Tell us what's your hometown/city known for

[snowc]

Erwin NC - Denim Capital of the World
Made denim in a plant right off 13th st and H Street between 1903 and 2000. Closed due to NAFTA requiring workers to move to Mexico for higher pay.
Owned originally by Burlington Industries (hence the name Burlington Ave on 13th st), bought out by Swift Textiles in 1989.
Originally had a railroad that my grandmother said to avoid at all costs. It took an hour+ for the train to clear 13th street! 

[Bruce]

Erwin NC - Denim Capital of the World

Nowadays that title belongs to Xintang, where one in three pairs of jeans are made.

And since denim literally derives from "serge de Nîmes", perhaps that title should truly belong to Nîmes.

[achilles765]

Kentwood, Louisiana....hometown of Britney Spears.  and yes, I knew the family.  I went to the same high school that she and her sister went to and my cousin was in the same class until she had to leave to go be famous.
I also briefly went to the same church.  met her only a time or two..couple of times before she was famous and once after. 
SHE is actually really kind, generous, and down to earth.  Her parents were always desperate to get rich and her dad was always trying out some new business that would inevitably fail because he would drink too much or spend all the money on drugs...so they banked their entire future dreams on her being famous. She's also much much smarter than people give her credit for.

So despite not being a fan of the music, I have been heavily following this "free Britney" thing and can say...yeah she's right about this.  They have been using her for her fame and money since she was a kid

[achilles765]

Personally, I think this thread is most interesting when the response for any given city is narrowed down to a single #1 item. (Like the psychologists' exercise: "Say the first thing that pops into your head when I mention ___" .)

In that scenario, I think that the answer for Detroit has to be something along the lines of "The Motor City" , "the U.S. auto industry" , etc.–I don't think urban decay, Motown Records, or anything else outweighs that.

On the other hand, Flint = Flint water crisis.

Flint is just like Detroit, it's an automotive town. It's known as the Vehicle City. The water crisis has only been the last 6 years that's certainly not what it's known for.

I disagree.  If you tell someone from around here that you're from Flint, I think they're much more likely to say "Don't drink the water!" than to say anything automotive-related.

A lot of people know Detroit as an automotive town, but that's about all they know about Michigan.  If anything else, they also know that Detroit is home to current urban decay.  They don't know anything else about any other town in Michigan except what they've heard on the news about the water in Flint.

The auto industry is what built Flint and ultimately what killed Flint, same as Detroit. This post asks for what your hometown/city is known for, Flint is well known as an auto town even outside of Michigan. General Motors was founded in Flint and if you were to ride around Flint you'd notice that it's an auto town and if you were to fly into Flint you'd be greeted by a huge General Motors plant as you leave the airport.

Just put in google, "What is Flint, Michigan known for?" and it will say the birthplace of General Motors.

Okay, but very few people outside of Michigan know that.

Right now, if you pick a random person from one of the other 49 states and ask them where GM started, their answer is very likely to be Detroit even if that's wrong. That same person, if they even know Flint exists, has only ever heard of it because its water issues keep making it onto the evening news.

People haven't heard of Flint just because of the water crisis that isn't true at all. Flint was known before the water crisis that's for sure.

How many people from other parts of the country can distinguish between Flint, Ann Arbor, and Dearborn?

I have always prided myself on my geography skills and knowledge about places, especially in the US...and yet I dont know what the difference is between any of those rust belt cities.  Especially not Michigan.  I think of Michigan as a place filled with dying, rusted over cities that have long passed their glory days ad the buildings slowly rust and the people move out into the suburbs.  I think of cities that once were major destinations...that have multiple major freeways running through and connecting them, and 3dis a plenty, where people used to actually thrive and where tourists flocked--but that are now dilapidated, those 3dis seemingly superfluous now that no one drives them anymore and those major freeways only serve as a ways for people passing through to get the hell out as soon as possible.

But thats how I envision most of Michigan, Ohio, Western Pennsylvania, all of West Virginia, and most of upstate New York.  I have actually been to Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New York, and New Jersey and it certainly seemed like any growth or whatever stopped long ago. Those places felt decidedly much different than the way cities feel here in Texas...but it wasn't just the Northeast.  I feel that stagnation and decay all over Louisiana too...and Mississippi when I go to visit my parents.  I dont know how it is in other states, but theres not nearly the zest for growth and newness that we seem to have here in Texas. 
I dont know what it is about this state either.  I'll admit there are some really problematic issues here, but in general it's been a very good place to live and there is always something new just around the corner, for good or bad.  Don't like a road? Don't worry because it will be rebuilt within ten years probably.  Old building thats an eyesore?  It'll be gone next year and replaced with a shopping center or condos.

[bwana39]

My current home town Texarkana is known for "The Town that Dreaded Sundown". The original hometown of Ross Perot, and is the home of the US Post Office and Courthouse that sits on top of the state line of Texas and Arkansas.

And here, I first knew about Texarkana because of the R.E.M. song.

Jeff Keith from Tesla was born over on the other side (TXK AR) and sang about it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aDj8CK-ViA

Ironically the rescheduled Lynyrd Skynyrd concert in Bossier City a few weeks ago had Tesla as the opening act.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

The one thing Mason City, IA is known for is being the basis for the musical The Music Man. Meredith Willson, the creator of The Music Man, was from here and is buried here (and I have been to his grave). Nearby Clear Lake is known for being the place where the music died, where Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens had their last concert before their plane crashed.

(I know this is an old post)

Unfortunately you're also well-known for your news anchor who disappeared in the mid-90s and has never been found; my guess being she was ultimately murdered.

[7/8]

The city I grew up in until I was 14 (Brampton, ON) is known for having the largest South Asian population per capita in Canada (44.3% as of 2016). It's also known for its high car insurance rates .

My current city of Kitchener is known for its German heritage (being named "Berlin" before 1916) and for having the second largest Oktoberfest in the world.

[jlam]

Severance, CO is known (at least locally) for its Rocky Mountain Oysters at Bruce's Bar. Its motto even mentions the Oysters (Where the geese fly and the bulls cry). Note that the population hasn't been updated in 10 years, and our population is closer to 10K.


And here is the Bruce's Bar sign just across WCR 23

[mgk920]

"Windy" refers to rumors, not wind.

And politics, specifically.  Yes, I know, but Chicago is nonetheless most famous for wind.

ly to mid 20th century - "You can go pretty much anywhere you want to in the USA (contiguous 48 states) by rail.  You just have to change trains in Chicago."

It's still a lot like that for freight traffic and the Chicagoland area is still a major rail transport and interchange center.

Mike