Bullshit.
I've been to East Lansing, Ann Arbor, West Layette, and Starkville. They each have their issues, but none of them is as flat out, physically ugly as Lubbock. I don't mean that personally against Lubbock, either, because, as I said, Lubbock has done about a well with West Texas as you can reasonably ask. The problem is that West Texas is simply gruesome. It's a brutally hard scrabble land. As I told my kids whenever they complained about the Bay Area, "Daddy grew up in a post-Apocalyptic industrial wasteland, so I don't want to hear it."
I wouldn't be caught dead in Stillwater, so I can't speak for it. But two points: (1) I don't recall anyone ever cutting Stillwater much slack (True joke when Pickens started contributing so much to the program; "Jesus. why didn't he rebuild the town first."), and (2) if you're comparing yourself to the backwaters of fucking Oklahoma for a cheap self-esteem hit, I think you know the truth.
As far as Michener goes, let him grow up in West Texas, and he'd be singing a very different tune.