It’s been poorly run for so long, and won’t improve until we see a change of mayor.
San Francisco!!! Too bad it’s now a sanctuary sh!thole.
Barcelona, Chicago in the spring, and Zurich, Switzerland. In that order for me.
Not easy to answer for me –
I love Washington DC
I appreciate Chicago
I celebrated Boston
I enjoyed Paris
I felt at home in London
I grew up in Los Angeles
I MISS San Francisco (as I knew it)
Sigh
We are not fans of big cities, which is why we love living in Clayton. However, for big cities, we love Manhattan, as there is so much to do. San Diego is another favorite because of the beaches and weather. DC is another favorite because there is so much to see; I’ve been there dozens of times and always enjoyed it. Though it doesn’t qualify as a big city in this discussion, we love Charleston SC and it has become about an every three year place to visit. Beautiful city, great food and friendly people. Other favorites are Seattle and Boston, though I wouldn’t go to Seattle now. If I had to pick a favorite big city in the world, it would be Rome, as there is so much history and art there. We’ve also enjoyed both of our visits to London.
In the USA there is non better than the Emerald City of the northwest…Seattle
Europe…..the home of civilization Athens, Greece
SAN DIEGO!
Obvi New Orleans! The people, the culture, the food, the music, the football, the architecture, etc. The surrounding little towns are so much fun, Cajun Country, swamp tours, the laid-back, generous, fun and kind crowd. Can’t wait to move back home.
As I mentioned in an earlier post I lived in New Orleans for 1 and a 1/2 year. I did love the food, and the French quarter was charming. However, having grown up in Denmark and lived in New York and Ct before that, I found the weather unbearable, the humidity and on Christmas eve it was 76 degrees, just did not feel like Christmas, I’m use to it being cold on Dec. 24. Granted California does not exactly have cold weather on Christmas, but it is better than New Orleans.