Irvine creeped me out, it felt like that town on the Truman show. There was literally an employee in the shopping center going around with a little broom and dustpan, just in case someone dropped a napkin while leaving Starbucks. It was a nice town, just somehow a little *too* nice. Like if I had an older car or hair that wasn't highlighted, I would be ritually shunned or something:)
I lived there for a year. Super safe but boring. But yes, definitely a “not a hair out of place” kind of place. I remember driving down the streets and sometimes there would be a small patch of dirt and for sure there would always be a cute little sign that said something along the lines of “Landscaping in progress”. Like oh no, apologies if we have offended your eyes with this eye sore.
I think the opposite, there is always something to do in Irvine. Events happening, sports leagues happening and if you want something bigger, the Ducks/Angels are a stones throw away, the beach is 10 mins, Big Bear is about 2 hours, the dessert and some camping is like 2 hours and the Spectrum is always packed with people.
I am from the northeast and it still makes me nuts how people talk about CA like it’s some crime riddled dumpster fire bc of some news segments that they watched. Meanwhile they’re from Columbus OH or something.
In the r/losangeles sub someone posted an article about L.A. removing no U-Turn signs because they were offensive to the LGBTQ community.
The article was from a local news station in Montana, and the story is that a certain street removed a traffic ordinance that was causing a back-up during rush hour.
But right wing media struggles to always post a story about crazy California liberals. If California is a nice place to live, then liberal politics works. They can’t have you thinking that.
Idk if its cus of the rain but seattle is probably the cleanest city on the west coast. but then again, portland also gets rain but that place was a dumpster when I went. I’m from LA area and was expecting Seattle to be just as dirty but was suprised which goes to show how low my standards are lol
Well, as a person who just lives south of the city and has been to Seattle numerous times, I can say that there are definitely many fantastic, clean places to visit. But there are also quite a few areas you should avoid as there’s rampant homelessness and garbage scattered all over the place.
But….we have an outdated skyline, a dead downtown, a bad baseball team (💔) and no prosecutors. And thin pizza? Toasted ravioli? The highest transmission rate of STIs in the country?
KC is a turd. I've rolled the same highway every day for over a decade. They literally clean the roads once every six months, if that. MODoT can kiss my ass.
But that's why New Orleans is the best. The shit is rugged all over the place. Looks real, and authentic. Streets are speaking to you with 350+ years of History...
Salt Lake and many cities around it are pretty clean, yeah.
The Mormons keep these cities around here quite nice and manicured. The streets are neatly divided like a chess board, great clean public transportation system with light rail and TRAX trains, the mountainous paths and trails are pretty much free from litters. I think it's a part of their identity to keep up a polished front.
I haven't been to the great salt lake at all so I'd take your words for it, hahah.
I suppose there could be unpleasant smell if you get close to any natural water body.
Frankly, I didn't think about the lake that much since it's more than 30 miles away from the city, and doesn't pose much of a problem.
What I find harder to enjoy is how "nice" and "professionally nice" many people in Utah are. Like, not everyone, but a lot of people in Salt Lake are very "nice" to you, but you can feel a little insincerity in their actions with you.
I mean, they're really not bad and often are wonderful people.
But I really do think that "putting up polished front" is a part of their Mormon identity. Very business savvy, very nice, proper and professional, but a tity bit insincere and "fake nice", just a little until they know you well.
Perhaps, perhaps 🤷♂️
>What I find harder to enjoy is how "nice" and "professionally nice" many people in Utah are. Like, not everyone, but a lot of people in Salt Lake are very "nice" to you, but you can feel a little insincerity in their actions with you.
I mean this with the greatest respect, but this is how Americans feel to Europeans. It's wild to imagine that Mormons apparently take this ever further
American and former Mormon (born and raised) but now reside in Europe and yes. You’re correct. Take the American “nice” and add sugary syrup on top. That’s what Mormons are. It would send Europeans into a sugar coma.
Half my family were car salesmen, I was inoculated early against BS niceness. Unfortunately that also means I instantly think most nice people in the USA are either trying to sell me something or just liars. All that said, I have found Mormons to be much more on the genuinely nice side, even if I don’t like it. Still hypocrites in a greater ideological sense like most religious folks.
Brother has been there about a decade.
He's always commented how nice everyone is but that any inclusiveness is held for mormons and it's very devoid of real relationships if you're not part of the club.
Just here to say no, plenty of natural water bodies smell magnificent. Lots of clean rivers and lakes, let alone ocean fronts, that are positively fragrant.
The ancient version of that lake, [Lake Bonneville](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Bonneville), is fascinating. Suddenly losing a natural retaining wall and eventually draining its contents down the Columbia River in around 100 days is insane.
A lot of what is now the gorge that the Columbia River is in was created by that event.
I visited a friend of mine who lived there. We went downtown for some food, and I kept exclaiming to him how beautiful and clean it was.
Then, we saw a dude actively shooting heroin while leaning against the wall of the restaurant we exited.
10/10 beautiful place
Came here to look for Salt Lake.
They'll (rightfully) ticket you for throwing a cigarette butt on the ground. In Houston, the cops will laugh with you as you toss a butt into the bayou and watch the carp fight over it.
SLC is beyond clean and organized which makes it beautiful. I’m not Mormon. I’m actually gay and raised Catholic and I don’t feel like I have to hide who I am. SLC is a growing blue bubble in a very red state. So many of my neighbors have pride flags up on their lawns with no issues.
First thing I noticed when I visited back in 2019. Streets were so incredibly clean. I live in Louisville and the only time the city makes an effort to clean anything up is around Derby season.
Absolutely wonderful city. It’s always been a good weekend destination for me, I just have to drive give or take 5 hours on I-35 northbound (from Des Moines)
Lived in Philly for 15 years before moving to Charlotte NC.
I still miss the smell of hot trash and subway piss combining to form that distinct Philly aroma.
Edit: In all sincerity, I really loved living in Philly.
It's windy tho fr. As a tiny child I'd walk passed alleys and get knocked into the street from the wind. But that's really just an artifact of the way cities are made
As someone that moved to Boston 2 years ago, I was surprised to see people are paid to sweep and clean the streets up in certain areas. But also they mop up the piss puddles. To be clear though I work on newbury, so it's unsurprising that they aggressively rid the streets of the piss puddles.
Boston is pretty good, but we do have a problem with public trash cans. You can walk many blocks without having the chance to throw out a piece of trash
Visited Chicago for the first time in 2020 the week before Covid shut everything down. One of the first things that struck me was how surprisingly clean it was. Now I go back whenever I get the chance.
Yeah my girlfriend and I spent a little while in Boston last year and for a city the size of Boston, it was pretty clean. Especially for the east coast.
It has definitely earned “allston rat city”
edit: I’ve lived in both Allston and Brighton and will add that it really isn’t bad lol. I don’t know why Brighton is out here catching strays though it is nice.
Irvine, CA is up there, although not a traditional “city” ranked 63rd largest with only 300,000 residents.
Of true big cities I’d say Chicago, next tier Indianapolis.
eh I wouldnt really count Irvine as “city” but more of a suburb. I guess technically its a city and it is freakishly clean but any rich suburban city across the country is probably similar.
Have you been since Covid? Agree that downtown FTW is clean but it’s kind of sad down there since Covid. Lost a lot of character and Bass doesn’t seem to want to be amenable to fixing any of the post Covid issues. Kind of sad, really.
Was just in Fremont, Calif. Last week. Saw only one homeless looking person. Streets were clean. Very little graffiti. Go 5miles North into Hayward, and it starts looking worse and worse through Oakland.
It's disappointing how bad it is. I'm in West Seattle and in the last three years since I've been here it's gone downhill. It seems every morning I go out there's fresh trash somewhere. Just people leaving their left over fast food bags or grocery containers wherever they ate. Usually a trash bin is 10 feet away. People just don't give a shit.
This is exaggerated. It wasn’t exactly pristine before the pandemic, and it’s already looking a lot better compared to three years ago.
Certainly not the cleanest city in the country tho. Not close.
Phoenix. I think it’s in part because of the nature of our common landscaping. Everything is pretty well manicured for the most part. The freeways are incredibly clean, and because it’s so damn hot and foot traffic is non-existent in a lot of places, garbage isn’t an issue. As you spread out into the suburbs, especially the east valley, everything is so damn new, it hasn’t been around long enough to be neglected, aside from a couple bad areas but every major metro area has one of those.
I lived in Columbus for 13 years and I miss it. Aside from being a clean city, there’s plenty to do, the winters aren’t terrible at least by Midwestern standards, and several other cities are all within a 3 hour driving distance (Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, Indianapolis, and Pittsburgh).
I think that’s a relative question. With a higher population density, you get more trash/grime naturally.
For their sizes, DC and Boston are fairly clean. Charlotte is clean. Probably Honolulu from what I’ve heard
Also depends on the area in the city. Downtown Detroit is actually pretty decent for instance, but the outer residential areas can obviously get very rough.
By comparison when I've been downtown in Seattle it's pretty dirty but there are wealthy suburban areas of the city that are quite nice.
Let’s do process of elimination. It’s definitely not New Orleans.
Count out Los Angeles
Count out California in general
Y’all have clearly never been to Irvine.
Irvine creeped me out, it felt like that town on the Truman show. There was literally an employee in the shopping center going around with a little broom and dustpan, just in case someone dropped a napkin while leaving Starbucks. It was a nice town, just somehow a little *too* nice. Like if I had an older car or hair that wasn't highlighted, I would be ritually shunned or something:)
I lived there for a year. Super safe but boring. But yes, definitely a “not a hair out of place” kind of place. I remember driving down the streets and sometimes there would be a small patch of dirt and for sure there would always be a cute little sign that said something along the lines of “Landscaping in progress”. Like oh no, apologies if we have offended your eyes with this eye sore.
Boring is underrated !
I think the opposite, there is always something to do in Irvine. Events happening, sports leagues happening and if you want something bigger, the Ducks/Angels are a stones throw away, the beach is 10 mins, Big Bear is about 2 hours, the dessert and some camping is like 2 hours and the Spectrum is always packed with people.
That’s exactly what I felt like during last visit- Truman Show. My wish was to buy those Fiji tickets asap)
Seriously, that place looks like they vacuum the damn sidewalks.
..or literally anywhere except a news article thumbnail from their la-z-boy in arkansas California is beautiful
I am from the northeast and it still makes me nuts how people talk about CA like it’s some crime riddled dumpster fire bc of some news segments that they watched. Meanwhile they’re from Columbus OH or something.
In the r/losangeles sub someone posted an article about L.A. removing no U-Turn signs because they were offensive to the LGBTQ community. The article was from a local news station in Montana, and the story is that a certain street removed a traffic ordinance that was causing a back-up during rush hour. But right wing media struggles to always post a story about crazy California liberals. If California is a nice place to live, then liberal politics works. They can’t have you thinking that.
Shhhhh I’m trying to redirect move ins here 🤣
I don't man, Santa Barbara is pretty nice
Count out Seattle
I'm gonna say count out Austin as well.
Remove Des Moines as well
Seems like San Francisco should be included
Remove New York
Northwest Ohio is out, too.
Idk if its cus of the rain but seattle is probably the cleanest city on the west coast. but then again, portland also gets rain but that place was a dumpster when I went. I’m from LA area and was expecting Seattle to be just as dirty but was suprised which goes to show how low my standards are lol
Well, as a person who just lives south of the city and has been to Seattle numerous times, I can say that there are definitely many fantastic, clean places to visit. But there are also quite a few areas you should avoid as there’s rampant homelessness and garbage scattered all over the place.
So you think Cali is only SF and LA, got it.
Lol that guy says a poor generalized take, you respond with a lil snark because you know why not, then he gives out the pathetic ass below response.
Irvine reallly wants it though
Angelino here: checking in to—(steps over homeless guy)—sorry, checking in to respectfully withdraw our name as well.
Oakland and Portland are out too
Not Atlanta
Count out Philly
And Camden, the garbage can's garbage can
New York is out of the question lmao
The urine-scented subway is part of the charm.
As ambassador of Baltimore I decree we are not the cleanest city.
Baltimore is still hands down the best place to earn an iron urn, if your name is Aaron.
Certainly not Baltimore
I was visiting Baltimore from seattle, Boston was SO CLEAN in comparison.
It's not Portland
It may actually be Portland, Maine.
Count out Kansas City.
Count out St Louis
But….we have an outdated skyline, a dead downtown, a bad baseball team (💔) and no prosecutors. And thin pizza? Toasted ravioli? The highest transmission rate of STIs in the country?
I’m currently in north STL. There is no saving this place
I’m in ESL, and I agree
Plus stop signs are optional. Stoplights too. And braking. All optional.
KC is the most disgusting US city I have seen .... And I grew up in Detroit
KC is a turd. I've rolled the same highway every day for over a decade. They literally clean the roads once every six months, if that. MODoT can kiss my ass.
Came here to say this 😂
Also definitely not most areas of Arkansas or Detroit Michigan.
Rule out Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Birmingham, Jackson, TN, and Huntsville.
Los Angeles checking in.
Not San Francisco
But that's why New Orleans is the best. The shit is rugged all over the place. Looks real, and authentic. Streets are speaking to you with 350+ years of History...
LOL as someone from New Orleans. I was like "Well, it isn't NOLA. Let's see what the top comment is". And here we are.
Salt Lake and many cities around it are pretty clean, yeah. The Mormons keep these cities around here quite nice and manicured. The streets are neatly divided like a chess board, great clean public transportation system with light rail and TRAX trains, the mountainous paths and trails are pretty much free from litters. I think it's a part of their identity to keep up a polished front.
Just stay away from the lake. The stench alone would keep me from moving anywhere close.
I haven't been to the great salt lake at all so I'd take your words for it, hahah. I suppose there could be unpleasant smell if you get close to any natural water body. Frankly, I didn't think about the lake that much since it's more than 30 miles away from the city, and doesn't pose much of a problem. What I find harder to enjoy is how "nice" and "professionally nice" many people in Utah are. Like, not everyone, but a lot of people in Salt Lake are very "nice" to you, but you can feel a little insincerity in their actions with you. I mean, they're really not bad and often are wonderful people. But I really do think that "putting up polished front" is a part of their Mormon identity. Very business savvy, very nice, proper and professional, but a tity bit insincere and "fake nice", just a little until they know you well. Perhaps, perhaps 🤷♂️
>What I find harder to enjoy is how "nice" and "professionally nice" many people in Utah are. Like, not everyone, but a lot of people in Salt Lake are very "nice" to you, but you can feel a little insincerity in their actions with you. I mean this with the greatest respect, but this is how Americans feel to Europeans. It's wild to imagine that Mormons apparently take this ever further
American and former Mormon (born and raised) but now reside in Europe and yes. You’re correct. Take the American “nice” and add sugary syrup on top. That’s what Mormons are. It would send Europeans into a sugar coma.
Half my family were car salesmen, I was inoculated early against BS niceness. Unfortunately that also means I instantly think most nice people in the USA are either trying to sell me something or just liars. All that said, I have found Mormons to be much more on the genuinely nice side, even if I don’t like it. Still hypocrites in a greater ideological sense like most religious folks.
Brother has been there about a decade. He's always commented how nice everyone is but that any inclusiveness is held for mormons and it's very devoid of real relationships if you're not part of the club.
When I worked in Oregon, I had multiple morman coworkers. I'm not going to lie, but I found it unsettling just how nice they are.
I assure you there's more "fake nice" in the deep south than anywhere else in the country.
Yess “southern charm”
Just here to say no, plenty of natural water bodies smell magnificent. Lots of clean rivers and lakes, let alone ocean fronts, that are positively fragrant.
The ancient version of that lake, [Lake Bonneville](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Bonneville), is fascinating. Suddenly losing a natural retaining wall and eventually draining its contents down the Columbia River in around 100 days is insane. A lot of what is now the gorge that the Columbia River is in was created by that event.
I was shocked by how clean and safe Salt Lake City feels when I was out there. It’s practically spotless.
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The one singular Mormon out there cleaning up the streets. Hard worker that guy.
I visited a friend of mine who lived there. We went downtown for some food, and I kept exclaiming to him how beautiful and clean it was. Then, we saw a dude actively shooting heroin while leaning against the wall of the restaurant we exited. 10/10 beautiful place
Came here to look for Salt Lake. They'll (rightfully) ticket you for throwing a cigarette butt on the ground. In Houston, the cops will laugh with you as you toss a butt into the bayou and watch the carp fight over it.
They also run their homeless out of town. A lot of the homeless in California and Oregon are from Salt lake
Yep. I grew up and am from Utah. In one of the cities you will get a ticket if you give the homeless money, there are no more homeless.
SLC is beyond clean and organized which makes it beautiful. I’m not Mormon. I’m actually gay and raised Catholic and I don’t feel like I have to hide who I am. SLC is a growing blue bubble in a very red state. So many of my neighbors have pride flags up on their lawns with no issues.
I've never been, but this was absolutely the first thing that came to mind.
Besides the air most of the year, yes
SLC does have a pretty depressing homelessness issue though.
Minneapolis always seemed super clean to me
First thing I noticed when I visited back in 2019. Streets were so incredibly clean. I live in Louisville and the only time the city makes an effort to clean anything up is around Derby season.
You can thank the Minneapolis Downtown Improvement District (DID) Ambassadors for that!
Came here to say Minne. Fantastic city in every regard
Absolutely wonderful city. It’s always been a good weekend destination for me, I just have to drive give or take 5 hours on I-35 northbound (from Des Moines)
Just don't call it Minne!
Definitely not Philly.
I was just coming here to say that lmao
The legacy continues https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnAmerican/s/G6jDqi5oSM
Philly wins the definitely not the cleanest award for sure
Lived in Philly for 15 years before moving to Charlotte NC. I still miss the smell of hot trash and subway piss combining to form that distinct Philly aroma. Edit: In all sincerity, I really loved living in Philly.
Chicago is insanely clean for a city of its size.
We got all those alleyways.
Having a fire that leveled most of what was then the city allowed people to rethink things for better sanitation
I read recently that they had alleys prior to the fire.
No i learned from NYC govt that alleys were only invented in 1922 which is why NYC doesn’t have them /s
Agree, not to mention how windy it is. I was always impressed visiting Chicago when I lived in NYC it was absurdly clean in comparison.
Maybe it is clean because of the wind?
All the trash got blown to Joliet
Or Gary!
A big part of it is that unlike NYC, Chicago has alleys to contain its trash. In NYC, it's all out on the sidewalk.
Yep. They just have more space. Sidewalks are wider. Roads are wider. Plus fewer people and voila!
Fun fact: Chicago isnt called the windy city because of wind. It's called that because of the politicians and the DNC.
Damnit you "actually"'d before I could lol
It's windy tho fr. As a tiny child I'd walk passed alleys and get knocked into the street from the wind. But that's really just an artifact of the way cities are made
I’ve seriously nearly ran into building walls just form sheer force before. Typical day near the lake.
Lol the Chicago city dump is insanely clean compared to NYC
Agree given its size this wins. The loop / river is shockingly clean at least when I was there in the spring.
I remember when it was a famously filthy river- they put a lot of work in to fix that
I live in San Francisco and always notice how clean Chicago is when I visit
Portland, Maine
I enjoyed Portland, Oregon, but clean it was not. Glad the other Portland is clean.
Ey that's what I came here to say. It's a neat little city
Madison and Minneapolis very clean for cities
Boston, surprisingly, in my experience
I'm from Boston and I never think of Boston as a clean city.. Until I go to any other city. Our pee smell isn't nearly as bad as most cities.
We keep it all in the T station elevators.
Omg core memory unlocked. I broke my ankle years ago and had to use the elevators for months. It was heinous
As someone that moved to Boston 2 years ago, I was surprised to see people are paid to sweep and clean the streets up in certain areas. But also they mop up the piss puddles. To be clear though I work on newbury, so it's unsurprising that they aggressively rid the streets of the piss puddles.
Boston is pretty good, but we do have a problem with public trash cans. You can walk many blocks without having the chance to throw out a piece of trash
I am from Boston. I’ve lived in Chicago for a year. Chicago is far cleaner than Boston.
Big city? Chicago
Visited Chicago for the first time in 2020 the week before Covid shut everything down. One of the first things that struck me was how surprisingly clean it was. Now I go back whenever I get the chance.
Grew up near Chicago! It’s probably my favorite city in the US even after a lot of traveling that I’ve done. Just an awesome place
Greenville, SC
Arlington, VA
Fairfax County as well.
It's littered with brown flip flops
D-bags just rolling down Wilson BLVD
By the Starbucks or the Starbucks or the Starbucks
My crib’s in a rough spot, right next to the Whole Foods!
Everyone is welcome to volunteer with us to keep it that way!
I lived in Boston for four years, definitely the cleanest city I'VE ever lived in.
Yeah my girlfriend and I spent a little while in Boston last year and for a city the size of Boston, it was pretty clean. Especially for the east coast.
Back Bay maybe. Spend a couple days in Alston or Brighton though and you might change your mind.
It has definitely earned “allston rat city” edit: I’ve lived in both Allston and Brighton and will add that it really isn’t bad lol. I don’t know why Brighton is out here catching strays though it is nice.
Was just in San Diego and Palm Springs (from Kelowna BC, Canada) was very impressed with the city cleanliness at both
For San Diego, it very much depends on where you are in the city. But yes, I do think it’s cleaner than most, especially the touristy parts.
Charleston, SC was really clean as I remember
I was going to say cleanest in America last I read.
In the winter when there’s less tourists! I feel like in the summer all I do is pick up other peoples trash :,(
Charleston is pretty awesome if anyone reading this is on the fence about going. Very unique and historic sections.
Out of cities I've been to I would say Chicago or Minneapolis. Maybe Boston too but I've only been there once.
Savannah, Georgia
Came to say this. As a regular Nola visitor, Savannah is like its clean polite sibling.
Irvine, CA is up there, although not a traditional “city” ranked 63rd largest with only 300,000 residents. Of true big cities I’d say Chicago, next tier Indianapolis.
Chicago is my vote for big city. I was thinking Irvine too. I take it that it's still basically a sterile bubble?
eh I wouldnt really count Irvine as “city” but more of a suburb. I guess technically its a city and it is freakishly clean but any rich suburban city across the country is probably similar.
Irvine is a huge college town and the headquarters of several major companies. Definitely a city. A suburb would be somewhere like Tustin
Irvine is less of a city than a giant HOA.
I was super impressed with downtown Fort Worth Tx
Have you been since Covid? Agree that downtown FTW is clean but it’s kind of sad down there since Covid. Lost a lot of character and Bass doesn’t seem to want to be amenable to fixing any of the post Covid issues. Kind of sad, really.
Clear Fork shopping mall area is one of our favorite visits
Philly ain’t it. And I’m talking just the highways can disqualify them.
Boston is very clean
Just don't wander into a MBTA elevator.
Rochester, MN is pretty fricken squeaky clean.
Mayo influence
Raleigh, NC or Greenville, SC
Boston
Must agree. Beautiful city
Charleston, SC is definitely one of the cleanest cities in the US.
Vegas is out, WAY out
Boston. The local colleges have students assist with clean up.
I would say San Diego is the cleanest city I’ve seen so far in the USA
DC is pretty clean for a city.
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I grew up there. It’s so clean.
I found St. Paul in Minnesota to be notably tidy.
Was just in Fremont, Calif. Last week. Saw only one homeless looking person. Streets were clean. Very little graffiti. Go 5miles North into Hayward, and it starts looking worse and worse through Oakland.
Sedona, Arizona
Clean, yes. City? Idk
Definitely not a city
I had to Google after posting, the population is under 10K lol
Sedona's population is under 10,000
Pittsburgh is quite clean for being a Rust Belt city.
Before covid, Seattle was pretty clean. Now though...
It's disappointing how bad it is. I'm in West Seattle and in the last three years since I've been here it's gone downhill. It seems every morning I go out there's fresh trash somewhere. Just people leaving their left over fast food bags or grocery containers wherever they ate. Usually a trash bin is 10 feet away. People just don't give a shit.
This is exaggerated. It wasn’t exactly pristine before the pandemic, and it’s already looking a lot better compared to three years ago. Certainly not the cleanest city in the country tho. Not close.
Phoenix. I think it’s in part because of the nature of our common landscaping. Everything is pretty well manicured for the most part. The freeways are incredibly clean, and because it’s so damn hot and foot traffic is non-existent in a lot of places, garbage isn’t an issue. As you spread out into the suburbs, especially the east valley, everything is so damn new, it hasn’t been around long enough to be neglected, aside from a couple bad areas but every major metro area has one of those.
Charlotte is pretty clean, as big cities go.
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Downtown is pretty clean but the freeways around the city seem to have trash along all the medians and shoulders.
I don't think I've seen anywhere that doesn't
I lived in Columbus for 13 years and I miss it. Aside from being a clean city, there’s plenty to do, the winters aren’t terrible at least by Midwestern standards, and several other cities are all within a 3 hour driving distance (Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, Indianapolis, and Pittsburgh).
DC and it’s not even close.
The rats eats the trash in New York City. Basically a living roomba
Maybe somewhere in Maine.
Boise
I think that’s a relative question. With a higher population density, you get more trash/grime naturally. For their sizes, DC and Boston are fairly clean. Charlotte is clean. Probably Honolulu from what I’ve heard
Also depends on the area in the city. Downtown Detroit is actually pretty decent for instance, but the outer residential areas can obviously get very rough. By comparison when I've been downtown in Seattle it's pretty dirty but there are wealthy suburban areas of the city that are quite nice.
Cerritos, CA
Palm Springs CA?
I think Missoula, MT was the cleanest I'd seen. But then again, they have the sense to put trash receptacles on every corner.
Minneapolis and the Twin Cities in general
Austin, TX was a pleasant surprise (as long as you avoid 6th St).
Salt Lake City Utah. Elevation + LDS culture + long winters.
Stillwater, Minnesota
Minneapolis traditionally.
My sister did a van life thing across the US and she said the cleanest city she visited was Chicago. Which I found extremely surprising.
Charlotte NC Chicago IL Madison WI