You ever been in a big city in the South? They aren't the densely packed walkable and/or public transportation heavy big towns like New York or Chicago. The old parts of town that were designed before cars now have narrow densely trafficked streets paved through them with inadequate parking and no real "park here and take public transport in," nearly none of them have commuter rail, some might have bus services. The majority of the city is just heavy suburbs, miles upon miles of retail strip malls and tract housing.

Even when you compare places like Greensboro to places like Sanford, you start going "Well there's more brewpubs...which are bars. There's more restaurants...that serve alchohol. There's a comedy club...that serves alcohol. Greensboro is Sanford if Sanford had a functioning mall and a minor league baseball team. If you live there, at 6 pm on a given Thursday you can stay home or you can go out to a bar and that's about it.