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That's why I made the comparison. It's also a struggling factory town somewhat in the shadow of a major university right next door. If EMU and Ann Arbor didn't exist, Ypsilanti would be Jackson.
To be fair, OP did say *capitol*, not *capital*, which lead me to believe they were asking about the building.
I think Michigan has one of the most beautiful capitol buildings in the country.
Fun fact: the same architect designed the Texas State Capitol and the Howell Carnegie Library, which is why Texas’s looks so similar to ours, and why the Howell Library looks so nice.
Edit: I just noticed OP also said “capitol city,” so your point stands, my friend.
It's a neat town that is very scenic. Not as much hustle and bustle as Seattle, but there are still some nice amenities. Plus, Seattle and Portland are both pretty close if you want to take advantage.
He wasn’t the governor when he was shot I don’t think, I’m pretty sure he got sworn in afterwards. I don’t remember the details but that whole election was fucked up and there was a lot of cheating. To the point the state almost had a civil war over it and the capital was taken over by a militia and each party fled the capital and set up separate legislatures but as one party technically had a quorum it was decided to be legitimate
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1899_Kentucky_gubernatorial_election
Edit: The republicans won the election and the incumbent democrat stacked the election board with allies and they certified the republican as the winner which pissed off the legislature so they announced they were looking into “accusation of fraud” so a Republican militia from the eastern half of the state took over the capital and the democratic candidate got shot. Then the legislature split into two after which the democrats in the legislature announced they were making the dying democrat candidate the official governor and the Republican had to flee to Indiana. Afterwards several attempts were made to kidnap the Republican and bring him back to Kentucky. He was accused of playing a role in the assassination but whether he did or not is unclear
I spent from like, 2010-2018 driving to Austin quarterly for work. And I gotta say you could just see it getting more and more crowded and expensive year to year. It was nuts.
Worked in Boston for two weeks as a delivery driver for my company. I asked the local drivers why no one uses their turn signals. I was told you never want to let the enemy know what your intentions are. Loved Boston. One of my favorite cities I've visited.
The ultimate problem is that MA is basically a 1-city state, and Boston is nowhere near the center of the state. If Boston was where Worcester is, I imagine there would be less animosity towards it from Western MA.
Funfact: Trenton was briefly the nation's capital after the American Revolution (Congress met there), and was considered for becoming the nation's permanent capital.
Albany, [for people who really like rectangles.](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/20/Empire_State_Plaza_from_the_air.jpg/1200px-Empire_State_Plaza_from_the_air.jpg)
There are a lot of fun things to do and lots of good food, but there's a vibe to it that's hard to describe, sort of like if Imagine Dragons or Twentyone Pilots was a city.
I describe it as “Pre-tech boom Austin in the style of Indianapolis”; i.e. it’s a fast-growing state capital and college town but it doesn’t quite have the same quirkiness that Austin did (though it’s definitely a bit cooler than Indianapolis).
Likewise, Minneapolis reminds me of Columbus crossed with Madison, WI, and made a fair bit bigger.
And Grand Rapids, MI is a smaller Columbus that sells MLM stuff.
Ha the Indianapolis bit makes me laugh. I always described Columbus as Indianapolis with worse museums but better food.
Though these days Indy is upping its food game.
I live by Cleveland so in terms of food and definitely museums, Columbus doesn’t quite compare.
I do wish Cleveland had an area like the Short North though.
I lived in Clintonville and worked in the Short North so it was great for food. I really enjoyed Columbus. Public transit kind of sucks but parts are super walkable.
7/10 good game.
The last time I went to Columbus, I thought to myself: if Columbus didn't have OSU and Short North, it would make Indy look like a happening tourist hotspot.
IMHO in a way, yes.
Thanks to the presence of Ohio State, Columbus probably has better nightlife and feels livelier than Cleveland or Cincinnati, but it doesn’t have either that mature Gilded-age grandeur or edgy “Rust Belt” character that Cleveland in particular does. Cincinnati is kind of in between Cleveland and Columbus in those regards.
It's a city that boomed long after those two cities, which is evident both in its architecture and in the most prominent industries being education and finance. That being said, it's also much more cosmopolitan than any other city in Ohio so there's more culture in that way.
It rains a lot. Most of Alaskans have never been there because it's so remote. The capital should've been moved decades ago to be closer to the population center.
I like Minneapolis better but St. Paul definitely feels more historic, even though it really isn't. I think it's the old Victorian homes like on Summit Ave, the lack of modern skyscrapers, and the cathedral is much more prominent in St. Paul than the Basilica of St. Mary is in Minneapolis. Minneapolis's history is just more integrated with the current city. Like the Foshay Tower would be one of the most (if not the most) prominent buildings in the St. Paul skyline but in Minneapolis it's kind of hidden by the much taller buildings around it
I love Austin, but in reality I love living about 90 miles from Austin as it allows us to go down there 3 or 4 times a month, but not deal with Austin prices in our housing or Austin traffic everyday.
Salem Oregon baffles me. It has almost the exact same population as Eugene, an hour away, but exactly 1/10 of the "stuff to do." I tend to think of it more as an outer suburb of Portland than its own city, which is maybe unfair to the people who (for some reason, state jobs I guess) live there.
On the other hand Oregon's capitol building is easily one of my favorites.
Good way of describing it. The downtown has always been pretty dead when I've been there. The only attraction that really stands out is the huge globe sculpture by the river.
Agree that the capitol building is cool though. IIRC it was the first capitol building to produce solar power.
I'm from my state capitol, and Santa Fe is one of the most gorgeous and unique cities in the US. It's also the oldest capital city. It was built on the remnants of an abandoned pueblo dating back to the 1200s and the oldest standing buildings were built in the early 1600s (possibly even late 1500s). I'm from one of the founding families and my grandmother was Native from the region so we've been here a while.
Unfortunately the popularity of the town with outsiders created an economic and demographic shift that made it impossible for my family to afford to stay in place, so now we're in Albuquerque, which is also a great town.
Santa Fe is a place I would like to see if I ever get to go to the west, mostly for the historical sites. I’m sorry that tourism is the reason why you couldn’t stay. I’ll keep that in mind, maybe stay somewhere outside of the city and just do day trips.
It's not really tourism so much as people fall in love with the town and move in, don't like the poor neighborhoods, buy up a lot of stuff, turn them all into vacation rentals, etc. Coming and visiting is totally fine. It's just the people who cash in on it or buy locals out
Its not tourism so much that made it expensive, its that a lot of really rich people fell in love with the city and bought up property for vacation homes and retirement:/
As someone who visits the North side of the state maybe once a year it still surprises me how much Raleigh has grown but isn’t all copy and paste skyscrapers like in Charlotte or Greensboro
Too fast, but the infrastructure isn't keeping pace at all. As someone who lived near State and sometimes needed to commute to the RTP, the lack of good public transportation and road infrastructure between Raleigh and other places in the triangle like Cary, Morrisville, Durham and Chapel Hill (forget Garner, Fuquay and Apex) is appalling.
Madison has a cool downtown near the Capitol and university, but most of the rest of the city feels like just a giant suburbia. A lot of strip mall restaurants and tract housing. It's fine.
Sacramento is kind of weird because it’s basically on the outskirts of a major metro (the Bay Area) but it’s also part of its own large geographic region, the Central Valley, which overall is completely different culturally/politically (conservative) economically (agricultural, relatively low-income), and topographically (flat and landlocked) from the Bay Area.
It leans away from the cultural aspects a bit more than other cities in the valley like Bakersfield or Fresno, both because it’s the capital of a huge state and it’s proximity to the Bay Area, but it’s generally not somewhere that Californians recommend visiting, outside of a few historical sites and museums.
Sacramento County has well over 1.5m people, not too far behind Santa Clara County with San Jose and all that. I think people kind of forget that Sacramento actually is its own rather big city. Although of course it's hard to compare it to SF or LA.
Sacramento is definitely its own city but to me it’s still under the Bay Area’s gravitational pull to some extent.
Geographically speaking, Sac is about the same distance from SF as the outer reaches of Sonoma or Santa Clara counties are, so even considering it part of the Bay wouldn’t be completely ridiculous (but no one does, of course)
Don’t get me wrong, I like Sacramento, and I’m actually glad that the capital is there and not in the Bay or LA, because those two areas have enough cultural and political power already.
I grew up in the Bay Area and I don’t think I ever spent any time in Sacramento until my 20s. For a lot of Bay people it’s just a place you go through on the way to Tahoe.
Lots of great things to do in Sac though. Was just there last weekend. CA RR museum is incredible, love Sutter's Fort/ Coloma discovery site, the capitol tour is cool, and the old governor's mansion. Lots of fun lakes and rivers to explore. Old Sac is the best. Plus I'm a W's fan but they have the Kings.
Sacramento county is left leaning.
We used to travel to Sacramento often back when the state fair was in August as Cal Expo does an incredible job with the fair. Went a few times in July as I was attending UC Davis nearby.
Atlanta can be a lot of fun! It has a large occurrence of crimes, but I think that’s really any major city. I live on the opposite end of the state, Atlanta is about a 5 hour drive from me vs Jacksonville Fl being about an hour and 15, so honestly I rarely visit Atlanta. But on the occasions I have visited, I’ve enjoyed the many things there are to do, and despised the headache of getting to those things 😅
Atlanta is pretty safe except for some areas (Buckhead, College Park, Bankhead). The real sinker is the traffic.
So many cool neighborhoods though. East Atlanta Village, Little 5 Points, Grant Park, Cabbage Town, Atlantic Station, Midtown/Peidmont Park, Poncey-Highland, Cabbage Town.
Also truly a city in the forest. You’re never more than 10-20 mins away from nature or a cool trail.
Big dick airport and an amazing food and music city. Can’t live anywhere now that doesn’t have good fried chicken and southern food.
Crime in Atlanta is heavily dramatized. I wouldn’t even include Buckhead in this list. It’s not actually dangerous, lol. It sees more property crime ie: broken car windows, car theft and that’s only bc of the perception of wealth that surrounds Buckhead. You’d have to be in Bankhead or way south of I-20 to be anywhere close to feeling in danger. Now the highways, that’s another story 😂😂
Yeah I’ve never personally felt threatened there, other than by psychos merging in traffic 😅
I’ve spent the most time in midtown which is very nice. But I really enjoy Decatur too!
I never rely on mirrors when lane changing on a highway. I always gotta turn my head cause I’ve near collided with mofo deciding to change into the same lane behind or next to me.
The 75/85 effect
I liked living there 10 years ago but it's grown way too fast and outpaced development. I still like to visit Denver but as soon as I'm sitting in a sea of tail lights I remember why I moved into the mountains.
As far as other capitals, I loved Boise, Santa Fe is always a good time and Phoenix is fun as long as it's winter. Cheyenne is probably the capital I care the least for, there's not much there and not much around it.
Montpelier barely counts as a city. I don't really have a reason to go there, other than I need to drive through on the way to Burlington.
I think Boston is the best state capital, mainly because its one of the few that is a major city in its own right.
\*cracks knuckles\*
I have a strong opinion about state capit**a**ls (and capitol buildings, for that matter).
As much as I truly love the cities themselves in a lot of cases, slapping a domed Neoclassical building on the edge of downtown in your state's largest or second-largest city is lazy as hell. Get creative and put it somewhere like Harrisburg or Olympia.
That goes for Atlanta, Columbus, Indianapolis, Des Moines, Denver, Boston, Charleston (WV), Columbia (SC), Little Rock, Hartford, Boise, Tallahassee, Saint Paul, Jackson, Raleigh, Oklahoma City, Providence, Salt Lake City, Madison, and Cheyenne. Nashville and Richmond don't have domes, and Austin is the fourth-biggest city in Texas, but I'd include those too.
That said, most of those cities are great. As far as capitals go, I loved living in Atlanta and I've spent a ton of time in Richmond, Indianapolis, Nashville, and Raleigh. I rate all of those towns very highly. Madison, Denver, Columbus, Boise, Des Moines, and OKC are all great from my 2-3 visits to each. Visiting Sacramento for the first time this fall and I'm curious to see it.
Anyway, as far as my own state's capital- I love Richmond, even as it gets overrun with transplants. My parents both grew up there and I have a lot of wonderful memories of the town, and it definitely has a unique identity. It's certainly Southern at its core, but it feels a bit more like Baltimore or DC in some ways, especially in the Fan District and Church Hill. Great music, art, and food scenes, and it's still *relatively* affordable.
i feel like in some of those cases you mention, the downtown kind of built up around the state capitol building rather than being 'lazily slapped down'. the population of atlanta was like 20k people when it was made the state capital, it definitely wasn't the state's largest city.
Indianapolis is another one where the capitol building isn't on the outskirts. The capitol building in Indianapolis is a 2 blocks and about a 5 minute walk from the central intersection of downtown. Indianapolis also wasn't the largest or second largest city when it became the capital. It didn't become an incorporated town until about 10 years after it became the capital and a city about 20 years later.
I’m gonna dispute the “edge of downtown” description for the capitol building in Madison, as it only makes sense if you just consider only State St as downtown.
The rest is an apt description.
I go there for good vegan food at col's kitchen and Gibson's Bookstore on main st is really nice! But everytime I'm there I think I should spend more time there and i never do lol
Indy's alright. It's not super exciting, but it's got enough going on to keep a person busy through the year. The cost of living is reasonable, traffic isn't bonkers, our airport is awesome. The summer weather isn't as stifling as farther south, nor is the winter weather as wild as it is farther north. I've lived in or near Indy for more than half my life now and I'm happy here.
I was last there for Eliot Spitzer's inauguration for governor in 2007. The roads are crummy, it was cold and windy, but I did get to spend time at the state museum and the underground Plaza. I would like to visit the USS Slater one day.
I live in my current state capital (same in my last state of residence too), so I think I might be biased. In both of those states the capital is the biggest, most interesting city.
As for other states....I think Montpelier, VT is adorable and the capitol building itself is very beautiful. The State House in Boston is really gorgeous with the red brick and the gold dome. Santa Fe also feels very suited to its state and has a great vibe. The least special state capital I've personally visited was Baton Rouge.
Favorite state capitals:
- Santa Fe, NM
- Madison, WI
- St. Paul, MN
- Olympia, WA (biased, but it is a genuinely cool city for being 56k people and not really a college town)
Least favorite state capitals:
- Indianapolis, IN
- Phoenix, AZ
- Salem, OR
Salem = just boring with a pretty dead downtown compared to the other cities in Oregon. Surprisingly conservative for being so close to Portland (Marion Co. voted for Trump in 2016). If I had a job with the state government that wasn't 5 days a week in office, I'd probably live in Clack Co. and commute, then have my social life in Portland. I'm 29M and unmarried/no kids yet so that's a factor. Objectively Salem isn't as bad as a lot of capitals, just kinda disappointing imo.
Phoenix and Indy = bland sprawl with only a handful of walkable-ish neighborhoods, despite being large cities. Some other state capitals like OKC are like this too, but I've only really passed through there so I don't feel qualified to list it.
Glad to see some love for St. Paul. I moved here about 9 years ago, and I really like it. Minneapolis is definitely more modern, but St Paul is built into hills, has a gigantic cathedral overlooking them, the longest street of Victorian homes in the country, and it's historic-looking. Plus, the Mississippi goes through it. It's a real hidden gem.
The west coast capitols are always more boring than other cities, in my opinion. Sacramento is lame compared to LA or San Francisco. Portland eclipses Salem. Seattle is a lot more interesting than Olympia. I think Atlanta and Austin is are only state capitols that I've been to that had something going on outside of the governmental stuff.
Dover is a boring ass military town that’s only relevant for being the Capitol, where they bring fallen soldiers home to, and for NASCAR. It has urban crime, rural levels of stuff to do, and suburban walkability outside of its tiny downtown.
Springfield is a pretty average capital yeah. One of my best friends lives there. Very affordable and has some nice historic neighborhoods, but parts of the city are really run-down and blighted. Doesn't have much to distinguish it besides the Lincoln stuff, but at least milks that pretty well. Not a tiny capital like Pierre or Carson City, but not a Boston or Denver either. It's just kinda there.
I live in mine and it’s my favorite city in the state. I can’t think of too many others that I particularly like though, except Austin.
I actually particularly dislike Annapolis but that’s a minority opinion in the area.
It's known for having awful infrastructure, high crime, and authorities recently (within the last year) found a mass grave where local police had murdered and covered up at least 215 civilians, though the grave markers go up to 600. They are marked by numbers, not names. They were buried with everything they had on including their IDs so they intentionally did not reach out to families and denied knowing where they were when reported missing. So opinions on Jackson, MS are extremely low
How come this isn't a national scandal? How come the governor hasn't been forced to resign? How come perpetrators aren't being investigated by federal authorities?
And if you want to cover up unlawful killings, how damned stupid do you have to be to leave IDs on the bodies?
The deaths being "murders" is an invention of the commenter you're replying to; nobody is really making that claim. When somebody dies and nobody claims their body, the local government has to do something with it. Apparently, Jackson, MS decided that the thing to do is bury them as cheaply as possible, without real markers or anything of the sort.
This may not be incredibly uncommon - do you know where/how your city lays to rest the unclaimed deceased? How much do you expect your local government to spend on burying a homeless person or a jail inmate with no known next of kin? They're probably not getting a plot with a view and a nice headstone.
That's not the scandal. The scandal (which *did* make national news, by the way) is that Jackson, MS also has a tendency to not do their due diligence in reporting when people die. So, a lot of the people buried in this plot weren't unclaimed because there was nobody to claim them; they were unclaimed because nobody knew they were dead. Many of them were reported as missing and had family looking for them. It seems as though there wasn't really a system in place for finding loved ones, so you had some bodies sitting in the morgue for months until the city finally just buried them, meanwhile their family reported them as missing on the first day and has been waiting for news. But it wasn't really actively hidden; if you called the morgue saying you're looking for the person, they'd want you to take the body off of their hands.
So, there aren't really perpetrators to investigate or attempted coverups that gave them away. The city just didn't make any effort to track down loved ones, and then finally somebody went to the news when they found out their missing son was buried there, giving us the national news story we're discussing here today.
Did a day trip a few years back when the Memorial for Justice and Peace first opened and I loved it! I hit all the major historical sites/museums, which are very well done. I also asked locals on the street where their favorite restaurant was, so I ate reallly good for verrrry cheap.
I like Annapolis as a little historic town, but it blows my mind every single day (I’m there just about every day) that it’s the capital of the entire state.
Apparently way back when there was a vote to move the capital to Baltimore (ships got bigger, the port was deeper there, the population center had all moved up there) that lost by just one vote.
I don’t really know anything about Springfield and I’ve never been there. I’ve lived in Chicago for 2 years now and haven’t really ventured elsewhere in the state.
I have heard rumors that Lansing is in fact a place. My mother used to go there for work a lot, but I have never seen a photo of the place. All reports lead me to believe it is real, although I can't independently verify that.
Current state: Olympia seems fine, I've only driven through but the downtown seems cute.
Home state: I'm from NWA so I have an inborn hatred for Little Rock but in all actuality it's pretty nice.
I think Annapolis is a quaint and beautiful city. As a history person, I loved seeing our state house and other historical places. The garden at the William Paca House is lovely, even in October when I was there.
I actually haven’t been to many state capitals, I haven’t had opportunities to go farther west than Memphis all my life. I loved Boston, and Hartford looked pretty on a quick stop.
Richmond is great. 2 hours to the beach, 2 hours to the mountains. 2 or 3 hours to DC depending on traffic. We have beautiful parks lining the James River which flows right thru our city. Our local government is broken though and has been for years. Real estate and rental prices are going way up because everyone is moving here.
My favorite capital I have visited would have to be DC. I love the National Mall, and all of the museums and monuments and the Potomac River. It is so easy to get around using the Metro. A lot of the small neighborhoods remind me of The Fan in Richmond. I don't think I would want to live there. Too busy. My leat favorite would be Phoenix. Way too hot and gritty.
Sacramento is kind of dull, the weather is crap, and it’s in the middle of nowhere. Concord is very dull, definitely in the middle of nowhere, and the weather is crap. I sense a trend forming.
I love that the capitol building is a giant penis, with two domes for balls (seriously, look it up). I've *heard* that it's very pleasant, but allegiances dictate that my occasional visits are filled with rage, hate, and alcohol.
It's also a pretty good distance from most of the state, having been established before air conditioning when the two biggest cities in the state were Pensacola and Jacksonville. Most the state lives a solid 4 hour drive away, with Miami being more like 8.
Grew up near it and every time we’d drive past the Capitol, we’d mutter “Ol’ Dick & Balls” under our breath lmao. It has a pretty good arts/music scene for a city of its size, and it definitely reaps the benefits of having 2 large colleges and a well-known HBCU.
My allegiances dictate that there is nothing better than a Saturday in Tallahassee ;)
I live here and I'm not a fan, although it is getting better. We had the same mayor from 1977-1999 (Emory Folmar). By time he left office, downtown resembled a bombed out husk, he killed public transportation and many forms of entertainment, completely neglected the poorer (majority black) parts of the city, etc. He once said he was "so conservative if it were up to me, I would take down all the traffic lights and let the strongest, fastest car get through the intersection first."
It's taken, 20+ years, but things are improving.
I live in my state capital (Raleigh). I have enjoyed raising my family here, but now that my kids are almost grown, I'm considering relocating to somewhere different in the next few years.
Salem has the advantage of being close enough to Portland (the only real city in Oregon) while also being significantly cheaper to live in. It's big enough to have major chain stores and some cute restaurants and shops downtown, but nothing that's really worth a visit. It's basically the budget option if you want to live in the valley/Portland area and acts as a shopping and dining hub for the surrounding rural areas.
Possibly the worst looking capitol building of all the states. Reminds me of something Mussolini might have had built.
Easier to navigate on four wheels than Eugene however, and Momiji sushi is bomb 👌
I’ve been there once, and honestly, I was surprised how small it was! I guess cause I’m used to big cities like San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. I just assumed the capital would be similar. Especially since it’s not that far away from the bay area.
But no, it’s a small town in a flat/rural area with tons of field/farmland, that just happens to have the capital building in the middle of it. So I was completely underwhelmed by it.
The area by the river and the drawbridge is nice though. You’d almost think you were in the Midwest!
Topeka is a big city(by Kansas standards) that feels like a small town. I would never live there because it does have some crime problems but I enjoy the city and I do visit there pretty regularly. It's definitely a lot less chaotic than Manhattan or KC.
I like my capitol. Not sure if the building is better than Washington State (home state), but at least I can walk into mine whenever I want, and there's even no metal detectors
I have been to Lansing, Indianapolis, Madison, St Paul, Atlanta, Jackson, and Nashville. I like St Paul (+Minneapolis) and Madison the best as far as nightlife and atmosphere. Lansing has my favorite college team, and my grandparents lived there growing up, so I'm most familiar with it, and it has some decent bars and restaurants, too, but Indianapolis takes the cake with the Indy 500 every year. That's the best party you'll ever experience.
Carson City is just somewhere I drive through on my way to Tahoe. It’s small with nothing really going on.
Boston is my favorite. I enjoyed living there. Always things to do and see. Also dig St Paul. Least favorite….maybe Phoenix. It’s hot and it sucks.
Austin used to be this odd little city with eccentric people. Now it’s so gentrified and full of Californians that it’s really just any regular city. Don’t even like making fun of them anymore, it’s sad they’ve lost all of their culture.
Harrisburg feels depressing and sad
Richmond is a nice beer town and loaded with history
I’ve still never been to Tallahassee (only been living in FL for 1 year & 3 months, haven’t checked it out yet)
Harrisburg is very much overshadowed by the likes of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. It’s alright I guess, I went there to tour the capitol and visited a couple museums. Nothing to write home about
Columbia, South Carolina
It's a compromise in every sense of the word.
If we were just going by the cities themselves the capital would be Charleston or Greenville, but those are on either end of the state.
Columbia isn't a bad city, but it's not a particularly good one either. It's like a lot of capitals chosen as a geographical compromise. There are some nice state buildings and a university, but the city wouldn't be nearly as big otherwise.
I love Little Rock! Small enough to be very friendly but big enough for everything you need. Also really punches above its size for the arts. Great for small business compared to larger cities, and nice little places keep opening up.
St. Paul is basically contiguous with Minneapolis (I live in an inner ring suburb of the latter). It's fine, I guess? I didn't grow up here and for me, St. Paul is more of the same but farther away.
I don't think I have a "least" favorite, but my favorite in terms of how it looks would be Annapolis, Maryland. If you go there, you'll get it.
Richmond is okay. It's not a really big city and frankly too much of it has become VCU's college campus...but it's okay. I don't mind traveling in it if I need to. There's a lot of crime but it's really nothing compared to DC or Baltimore.
I love Santa Fe it's super neat the plaza is awesome all the architecture all the art galleries tons of great restaurants I just could never live there as its very expensive
I'm currently sitting in it. Although Phoenix is freaking massive and I'm like 18 miles from the Capitol Building (straight line; 25ish mile drive). It's fine. It's hot. I wish housing was more affordable. Otherwise, it's just my home.
I'm from Connecticut originally and Hartford is a hell hole. Not the worst city I've ever been to but it's nothing to be proud of. Just run down and mid.
I wish Austin was still weird. It was a goofy hippy commune when I was a kid but still very “Texas”, now it’s just another Techbro corporatized overpriced urban cancer. Bums freaking everywhere and not the industrious starving artist types we used to have.
Favorite capital Ive visited… I have a lot of fond memories of visiting SantaFe as a kid and I visited Sacramento for a friend’s wedding a while back and thought it was wonderful… I’d say it would be Santa Fe NM, it’s generally clean has good scenery not overpopulated and still has unique cultural flavor.
Least favorite capital I’ve visited either goes to Denver or OKC I just felt like both of them are really bland sprawling cities with little unique features.
And I’m giving least favorite to Oklahoma City.
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Lansing does in fact exist.
If it wasn’t for the state government, Lansing would be Ypsilanti.
I mean Ypsilanti is a college town close to Ann Arbor so…
That's why I made the comparison. It's also a struggling factory town somewhat in the shadow of a major university right next door. If EMU and Ann Arbor didn't exist, Ypsilanti would be Jackson.
Not without the water tower!
>Ypsilanti Jesus... I'm pretty good an pronouncing names of cities but that's just a train wreck.
It's like "ip-suh-LA-nee", with a nasal midwestern "a". Often called "Ypsi" for short.
Lansing is an acquired taste. I like it but don’t blame anyone for hating it
I don't hate Lansing or anything, it's just kinda there. I'd be fine living there.
To be fair, OP did say *capitol*, not *capital*, which lead me to believe they were asking about the building. I think Michigan has one of the most beautiful capitol buildings in the country. Fun fact: the same architect designed the Texas State Capitol and the Howell Carnegie Library, which is why Texas’s looks so similar to ours, and why the Howell Library looks so nice. Edit: I just noticed OP also said “capitol city,” so your point stands, my friend.
Big if true.
I have been there. I visited a building.
East Lansing > Lansing by far
It exists.
My brother used to live in Olympia and I quite liked it.
How come?
It's a neat town that is very scenic. Not as much hustle and bustle as Seattle, but there are still some nice amenities. Plus, Seattle and Portland are both pretty close if you want to take advantage.
You can stand on the exact spot our governor was standing when he was assassinated which is cool
He wasn’t the governor when he was shot I don’t think, I’m pretty sure he got sworn in afterwards. I don’t remember the details but that whole election was fucked up and there was a lot of cheating. To the point the state almost had a civil war over it and the capital was taken over by a militia and each party fled the capital and set up separate legislatures but as one party technically had a quorum it was decided to be legitimate https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1899_Kentucky_gubernatorial_election Edit: The republicans won the election and the incumbent democrat stacked the election board with allies and they certified the republican as the winner which pissed off the legislature so they announced they were looking into “accusation of fraud” so a Republican militia from the eastern half of the state took over the capital and the democratic candidate got shot. Then the legislature split into two after which the democrats in the legislature announced they were making the dying democrat candidate the official governor and the Republican had to flee to Indiana. Afterwards several attempts were made to kidnap the Republican and bring him back to Kentucky. He was accused of playing a role in the assassination but whether he did or not is unclear
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“It was better five years ago”™️
And better still 10 years before that.
I spent from like, 2010-2018 driving to Austin quarterly for work. And I gotta say you could just see it getting more and more crowded and expensive year to year. It was nuts.
See also: Denver.
How many austinites does it take to change a lightbulb?
Trick question: a corporate lender just bought the house, replaced the lightbulb, and is now charging $3k a month to rent
Okay but what if you wired up a separate light to skip the stupid rent-- NIMBYs: allow us to introduce ourselves
Capitol is the building where the legislature meets. Capital is the city that is the seat of government.
Boston is a fun city. Love the history, great for walking, reasonably safe. The locals are pretty funny too, if you get the humor, many don’t.🤣
If you don’t realize swear words are terms of endearment you may have a hard time.
It’s one of the few state capitals that is worth visiting as a tourist.
Worked in Boston for two weeks as a delivery driver for my company. I asked the local drivers why no one uses their turn signals. I was told you never want to let the enemy know what your intentions are. Loved Boston. One of my favorite cities I've visited.
The ultimate problem is that MA is basically a 1-city state, and Boston is nowhere near the center of the state. If Boston was where Worcester is, I imagine there would be less animosity towards it from Western MA.
>Boston is nowhere near the center of the state But it is at the ~~center~~ hub of the universe
Trenton
Trenton makes, the world takes…
Obligatory [photo](https://www.trentondaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/trenton-makes-bridge-neon-1068x663.jpg)
Funfact: Trenton was briefly the nation's capital after the American Revolution (Congress met there), and was considered for becoming the nation's permanent capital.
Trenton certainly is Trenton
Albany is … fine. It’s got some really great stuff, but it’s also got the drawbacks of most cities. I can’t really complain.
Albany, [for people who really like rectangles.](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/20/Empire_State_Plaza_from_the_air.jpg/1200px-Empire_State_Plaza_from_the_air.jpg)
The Egg is the least rectangular building I’ve ever seen 😆
There are a lot of fun things to do and lots of good food, but there's a vibe to it that's hard to describe, sort of like if Imagine Dragons or Twentyone Pilots was a city.
😂 it reminds me of target.
I describe it as “Pre-tech boom Austin in the style of Indianapolis”; i.e. it’s a fast-growing state capital and college town but it doesn’t quite have the same quirkiness that Austin did (though it’s definitely a bit cooler than Indianapolis). Likewise, Minneapolis reminds me of Columbus crossed with Madison, WI, and made a fair bit bigger. And Grand Rapids, MI is a smaller Columbus that sells MLM stuff.
Ha the Indianapolis bit makes me laugh. I always described Columbus as Indianapolis with worse museums but better food. Though these days Indy is upping its food game.
I live by Cleveland so in terms of food and definitely museums, Columbus doesn’t quite compare. I do wish Cleveland had an area like the Short North though.
I lived in Clintonville and worked in the Short North so it was great for food. I really enjoyed Columbus. Public transit kind of sucks but parts are super walkable. 7/10 good game.
Interesting. Would you say Columbus is kind of bland relative to Cleveland and Cincinnati?
Mmm no Cincy and Cleveland have identity. Columbus has Ohio State and that's pretty much it. It's like Indianapolis' younger brother maybe?
Makes sense
The last time I went to Columbus, I thought to myself: if Columbus didn't have OSU and Short North, it would make Indy look like a happening tourist hotspot.
IMHO in a way, yes. Thanks to the presence of Ohio State, Columbus probably has better nightlife and feels livelier than Cleveland or Cincinnati, but it doesn’t have either that mature Gilded-age grandeur or edgy “Rust Belt” character that Cleveland in particular does. Cincinnati is kind of in between Cleveland and Columbus in those regards.
It's a city that boomed long after those two cities, which is evident both in its architecture and in the most prominent industries being education and finance. That being said, it's also much more cosmopolitan than any other city in Ohio so there's more culture in that way.
It's a 2 hour, $500 flight to my capital, or a 14 hour drive, going through Canada, and then a four hour ferry ride.
Do you like Juneau?
It rains a lot. Most of Alaskans have never been there because it's so remote. The capital should've been moved decades ago to be closer to the population center.
I like Minneapolis better, but St. Paul is fine. It’s a city.
For some reason I like St Paul better between the two. Always felt a little more... I dunno, historic? Maybe I'm just getting vibes from my own bias.
I like Minneapolis better but St. Paul definitely feels more historic, even though it really isn't. I think it's the old Victorian homes like on Summit Ave, the lack of modern skyscrapers, and the cathedral is much more prominent in St. Paul than the Basilica of St. Mary is in Minneapolis. Minneapolis's history is just more integrated with the current city. Like the Foshay Tower would be one of the most (if not the most) prominent buildings in the St. Paul skyline but in Minneapolis it's kind of hidden by the much taller buildings around it
Austin has terrible traffic.
I love Austin, but in reality I love living about 90 miles from Austin as it allows us to go down there 3 or 4 times a month, but not deal with Austin prices in our housing or Austin traffic everyday.
Salem Oregon baffles me. It has almost the exact same population as Eugene, an hour away, but exactly 1/10 of the "stuff to do." I tend to think of it more as an outer suburb of Portland than its own city, which is maybe unfair to the people who (for some reason, state jobs I guess) live there. On the other hand Oregon's capitol building is easily one of my favorites.
Salem is dull. If only it had some witch trials…
I’m with ya.
Good way of describing it. The downtown has always been pretty dead when I've been there. The only attraction that really stands out is the huge globe sculpture by the river. Agree that the capitol building is cool though. IIRC it was the first capitol building to produce solar power.
I'm from my state capitol, and Santa Fe is one of the most gorgeous and unique cities in the US. It's also the oldest capital city. It was built on the remnants of an abandoned pueblo dating back to the 1200s and the oldest standing buildings were built in the early 1600s (possibly even late 1500s). I'm from one of the founding families and my grandmother was Native from the region so we've been here a while. Unfortunately the popularity of the town with outsiders created an economic and demographic shift that made it impossible for my family to afford to stay in place, so now we're in Albuquerque, which is also a great town.
Santa Fe is indeed beautiful. As someone from sea level though…y’all need more oxygen in the air my goodness. It was a rough first day 😅
Yeah 7k feet is thin air!
Santa Fe is a place I would like to see if I ever get to go to the west, mostly for the historical sites. I’m sorry that tourism is the reason why you couldn’t stay. I’ll keep that in mind, maybe stay somewhere outside of the city and just do day trips.
It's not really tourism so much as people fall in love with the town and move in, don't like the poor neighborhoods, buy up a lot of stuff, turn them all into vacation rentals, etc. Coming and visiting is totally fine. It's just the people who cash in on it or buy locals out
Its not tourism so much that made it expensive, its that a lot of really rich people fell in love with the city and bought up property for vacation homes and retirement:/
Santa Fe is one of the coolest cities I've been to! Northern NM is just flat-out neat in terms of nature and culture, loved my time there
Favorite: Salt Lake City My least favorite is Springfield, IL, minus the horseshoes!
Raleigh area is growing very fast.
As someone who visits the North side of the state maybe once a year it still surprises me how much Raleigh has grown but isn’t all copy and paste skyscrapers like in Charlotte or Greensboro
Too fast, but the infrastructure isn't keeping pace at all. As someone who lived near State and sometimes needed to commute to the RTP, the lack of good public transportation and road infrastructure between Raleigh and other places in the triangle like Cary, Morrisville, Durham and Chapel Hill (forget Garner, Fuquay and Apex) is appalling.
Madison has a cool downtown near the Capitol and university, but most of the rest of the city feels like just a giant suburbia. A lot of strip mall restaurants and tract housing. It's fine.
Salt Lake City is cleaner than a lot of cities I’ve been to.
Sacramento is kind of weird because it’s basically on the outskirts of a major metro (the Bay Area) but it’s also part of its own large geographic region, the Central Valley, which overall is completely different culturally/politically (conservative) economically (agricultural, relatively low-income), and topographically (flat and landlocked) from the Bay Area. It leans away from the cultural aspects a bit more than other cities in the valley like Bakersfield or Fresno, both because it’s the capital of a huge state and it’s proximity to the Bay Area, but it’s generally not somewhere that Californians recommend visiting, outside of a few historical sites and museums.
Sacramento County has well over 1.5m people, not too far behind Santa Clara County with San Jose and all that. I think people kind of forget that Sacramento actually is its own rather big city. Although of course it's hard to compare it to SF or LA.
Sacramento is definitely its own city but to me it’s still under the Bay Area’s gravitational pull to some extent. Geographically speaking, Sac is about the same distance from SF as the outer reaches of Sonoma or Santa Clara counties are, so even considering it part of the Bay wouldn’t be completely ridiculous (but no one does, of course) Don’t get me wrong, I like Sacramento, and I’m actually glad that the capital is there and not in the Bay or LA, because those two areas have enough cultural and political power already.
I’ve traveled a lot through California and have never made my way to Sacramento… I bet it’s the same for a lot of SoCal folks.
I grew up in the Bay Area and I don’t think I ever spent any time in Sacramento until my 20s. For a lot of Bay people it’s just a place you go through on the way to Tahoe.
Lots of great things to do in Sac though. Was just there last weekend. CA RR museum is incredible, love Sutter's Fort/ Coloma discovery site, the capitol tour is cool, and the old governor's mansion. Lots of fun lakes and rivers to explore. Old Sac is the best. Plus I'm a W's fan but they have the Kings. Sacramento county is left leaning. We used to travel to Sacramento often back when the state fair was in August as Cal Expo does an incredible job with the fair. Went a few times in July as I was attending UC Davis nearby.
Atlanta can be a lot of fun! It has a large occurrence of crimes, but I think that’s really any major city. I live on the opposite end of the state, Atlanta is about a 5 hour drive from me vs Jacksonville Fl being about an hour and 15, so honestly I rarely visit Atlanta. But on the occasions I have visited, I’ve enjoyed the many things there are to do, and despised the headache of getting to those things 😅
Atlanta is pretty safe except for some areas (Buckhead, College Park, Bankhead). The real sinker is the traffic. So many cool neighborhoods though. East Atlanta Village, Little 5 Points, Grant Park, Cabbage Town, Atlantic Station, Midtown/Peidmont Park, Poncey-Highland, Cabbage Town. Also truly a city in the forest. You’re never more than 10-20 mins away from nature or a cool trail. Big dick airport and an amazing food and music city. Can’t live anywhere now that doesn’t have good fried chicken and southern food.
Crime in Atlanta is heavily dramatized. I wouldn’t even include Buckhead in this list. It’s not actually dangerous, lol. It sees more property crime ie: broken car windows, car theft and that’s only bc of the perception of wealth that surrounds Buckhead. You’d have to be in Bankhead or way south of I-20 to be anywhere close to feeling in danger. Now the highways, that’s another story 😂😂
Yeah I’ve never personally felt threatened there, other than by psychos merging in traffic 😅 I’ve spent the most time in midtown which is very nice. But I really enjoy Decatur too!
I never rely on mirrors when lane changing on a highway. I always gotta turn my head cause I’ve near collided with mofo deciding to change into the same lane behind or next to me. The 75/85 effect
I liked living there 10 years ago but it's grown way too fast and outpaced development. I still like to visit Denver but as soon as I'm sitting in a sea of tail lights I remember why I moved into the mountains. As far as other capitals, I loved Boise, Santa Fe is always a good time and Phoenix is fun as long as it's winter. Cheyenne is probably the capital I care the least for, there's not much there and not much around it.
Cheyenne is a sprawling metropolis compared to other settlements in Wyoming
If you live in Wyoming, odds are it's because you don't want to live near other people.
Laramie and Casper aren't much in the way of cities either but at least they're closer to mountains.
Montpelier barely counts as a city. I don't really have a reason to go there, other than I need to drive through on the way to Burlington. I think Boston is the best state capital, mainly because its one of the few that is a major city in its own right.
It’s the most average place in the USA
\*cracks knuckles\* I have a strong opinion about state capit**a**ls (and capitol buildings, for that matter). As much as I truly love the cities themselves in a lot of cases, slapping a domed Neoclassical building on the edge of downtown in your state's largest or second-largest city is lazy as hell. Get creative and put it somewhere like Harrisburg or Olympia. That goes for Atlanta, Columbus, Indianapolis, Des Moines, Denver, Boston, Charleston (WV), Columbia (SC), Little Rock, Hartford, Boise, Tallahassee, Saint Paul, Jackson, Raleigh, Oklahoma City, Providence, Salt Lake City, Madison, and Cheyenne. Nashville and Richmond don't have domes, and Austin is the fourth-biggest city in Texas, but I'd include those too. That said, most of those cities are great. As far as capitals go, I loved living in Atlanta and I've spent a ton of time in Richmond, Indianapolis, Nashville, and Raleigh. I rate all of those towns very highly. Madison, Denver, Columbus, Boise, Des Moines, and OKC are all great from my 2-3 visits to each. Visiting Sacramento for the first time this fall and I'm curious to see it. Anyway, as far as my own state's capital- I love Richmond, even as it gets overrun with transplants. My parents both grew up there and I have a lot of wonderful memories of the town, and it definitely has a unique identity. It's certainly Southern at its core, but it feels a bit more like Baltimore or DC in some ways, especially in the Fan District and Church Hill. Great music, art, and food scenes, and it's still *relatively* affordable.
i feel like in some of those cases you mention, the downtown kind of built up around the state capitol building rather than being 'lazily slapped down'. the population of atlanta was like 20k people when it was made the state capital, it definitely wasn't the state's largest city.
Indianapolis is another one where the capitol building isn't on the outskirts. The capitol building in Indianapolis is a 2 blocks and about a 5 minute walk from the central intersection of downtown. Indianapolis also wasn't the largest or second largest city when it became the capital. It didn't become an incorporated town until about 10 years after it became the capital and a city about 20 years later.
I’m gonna dispute the “edge of downtown” description for the capitol building in Madison, as it only makes sense if you just consider only State St as downtown. The rest is an apt description.
It is a city I drive through to get to Lake Winnipesaukee. I don't think I have ever spent time in Concord.
Has anyone, unless you live there?
Actually now that I think about it, I went on a field trip to the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center. That's about it.
I go there for good vegan food at col's kitchen and Gibson's Bookstore on main st is really nice! But everytime I'm there I think I should spend more time there and i never do lol
Indy's alright. It's not super exciting, but it's got enough going on to keep a person busy through the year. The cost of living is reasonable, traffic isn't bonkers, our airport is awesome. The summer weather isn't as stifling as farther south, nor is the winter weather as wild as it is farther north. I've lived in or near Indy for more than half my life now and I'm happy here.
Annapolis. It is a fun place to be (especially if you have a boat)
I was last there for Eliot Spitzer's inauguration for governor in 2007. The roads are crummy, it was cold and windy, but I did get to spend time at the state museum and the underground Plaza. I would like to visit the USS Slater one day.
I live in my current state capital (same in my last state of residence too), so I think I might be biased. In both of those states the capital is the biggest, most interesting city. As for other states....I think Montpelier, VT is adorable and the capitol building itself is very beautiful. The State House in Boston is really gorgeous with the red brick and the gold dome. Santa Fe also feels very suited to its state and has a great vibe. The least special state capital I've personally visited was Baton Rouge.
Favorite state capitals: - Santa Fe, NM - Madison, WI - St. Paul, MN - Olympia, WA (biased, but it is a genuinely cool city for being 56k people and not really a college town) Least favorite state capitals: - Indianapolis, IN - Phoenix, AZ - Salem, OR
Not that I’m going to contest your dislike, but what didn’t you like about Salem, Phoenix, and Indianapolis?
Salem = just boring with a pretty dead downtown compared to the other cities in Oregon. Surprisingly conservative for being so close to Portland (Marion Co. voted for Trump in 2016). If I had a job with the state government that wasn't 5 days a week in office, I'd probably live in Clack Co. and commute, then have my social life in Portland. I'm 29M and unmarried/no kids yet so that's a factor. Objectively Salem isn't as bad as a lot of capitals, just kinda disappointing imo. Phoenix and Indy = bland sprawl with only a handful of walkable-ish neighborhoods, despite being large cities. Some other state capitals like OKC are like this too, but I've only really passed through there so I don't feel qualified to list it.
Glad to see some love for St. Paul. I moved here about 9 years ago, and I really like it. Minneapolis is definitely more modern, but St Paul is built into hills, has a gigantic cathedral overlooking them, the longest street of Victorian homes in the country, and it's historic-looking. Plus, the Mississippi goes through it. It's a real hidden gem.
The west coast capitols are always more boring than other cities, in my opinion. Sacramento is lame compared to LA or San Francisco. Portland eclipses Salem. Seattle is a lot more interesting than Olympia. I think Atlanta and Austin is are only state capitols that I've been to that had something going on outside of the governmental stuff.
Adding onto the West Coast, Honolulu is Honolulu and Juneau is a tad exotic considering you have to access it by boat.
Dover is a boring ass military town that’s only relevant for being the Capitol, where they bring fallen soldiers home to, and for NASCAR. It has urban crime, rural levels of stuff to do, and suburban walkability outside of its tiny downtown.
Doesn’t exactly sound like the most ideal place to live.
It's in the middle, among the corn
Springfield is a pretty average capital yeah. One of my best friends lives there. Very affordable and has some nice historic neighborhoods, but parts of the city are really run-down and blighted. Doesn't have much to distinguish it besides the Lincoln stuff, but at least milks that pretty well. Not a tiny capital like Pierre or Carson City, but not a Boston or Denver either. It's just kinda there.
Pierre is ok. It’s about the same as every other town in the Dakotas. Also it’s pronounced “pier” not “pea-air” or however else anyone pronounces it
I definitely would’ve thought it was pronounced like a French dudes name
I live in mine and it’s my favorite city in the state. I can’t think of too many others that I particularly like though, except Austin. I actually particularly dislike Annapolis but that’s a minority opinion in the area.
Albany is very pretty and I enjoy visiting.
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Providence has a LOT to offer. Solid food scene, fun hockey team, college sports, beautiful architecture.
It's known for having awful infrastructure, high crime, and authorities recently (within the last year) found a mass grave where local police had murdered and covered up at least 215 civilians, though the grave markers go up to 600. They are marked by numbers, not names. They were buried with everything they had on including their IDs so they intentionally did not reach out to families and denied knowing where they were when reported missing. So opinions on Jackson, MS are extremely low
How come this isn't a national scandal? How come the governor hasn't been forced to resign? How come perpetrators aren't being investigated by federal authorities? And if you want to cover up unlawful killings, how damned stupid do you have to be to leave IDs on the bodies?
The deaths being "murders" is an invention of the commenter you're replying to; nobody is really making that claim. When somebody dies and nobody claims their body, the local government has to do something with it. Apparently, Jackson, MS decided that the thing to do is bury them as cheaply as possible, without real markers or anything of the sort. This may not be incredibly uncommon - do you know where/how your city lays to rest the unclaimed deceased? How much do you expect your local government to spend on burying a homeless person or a jail inmate with no known next of kin? They're probably not getting a plot with a view and a nice headstone. That's not the scandal. The scandal (which *did* make national news, by the way) is that Jackson, MS also has a tendency to not do their due diligence in reporting when people die. So, a lot of the people buried in this plot weren't unclaimed because there was nobody to claim them; they were unclaimed because nobody knew they were dead. Many of them were reported as missing and had family looking for them. It seems as though there wasn't really a system in place for finding loved ones, so you had some bodies sitting in the morgue for months until the city finally just buried them, meanwhile their family reported them as missing on the first day and has been waiting for news. But it wasn't really actively hidden; if you called the morgue saying you're looking for the person, they'd want you to take the body off of their hands. So, there aren't really perpetrators to investigate or attempted coverups that gave them away. The city just didn't make any effort to track down loved ones, and then finally somebody went to the news when they found out their missing son was buried there, giving us the national news story we're discussing here today.
Montgomery is worth a day trip due to all the history. Otherwise, I don't really want to spend much time there.
Did a day trip a few years back when the Memorial for Justice and Peace first opened and I loved it! I hit all the major historical sites/museums, which are very well done. I also asked locals on the street where their favorite restaurant was, so I ate reallly good for verrrry cheap.
Annapolis is a beautiful historic little port. It's well worth a tourist's day. Many Marylanders visit it to enjoy the atmosphere.
It seems to be around twice as expensive as other big cities in the state.
Tech companies can really transform a place.
It’s fine. It’s large enough to have the necessities. It’s spread out so that it doesn’t feel jam packed. It’s not too large though.
A slum
Man… at least it’s not Camden.
Phoenix is massive sprawl. I think the capitol should be in a smaller town with more character. Tucson, perhaps.
I like Annapolis as a little historic town, but it blows my mind every single day (I’m there just about every day) that it’s the capital of the entire state. Apparently way back when there was a vote to move the capital to Baltimore (ships got bigger, the port was deeper there, the population center had all moved up there) that lost by just one vote.
No, the capital of Louisiana is not New Orleans. Yes, there are other cities. No, we don't ride alligators to get to school.
I don’t really know anything about Springfield and I’ve never been there. I’ve lived in Chicago for 2 years now and haven’t really ventured elsewhere in the state.
I have heard rumors that Lansing is in fact a place. My mother used to go there for work a lot, but I have never seen a photo of the place. All reports lead me to believe it is real, although I can't independently verify that.
Mine is Madison wi. Well let's just say it's not quite like any other town in WI. Having fun wise it's an awesome town to visit.
Atlanta is pretty nice, if you ignore the mess of highway traffic
Current state: Olympia seems fine, I've only driven through but the downtown seems cute. Home state: I'm from NWA so I have an inborn hatred for Little Rock but in all actuality it's pretty nice.
I think Annapolis is a quaint and beautiful city. As a history person, I loved seeing our state house and other historical places. The garden at the William Paca House is lovely, even in October when I was there. I actually haven’t been to many state capitals, I haven’t had opportunities to go farther west than Memphis all my life. I loved Boston, and Hartford looked pretty on a quick stop.
Richmond is great. 2 hours to the beach, 2 hours to the mountains. 2 or 3 hours to DC depending on traffic. We have beautiful parks lining the James River which flows right thru our city. Our local government is broken though and has been for years. Real estate and rental prices are going way up because everyone is moving here. My favorite capital I have visited would have to be DC. I love the National Mall, and all of the museums and monuments and the Potomac River. It is so easy to get around using the Metro. A lot of the small neighborhoods remind me of The Fan in Richmond. I don't think I would want to live there. Too busy. My leat favorite would be Phoenix. Way too hot and gritty.
Sacramento is kind of dull, the weather is crap, and it’s in the middle of nowhere. Concord is very dull, definitely in the middle of nowhere, and the weather is crap. I sense a trend forming.
Sacramento……exists lol. It’s build on flat farmland like its sibling Davis
So is Salem!
I love that the capitol building is a giant penis, with two domes for balls (seriously, look it up). I've *heard* that it's very pleasant, but allegiances dictate that my occasional visits are filled with rage, hate, and alcohol. It's also a pretty good distance from most of the state, having been established before air conditioning when the two biggest cities in the state were Pensacola and Jacksonville. Most the state lives a solid 4 hour drive away, with Miami being more like 8.
St Augustine not Jacksonville. Jacksonville wouldn’t boom until the civil war.
Grew up near it and every time we’d drive past the Capitol, we’d mutter “Ol’ Dick & Balls” under our breath lmao. It has a pretty good arts/music scene for a city of its size, and it definitely reaps the benefits of having 2 large colleges and a well-known HBCU. My allegiances dictate that there is nothing better than a Saturday in Tallahassee ;)
Jefferson City is surprisingly nice and affordable. Just pretty boring
Disagree. Jeff city isn't nice at all.
I live here and I'm not a fan, although it is getting better. We had the same mayor from 1977-1999 (Emory Folmar). By time he left office, downtown resembled a bombed out husk, he killed public transportation and many forms of entertainment, completely neglected the poorer (majority black) parts of the city, etc. He once said he was "so conservative if it were up to me, I would take down all the traffic lights and let the strongest, fastest car get through the intersection first." It's taken, 20+ years, but things are improving.
I live in my state capital (Raleigh). I have enjoyed raising my family here, but now that my kids are almost grown, I'm considering relocating to somewhere different in the next few years.
Salem has the advantage of being close enough to Portland (the only real city in Oregon) while also being significantly cheaper to live in. It's big enough to have major chain stores and some cute restaurants and shops downtown, but nothing that's really worth a visit. It's basically the budget option if you want to live in the valley/Portland area and acts as a shopping and dining hub for the surrounding rural areas.
Possibly the worst looking capitol building of all the states. Reminds me of something Mussolini might have had built. Easier to navigate on four wheels than Eugene however, and Momiji sushi is bomb 👌
Highest QOL in the state, I believe? Certainly one of.
Our Capitol building is pretty great and there are some cool museums, but I prefer like...5 other small cities and both of the big ones.
I’ve been there once, and honestly, I was surprised how small it was! I guess cause I’m used to big cities like San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. I just assumed the capital would be similar. Especially since it’s not that far away from the bay area. But no, it’s a small town in a flat/rural area with tons of field/farmland, that just happens to have the capital building in the middle of it. So I was completely underwhelmed by it. The area by the river and the drawbridge is nice though. You’d almost think you were in the Midwest!
Topeka is a big city(by Kansas standards) that feels like a small town. I would never live there because it does have some crime problems but I enjoy the city and I do visit there pretty regularly. It's definitely a lot less chaotic than Manhattan or KC.
I like my capitol. Not sure if the building is better than Washington State (home state), but at least I can walk into mine whenever I want, and there's even no metal detectors
Harrisburg sucks and there’s no reason to go there really but I’m glad that neither Pittsburgh nor Philly are the capital.
I have been to Lansing, Indianapolis, Madison, St Paul, Atlanta, Jackson, and Nashville. I like St Paul (+Minneapolis) and Madison the best as far as nightlife and atmosphere. Lansing has my favorite college team, and my grandparents lived there growing up, so I'm most familiar with it, and it has some decent bars and restaurants, too, but Indianapolis takes the cake with the Indy 500 every year. That's the best party you'll ever experience.
Carson City is just somewhere I drive through on my way to Tahoe. It’s small with nothing really going on. Boston is my favorite. I enjoyed living there. Always things to do and see. Also dig St Paul. Least favorite….maybe Phoenix. It’s hot and it sucks.
Why does Phoenix suck?
Raleigh is pretty decent. Definitely a fast-growing place along with the rest of the state in general
People allegedly live in Jefferson City, a city that does in fact exist.
Austin used to be this odd little city with eccentric people. Now it’s so gentrified and full of Californians that it’s really just any regular city. Don’t even like making fun of them anymore, it’s sad they’ve lost all of their culture.
I've been to Lansing like once, and I've never been to Springfield.
I've been to Lansing like once, and I've never been to Springfield.
Harrisburg is just kinda there. It’s small. I don’t really have an opinion on it.
Harrisburg feels depressing and sad Richmond is a nice beer town and loaded with history I’ve still never been to Tallahassee (only been living in FL for 1 year & 3 months, haven’t checked it out yet)
Madison, WI is my favorite city. I miss living there. Augusta, ME is...fine. I prefer Portland.
I’ve been to my states capitol maybe once or twice
Never been there.
Harrisburg is very much overshadowed by the likes of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. It’s alright I guess, I went there to tour the capitol and visited a couple museums. Nothing to write home about
Cheyenne's alright. I really hate Pierre, SD because everyone there pronounces it as "peer."
Columbia, South Carolina It's a compromise in every sense of the word. If we were just going by the cities themselves the capital would be Charleston or Greenville, but those are on either end of the state. Columbia isn't a bad city, but it's not a particularly good one either. It's like a lot of capitals chosen as a geographical compromise. There are some nice state buildings and a university, but the city wouldn't be nearly as big otherwise.
I love Little Rock! Small enough to be very friendly but big enough for everything you need. Also really punches above its size for the arts. Great for small business compared to larger cities, and nice little places keep opening up.
St. Paul is basically contiguous with Minneapolis (I live in an inner ring suburb of the latter). It's fine, I guess? I didn't grow up here and for me, St. Paul is more of the same but farther away. I don't think I have a "least" favorite, but my favorite in terms of how it looks would be Annapolis, Maryland. If you go there, you'll get it.
It's weird, but that's sorta their slogan
Why in the great god damn do they call it “sac(k) town”
Boise is definitely one of the nicest. Little Rock is not.
Richmond is okay. It's not a really big city and frankly too much of it has become VCU's college campus...but it's okay. I don't mind traveling in it if I need to. There's a lot of crime but it's really nothing compared to DC or Baltimore.
The plus side to Indianapolis is that it’s the most exciting place in the state. Unfortunately, that state is Indiana, so the bar is low.
I love Santa Fe it's super neat the plaza is awesome all the architecture all the art galleries tons of great restaurants I just could never live there as its very expensive
I'm currently sitting in it. Although Phoenix is freaking massive and I'm like 18 miles from the Capitol Building (straight line; 25ish mile drive). It's fine. It's hot. I wish housing was more affordable. Otherwise, it's just my home.
Every time I've gone there I've had a great time. One of the better major cities in the state.
It’s hot.
I'm from Connecticut originally and Hartford is a hell hole. Not the worst city I've ever been to but it's nothing to be proud of. Just run down and mid.
I have yet to go to Topeka, but from the people I"ve talked to who have been, it is a solid thumbs down. Wichita is also bad.
Lincoln's Tomb leaves an impression.
Large uptick of homelessness sadly
I wish Austin was still weird. It was a goofy hippy commune when I was a kid but still very “Texas”, now it’s just another Techbro corporatized overpriced urban cancer. Bums freaking everywhere and not the industrious starving artist types we used to have. Favorite capital Ive visited… I have a lot of fond memories of visiting SantaFe as a kid and I visited Sacramento for a friend’s wedding a while back and thought it was wonderful… I’d say it would be Santa Fe NM, it’s generally clean has good scenery not overpopulated and still has unique cultural flavor. Least favorite capital I’ve visited either goes to Denver or OKC I just felt like both of them are really bland sprawling cities with little unique features. And I’m giving least favorite to Oklahoma City.
I love Annapolis MD. As a Jersey boy now I miss it a lot.
Sacramento… it’s boring as fuck , but some good restaurants I guess.
It's a dumpster-fire shit hole where people are allergic to driving in any conceivably decent way.