On Facebook, you can "Become a Fan" of most cities in the country. My favorite variation on this is when the name takes the form of "You know you're from [city name] when..." and the info on the page itself is a list of little in-jokes that only people who live or had lived in the city might get.

Usually we just browse the ones for cities where we've lived, because we want to get the jokes. But why not use this to research cities that you're planning to visit? It won't make you as aware as a local might be, but it might make you curious about a few things that you wouldn't have otherwise known about, and it'll help you asked more informed questions once you get into town. If you're about to move to a new city, I'd say it makes even more sense.

There's one for the city where I live, which is Santa Barbara. There is a page for them, and here is one of my favorites from that page:

"...John Cleese has almost run you over at least once."

Apparently he lives in town, and I guess he's not a very good driver when it comes to dealing with pedestrians. (or so I would presume) It's part of the reason I'll often cross the street at traffic lights against a red. You never know who might hit you with their car around here.