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You consider Ohio NE? Ohio screams midwest to me. Buffalo has a lot of midwestern qualities. It has a lot more in common with Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee than with NYC or Boston. The Great Lakes, a post industrial economy that is hurting, a lot of German and Polish influences... You get 10 miles outside of Buffalo and it is corn fields and dairy farms as far as you can see.
Actually Buffalo is not a midwestern city...it to far east. It on the east coast.
I've lived in both regions. The Kansas City area and also Indianapolis in the Lower Midwest. And I've lived in Minnesota.
I preferred Minnesota to KC and Indy. People are not as pushy or get into your personal business in Minnesota like they do down here. And they are less dictatorial too. My brother has noted these distasteful traits in Indianapolis as well. People in Indy and KC seem to be pretty shallow and superficial as well. Saw some of this in the Twin Cities too but not as bad as down here.
And soon I expect to be moving to the Kentucky side of Cincinnati though that is not a done deal as of yet. My initial impression of the people in northern KY is generally favorable. People seem friendly and helpful and are not full of themselves. I hope the people are not like they are in Indy otherwise my stay there will be a short one and I will be moving back to the north or northeast. South is fine but too hot and humid for me.
I've lived in both regions. The Kansas City area and also Indianapolis in the Lower Midwest. And I've lived in Minnesota.
I preferred Minnesota to KC and Indy. People are not as pushy or get into your personal business in Minnesota like they do down here.
They're fine in Iowa, too. Cinci is sort of a strange hybrid. I was in Columbus for 17 years and never quite got a handle on the culture in Cinci. As a generalization, people were friendly but more superficial than farther north.
Good luck in KY. I was glad to get back up North (I'm from MI originally). The culture in Des Moines is more like what I grew up with. The humidity can get awful but it's short-lived.
I've lived in both regions. The Kansas City area and also Indianapolis in the Lower Midwest. And I've lived in Minnesota.
I preferred Minnesota to KC and Indy. People are not as pushy or get into your personal business in Minnesota like they do down here. And they are less dictatorial too. My brother has noted these distasteful traits in Indianapolis as well. People in Indy and KC seem to be pretty shallow and superficial as well. Saw some of this in the Twin Cities too but not as bad as down here.
And soon I expect to be moving to the Kentucky side of Cincinnati though that is not a done deal as of yet. My initial impression of the people in northern KY is generally favorable. People seem friendly and helpful and are not full of themselves. I hope the people are not like they are in Indy otherwise my stay there will be a short one and I will be moving back to the north or northeast. South is fine but too hot and humid for me.
Wow, things must have changed a lot in the last 9 months. I remember you posting about how awful you thought nearly every person in Kansas City was before you moved and how much better Indy was. This is from one post:
Well, I've been here for a month now and I have to disagree with the naysayers in this message string. Indy is far from a lousy place to live or work............I don't get harassed, threatened and have not been stalked here like in KC...............Different strokes for different folks. If I had to spend the rest of my life in a community within a 50 mile radius of Indianapolis, I would hardly be dissatisfied. It's still OK in my book.
Sorry things didn't work out up there either. Not to set an ominous tone, but if any city in this general region has a reputation or stereotype about the people being less than welcoming, it's Cincinnati. The general stereotype is that it's really cliquey. I'm not saying it's true, but given your responses to the last two major cities you've lived in, it's not a good sign. I will say though that traffic in Cincy is not much fun. People are rude on the freeways and traffic gets backed up quite a bit. There are a lot of interesting neighborhoods though, the topography is beautiful, and I like the feel on the NKY side more so than across the river. I hope it works out for you
Wow, things must have changed a lot in the last 9 months. I remember you posting about how awful you thought nearly every person in Kansas City was before you moved and how much better Indy was. This is from one post:
Well, I've been here for a month now and I have to disagree with the naysayers in this message string. Indy is far from a lousy place to live or work............I don't get harassed, threatened and have not been stalked here like in KC...............Different strokes for different folks. If I had to spend the rest of my life in a community within a 50 mile radius of Indianapolis, I would hardly be dissatisfied. It's still OK in my book.
Sorry things didn't work out up there either. Not to set an ominous tone, but if any city in this general region has a reputation or stereotype about the people being less than welcoming, it's Cincinnati. The general stereotype is that it's really cliquey. I'm not saying it's true, but given your responses to the last two major cities you've lived in, it's not a good sign. I will say though that traffic in Cincy is not much fun. People are rude on the freeways and traffic gets backed up quite a bit. There are a lot of interesting neighborhoods though, the topography is beautiful, and I like the feel on the NKY side more so than across the river. I hope it works out for you
I won't malign the entire state of Indiana. Have met some pretty decent people that have actually been nice in many of the smaller cities and rural areas. But Indy has changed for the worse. Drivers here are even more reckless than KC and tailgating is almost as bad. People run red lights here like no tomorrow. Rarely saw that in KC. And I have to deal with lots of personal insults from people while at work and also outside of work from rude store staff.
While I have not been harassed or stalked here I have recently had at least a couple of threatening situations crop up including one where some moron tried to start a fight with me in a back alley as he sped in and nearly hit a kid on a bike while I was slowly following waiting to let the kid get out of the way so that I could proceed.
I've had it with the place. I don't mind a cliquey region. New England is like that. I prefer the company of my friends and family and while I try to be cordial with the rest of the world, I don't necessarily need to interact with others on a frequent basis. If won't be staying in Cincy very long if I end up with the same problems. I can move to the upper Midwest or Northeast and not have to deal with most of it again.
At this point I am no longer considering any future moves to metro areas. I am now researching small cities, towns and rural areas to call home if either I do not move to Cincy or if, after I get there, the problems start.
Louisville and Newport/Covington are definately gateway cities. I think maybe what your mistaking for "midwestern culture" is actually just your typical "urban american" culture. Get outside of Covington/Newport and into the rural areas of Boone, Kenton and Campbell counties and as long as their native born Kentuckians they are as kentuckian and as southern as any other part of Kentucky. If they are from Ohio or Indiana than we can argue a bit.
Kentucky is on the northern borderlands of the "upland south" but that doesn't mean it's lacking in southern character, it's still the south, albeit not in the same sense as maybe Georgia or Alabama, but I don't see much difference between culture in northern Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia or Virginia, not that much at least.
I have a cousin that lives up in Campbell county Kentucky Just outside of the reaches of Covington, maybe only 10 or 15 minutes or so, he's a good ole boy, has a noticable Kentucky accent and is as Kentuckian as they come, yet he was born and raised all his life in Campbell County northern Kentucky. Heck you could see the shores of southern Ohio from his front porch, now that's living on the border.
Kansas City and Louisville are SOUTHERN midwest.
Both are heavily influenced by the south.
But both are old cities with dense, brick bones and industry similar to rust belt cities.
Kansas City and Louisville are SOUTHERN midwest.
Both are heavily influenced by the south.
But both are old cities with dense, brick bones and industry similar to rust belt cities.
I would say that some of the areas outside of KC and especially to the south are somewhat influenced by southern culture. But still it is really a Midwestern city and has some western culture taking root.
KC has actually become a more livable place in recent years IMHO. Noted the last year I was there a couple of years ago that the roads were much cleaner and were in pretty good shape. People were also less hostile towards me and I considered that encouraging. Currently working in Indy but thankfully living in NKY (Covington) near Cincinnati. Indy is getting worse than it was the last time I was here. I'm pretty happy in KY and currently hope to stay there.
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Upper Midwest
