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In a Travel + Leisure survey, New Orleans ranked No. 1 for strangest people. The Crescent City also earned top ranking for bars, wild weekends and people-watching.
Portland, Ore., has earned a reputation for quirkiness: independent shops, locally produced cuisine, and — how to be diplomatic? — offbeat locals. You can see it in how they dress, perhaps, or through their love of bicycles, eco-conscious living and craft beers.
Slideshow: See the cities where the offbeat rule
Las Vegas resident Corey Lewis puts it more bluntly: “You see more mustaches in Portland than in a 1970s high school yearbook.” Even so, the communications professional says he loves the city for its all-natural, unconventional flair. “In other places, it would be called an Arts District,” he says, “but here, it’s really the whole city.”
Portland easily made the top five cities for America’s strangest people, as judged by Travel + Leisure readers. They evaluated 35 major cities in travel-related categories for our annual America’s Favorite Cities survey, and the inclusion of an offbeat category highlights how much travelers appreciate a little eccentricity in their getaways — mustaches and all.
How did voters define offbeat? For some cities, it likely reflects a long tradition of flamboyance and colorful people-watching — found in No. 1–ranked New Orleans. Other top 20 cities, such as Santa Fe and Providence, R.I., have vibrant arts communities, ranking well in the survey for galleries, theater and live music.
Related: Holiday gift shops pop up in downtown Portland
For other winning cities, the strange factor stems from a mash-up of alternative styles that can date back decades. For instance, here’s how Emily Williamson, communications specialist for Lusso Bags, describes her fellow residents in Seattle: “We still have a kind of hip-grunge demeanor going on around here — thrown in with business casual, business professional and a streak of goth.”
You can also argue that kookiness is learned, rather than being an innate quality, and that some locals are striving for just that kind of compliment. After all, strangeness isn’t just something in the water — or even the locally brewed beer.
“In Austin, you’re really not a part of the scene until you’ve grown a beard, gotten a tattoo, and found the most ironic consignment-store clothing available,” says James Beswick, a technical author and consultant who recently moved to the Texas capital. Not that he dislikes the place. “The city is full of friendly people,” he adds.
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- See Travel + Leisure's slideshows
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portland,oregon is also known as the heroin capitol of the US,the welfare capitol,the unemployment capitol,and the vagrancy capitol.oooh i want to live there,the new bohemia,where hippies never grow up,they grow old and bitter.i'll take seattle over the open sewer any day.
Portland doesn't set the standard for Oregon, although it would like to think it does. Native Oregonians know where to get away from the hype. It didn't always used to be like this, blame the California transplants (they are the ones who started building houses on quarter acre plots next to a busy road or the interstate). When I was growing up, you could drive from Salem to Portland in 45 minutes, any time of day. Rush hour traffic was non-existent.
I was born in Portland and raised in Seattle. Both cities are awesome so knock it off! The only edge to Portland is that it's still the way Seattle was before they went condo crazy (especially on Capitol Hill) and tore down most of the cool old buildings!
Keep Portland Weird. I ♥ Portland.
P.S. Nothing beats Portland's Saturday Market under the Burnside Bridge.
As soon as I saw the picture I knew it was Portland before I even read a word. This is my favorite city in the world. I love it's variety and uniqueness. There is no place like it and yes, Saturday Market is great!!!
@Pat, that's actually New Orleans. Also a very fun city!
Way to be judgemental about people who aren't exactly like you. Way to go.
Baltimore's Inner Harbor is a good place to people watch, and its various ethnic and cultural neighborhoods lend an, albeit a stretch, air of internationality.
So a "love of bicycles, eco-conscious living, and craft beers" make people strange?
I guess we should all just pollute the environment, buy mass-produced generic products, and bow down to large corporations so we can be "normal".
Let's not forget own several guns and be fully stocked on ammo.
strange place to live...go to little rock...they be crack-a-lacking...for christmas...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crPLPYXdJxU&NR=1
The article is title "Where America's Strangest People Reside". Now....that just HAS to be Washington, D.C.
heroin capital? I think Mr. Seattle has been out in the Seattle rain too long. Yes, people in Portland are weird. Was at Costco and the guy next to me was wearing a coyote skin for a hat. Head and all. Downtown Portland at an office building and it was raining. Young lady comes in with business suit on wearing her husbands awful green rubber duck hunting boots. Did I mention Reed College? The city though is clean with many parks and beautiful neighborhoods. Unlike Seattle, you can actual get somewhere by driviing or riding your bike.
Sold my bike for heroin :/
So people from New York City, Los Angeles, Las Vegas are considered "normal" ?
I was born and raised in New York and thought I had seen it all....until I moved to Las Vegas!!
I spent my first 38 years in Las Vegas. Now in Seattle for three. Seattle is way weirder. I can hardly believe it. In Las Vegas it's fake-crazy. Like people getting drunk and just trying to act up because they're in Las Vegas and they're on vacation or it's the weekend. Here, people just ARE crazy. Maybe not crazy, but odd and... well, okay, there are a lot of crazies. I think it's because people put up with it combined with the abundant liberal social programs to take care of them all. It's like a disturbed person-mecca.
...and let me add that that wasn't meant to be a cranky reply. I enjoy being around all the colorful people.
If you dont think Seattle is "fake-crazy" yet just give it a while. They are the most insincere bunch of doped out fascists I have ever encountered. Actually, watch the show "Portlandia" it is a valid representation of the fake artsy commie vegan hipsters which plague both our otherwise beautiful cities. Hell the "Occupy Seattle" group is so fake and out of touch they actually rioted and took over a town hall meeting unknowingly hosted by Occupy Wall Street. Lol Talk about a clueless bunch of heroin heads.
Wow - what a stupid article. It's all an affectation - conspicuous artificiality of manner or appearance; effort to attract notice by pretense, assumption, or any assumed peculiarity.
Well said, Linda. And, in Portland, you find all that in abundance - a palpable and self-conscious attempt to appear "hip" and "offbeat" (as tho' old "Zippy the Pinhead" posters somehow spell "chic"). Unfortunately, Portland and environs now account for most of Oregon's 5 largest cities and half the state's population, which drowns out so many of the values that made Oregon a good place to live. Outside of Portland, we refer to our governor as "The Governor of Multnomah County" and it isn't meant to be ironic.
Don't get me wrong - there are lots of cool things in Portland and lots of things to like. The "look at me, I'm 'different' " attitude of the people, however, detracts from those things, rather than adding to them.
Hey it beats the heck out of "Dodging Bullets" in Detroit any day of the week!!!!!
I drove through Portland once, only thing I saw that was "Strange" was THEY pump your gas for you at no extra charge.
They do it all over Oregon, its the law. It was created to create jobs.
and have a treat for your dog everytime!....and no sales tax...you know thats weird!!!....lol
Detroit's getting better. It still suffers from the stigma from the 80's. I still wouldn't live there, but the whole "dodging bullets" comment is offensive to those who live in Michigan and/or do have to travel to Detroit. Like any large city, it's all where you go. There are parts that you want to avoid for sure. And I'm not saying they've "turned Detroit around" either. They have a long way to go ... but to say "dodging bullets" just shows you how little you know of the area.
See the common theme to all these places? I can only hope the occucrappers and other tax consumers flock to these places and parasitize one another instead of attacking tax producers and normal people that they so vehemently hate.
welll madison wisconsin has al kinds of dandies as its residents. it is 8 square miles surrounded by reality
I thought that only applied to the "peoples republic of Boulder".
Los Angeles has to be the capital of psychos, wackos, and weirdos.
Thank you! Us L.A. "types" appreciate all the hype we get from the "normal" people in the flyover states! I get a kick out of people in other states having all kinds of ridiculous opinions about people from L.A. And we just hope the rest of you don't move here. Keep talking smack about us all you want, but stop moving here!
I live in LA.
I'm surprised Gibsonton, Florida was left off the list. This is the winter home of a lot of current & former/retired circus performers. I first learned of the place after reading about the Lobster Boy murder. I just went back & looked at a small write-up on Wikipedia. One reason the place is home base for these folks, is that it's one of the only places in the country that's specifically "zoned" to allow carnival rides....elephants & other animals to be stored or kept in private yards. They actually have a counter at the post office for dwarves. All the old sideshow characters lived there.
We had one such area in Orlando, that was the Winter home for some of the "little-people" of Ringling Bros. very small houses and such. It was very a cool village, and i often begged my parents to go there. Sometimes, a few of the residents would sign autographs for the kids.
And the award goes to: Zanesville,OH
It is fact, that "Birds of a Feather" ... really do "Flock" Unique-Birds in some areas, might be a better description/term of Americans. Ciao
One nice thing about these "strange" places...very few Republicans (except maybe some of the religious wackos). These are places where the attitude is still "live and let live". The Real America remains in the middle. Thank God there are still places to escape from there in this country.
Amazing what a difference a word or two makes, eh? I congratulate you on your enlightened disposition towards half of the country.
Republicans ARE wackos. They're psychotic. Just look at the current primary!!!
Oh, puh-lease. That's the media. Or do you think (that ol' screamer) Howard Dean is a nut case? How about other "sane Dems" like Joe Lieberman, Al Sharpton, or John Edwards?
They're *all* psychotics, on either side. You just pick the ugly dog you dislike the least!
Jack - the attiude is only "live and let live" as long as those people perceive you as being "one of them." Liberals have absolutely NO tolerance for the opinions or lifestyles of those who differ from them, and in fact, are some of the most intolerant and hateful people I have ever met.
Nice try though.
“In Austin, you’re really not a part of the scene until you’ve grown a beard, gotten a tattoo, and found the most ironic consignment-store clothing available,” says James Beswick, a technical author and consultant who recently moved to the Texas capital. Not that he dislikes the place. “The city is full of friendly people,” he adds.
This statement cracks me up! I'm a native Austinite, and plenty of my other natives don't have beards or tattoos. They started shaving them off when all the 'hipsters' starting coming in droves and sporting this look.. I hate beards -flavor savor--- ewwww!
It's also funny when they suddenly "discover" some quaint little bookstore or coffee shop that a thousand people have already been to.
I live across the river from Portland Oregon, in Washington State. I KNEW it was Portland without looking. Yes, Portland is a VERY different place, and the people are WAY different. They are often pushy in their desire to be "green", and many seem to think when riding their bikes that stop signs, stop lights, and other traffic signals or signs do not apply to them.
C'mon ... you want weird?? Go to Detroit. Since the whole city is buzzed on heroin or crack cocaine ... how could that not be weirder than other cities!!
Wow, I can't believe we didn't make the list! We have all sorts of weirdos here.
When you're reading a "News of the Weird" column, you'll notice that the Sunshine state has more than its fair share of weird stories.
Florida takes the cake.
Apparently they didn't visit Oak Hill, WV.
The weirdest people in the US? Try nearly any Walmart. I am especially fond of Rock Springs or Evanston WY but nearly any one of them nationwide will suffice.
@LindaG
"I'm actually standing up at my desk and applauding!"
What a stupid article indeed or rather, it should have been titled ...
"Portland Ore, One Artsy City"
but that wouldn't draw the traffic and it's all about traffic.
Boycott / Occupy MSNBC!
Come to Chicago to dodge the bullets from all the gangbangers/drug dealers, watch politicians handcuffed and taken to jail, get robbed by the police, etc. The best part is watching the gay pride parade! Entertaining and harmless!
Please. New Haven on a Sunday afternoon is weirder than Chicago on Devil's Night.