re: What are the most overrated and underrated cities in the US?

Overrated: Nashville

Underrated: Philadelphia

Houston is a weird Mad Max mix of NO, Memphis, Atlanta. Absolutely no rules or continuity from one part to the other.

Underrated- KC

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I’ll take an “overrated” city like San Francisco any day over the dull cities of Middle-America. SF has its problems, but is still world popular and the most beautiful major city in America.

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It’s not even the most beautiful major American city in its own state.

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West Seattle Dude

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Ahh makes sense

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Underrated- KC

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Which side KS or MO, it used to be the mob capital of the Midwest. Either way it is way better than StL, unless you count baseball.

Houston is 2 hours from Houston.

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I just really really wish they'd make the Briley non-stop between 24 and 40, then you'd have a complete bypass for the city. If I'm going E-W I take the 840 around, if I have to go through town N-S i either do it early morning before rush hour or suffer the red lights on Briley between 24 and 40. If I'm taking 65 through during the day I ususally grab hwy 109 and bypass it with 840 on the southern end.

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See I told you, traffic is a nightmare if you have to take these measures to get around the city.

Pit

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Underrated: Pittsburgh-

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Pittsburgh certainly is hilly but to that point, I watched July 4th fireworks on a hill overlooking where two rivers merged and it was quite a show. There's a lot of walkable historic areas.

Maybe this oughta be on the food board, but here is my experience with the food.

In almost every city you go to, someone you know has already been or lived there and occasionally will give helpful advice on places to go, things to do or something to eat. In Cincinnati, it was Skyline Chili, Chicago, it's one of the Chicago style pizza joints, Hawaii it was Poi and in Tuscaloosa, it's Dreamland Barbeque. So in the case of Pittsburgh, a colleague summarily prodded, if not conned, me into looking up Primanti Brothers Restaurant, a little dive down in the warehouse district or "the strip district". Umpteen years ago, they started making sandwiches supposedly for truckers that included meats, cheese, french fries and coleslaw all jammed together between two slices of Italian bread. Slices, not a bun.

I'm always open to the local flavor so I trotted down to the original location in the Strip District on 18th Street. Primanti Brothers is a cash only place with stainless steel counters, a caricature mural of famous people who've eaten there and a half dozen waitresses with the charm and warmth of an IRS agent.

The waitress mumbled, "Whattayahavin'?" and I replied, "Whatever is your number one sandwich." Tinkerbell snapped, "They're all number one" and walked off to intimidate another patron. When she returned, I took the cue to order something quickly, so I blurted out, "The steak sandwich and iced tea!"

Well, when she eventually plopped that thing down all wrapped in butcher paper, I opened it to find a sandwich about 4 or 5 inches tall cut in two. I realize presentation can be subjective in some cases.

It must be a local thing (see the reference to poi in Hawaii and chili in Cincinnati) because I couldn't see what the big deal was. First of all, I had to mash it down so I could take a bite and in doing so, the vinegar based coleslaw caused the bread to be soggy, hence the thing to fell apart. That with the combination of tasteless french fries in between the steak slices and slaw just made it, well.....a revolting experience. Like I said, I guess it must be a local thing. If I admitted that to the locals, I'd be run out on a rail.

All that for eight dollahs and thirty-two cents. This was about 15 years ago.

Good point.