A WAG, but Wintergreen, Virginia shares the vowels “a” and “e” with other named cities, but not Miami. If Wintergreen didn’t have that common factor, then Miami would have it by sharing “a” and “o”.
No.
No.
(Heh heh) No.
If you were to tell us the criteria right now, would a reasonable American (“the man on the Brooklyn omnibus”:)) be able to figure out whether Wintergreen or Miami was valid without needing to look up information he wouldn’t know?
Does the common factor relate to anything at all other than names?
If yes, does the common factor relate to any property of the cities on the list themselves?
If a person had exhaustive knowledge of any single city, but no knowledge at all of other cities, would that person be able to determine if that single city should be on the list?
If a person had exhaustive knowledge both of a single city, and exhaustive knowledge of some other set of cities, but had some nonempty set of cities of which he had no knowledge, would that person be able to determine if that single city should be on the list?
Is “…in the United States” explicitly part of the criteria for being on this list?
Absent any specific criteria to that effect, or with it being replaced by the name of another country, is it possible for a city in any other country to be on this list, or one directly analogous to it?
Is it possible specifically for a city in England? Germany? Greece? Israel? China?
Have these places hosted some event; and in the year that Wintergreen hosted it, Miami was the runner-up choice?
No. Probably not. Depends on who you asked.
I hope the man would agree that the lateral thinking riddle was still fair and solvable without using google.
Do you mean it’s solvable for the average person even without asking you questions?
Or are you saying just questions, no google (which I thought was pretty much the ground rules for these)?
ETA this makes no sense - you told us that it’s connected to the name of the place, right?
Would a Wintergreen, Ohio and a Miami. Kentucky (or any other state) have the same statuses?
Lots of questions…
-
No. The names themselves put the cities on the list.
-
No. See #1. No physical property of the city itself matters.
-
Yes. Knowledge of whether a city is on the list is not dependent of other cities.
-
Yes. Exhaustive knowledge of the city itself is irrelevant.
-
No. The U.S. part is not required.
6 +7. Yes., theoretically any city anywhere could make the list.
No.
Yes.
No. Most people would probably not be able to get it without asking some questions.
I actually sent an email to the Wintergreen resort last night and posed to them the riddle. They will probably think it is Spam or think WTF and hit “DELETE.” But maybe I will get lucky and the person in charge of reading their e-mails is a fellow puzzle lover!
To clarify, the written language of Israel does not have letters for vowels, and the written language of China does not have letters at all. Does this answer still stand?
I went to the National Federation of the Blind convention about 18 years ago. I was there as a Deaf-blind interpreter. There were hundreds of blind people-- maybe thousands. There were people with canes, people with all breeds of dogs (but mostly Retrievers), and people with sighted guides whose arms they held. I did not observe one person being led by a bell.
FWIW, I did not see one person using the “clicker” method either, and I think that pretty much just happens on TV.
I did see some small children with bells on them-- they were children with blind parents.
Not probable to happen I grant you. 
Is the significance of the name related in any way to some “technical” aspect of the way the name is written/spelled, such as the combination or pattern of letters?
Or does the combination of letters per se not matter?
Does the name for each town also apply to someone/something else?
Is the manner in which the name for the town arose or was chosen significant?
No to “technical”
Yes. The letter combination does NOT matter
Yes to name applying elsewhere
No to the manner in which the town name arose.