Quote:
Originally Posted by Acajack
I hate to say this for the millionth time, but I do think the poster you're responding to does have a point.
A mixed salad is still just a mixed salad unless it is a unique mix that doesn't resemble any other type of mixed salad that exists out there.
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But diverse cities aren't all the same, but do have (somewhat) different ethnic demographics. And so long as different immigrant groups settle, and are separated from each other and their homeland, they eventually differ.
For instance, Toronto has a large Sri Lankan Tamil population that few other cities have, especially in Scarborough. Also, a large Sikh population in the NW area. So, while other cities have lots of South Asian immigrants, Toronto's is still different from say, New Jersey's, which has more Gujarati's.
And even the "same" immigrant demographics doesn't mean that all the diasporas and descendants are the same. Toronto, Melbourne, Montreal, NYC, New Orleans, Buenos Aires all have either Italian enclaves or a history of Italian immigration but their characters all differ.
Toronto and Vancouver's Chinese demographics are much more Hong-Kong influenced than many city's Chinese enclaves or Chinatowns because of Canada's Commonwealth immigrant connection to HK.
People talk about how, say African American communities are different in different cities, even if many are products of the 1910s- 1970s Great Migration. So Philly's black community is different from the Bay Area's, for instance, and that's not even an immigration wave but an internal migration one during one particular span of history in the 20th century.
So, if you can argue that differences in settlement that happened in the last generation or two can develop a city's culture, surely a different mix of immigrants one city has than another also counts, even if it comes from within a generation or two of change. And even just interactions between immigrant groups or influence from them can change a city's character -- for instance, Jamaican patties are widely seen as a popular street food in Toronto by Torontonians of all races, just like the NYC halal food trucks are seen as popular street food in NYC. Not to say that neither Toronto nor NYC has the other type of food, but some way or another each city made one of its immigrant group's cuisines mainstream in a way that everyone there becomes familiar with.