Areas of your city that would shock outsiders/visitors w/ preconceived notions

[isaidso]

For Toronto it's probably the suburban lakeshore like the Scarborough Bluffs. The water can be remarkably turquoise. This is only a 15 minute drive east from downtown

Scarborough Bluffs




https://images.dailyhive.com/2019070...1436968595.jpg


https://images.dailyhive.com/2017050..._442193728.jpg


https://photorator.com/photos/images...ada--60091.jpg

[benp]

Originally Posted by IrishIllini

Hasn't the east side experienced some serious disinvestment. Major not Detroit style, but looks more apparent than even Milwaukee or even Cleveland. A bit like Pittsburgh?

Absolutely there are sections of the East Side that have had major issues, particularly in the areas near the old Central Terminal. That’s what people expect to see, but most of the city never had that type of decline. It is the intactness, density, continuity, vibrancy, and wealth that projects upward and outward from downtown that might catch some people by surprise. My Texas in-laws had no idea.

Even the East Side neighborhoods are seeing a significant amount of public and private investment today, and many ex-pats and old timers would be surprised what has happened since the 2000s. (By the way, Google Streetview isn't current and doesn't show most of the improved East Side yet if that's what you are looking for).

[goat314]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

Most unordained outsiders erroneously think all pizza in Chicago looks like this:





When in fact the majority of the pizza actually eaten in this town looks more like this:

So wait! Chicagoans eat pizza very similar to St. Louis style pizza, yet Chicagoans never miss the chance to sh*t on St. Louis thin crust pizza. The more you learn

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by goat314

So wait! Chicagoans eat pizza very similar to St. Louis style pizza, yet Chicagoans never miss the chance to sh*t on St. Louis thin crust pizza.

I've never had st. Louis style pizza, so I would never shit on it.

But from what I understand, the main complaint that many people have against st. Louis style pizza seems to be the rather unique Provel cheese that is used, not the thinness of the cracker-like crust (which is indeed very similar to the thin crust found in Chicago).

I've never been to any pizzeria in Chicago that uses Provel cheese on its pies. Chicago is primarily a mozzarella and/or provolone town for the most part.

[cabasse]

.

[LA21st]

Originally Posted by BnaBreaker

My favorite Chicago pizza place... admittedly heavily influenced by nostalgia... is Marcelo's Father & Son (just called Father & Son's by my friends and I)... sadly it recently closed after 72 years in Logan Square. There is still one out in Northbrook, but fuck that I'm not going all the way out there for it.

Nice. Yea, that's another great place.

I also wanted to add Asheville surprised me in general. I was expecting something like Charlotte, Raleigh etc.

[Pedestrian]

The most "un-San Franciscan" neighborhood in San Francisco is:



It's basically not at all city-like; more like an elite suburban neighborhood:










All images: https://www.google.com/search?rls=en...MB7DU8BhP2wNQM

And on and on and on.

[BEER]

Scarborough Bluffs along the water are beautiful. To be honest, I have had no idea about them.

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

For NYC, it depends on the level of familiarity with the city. I think people (Americans) completely unfamiliar with NYC are shocked that Manhattan has almost nothing resembling low-density "suburban" housing (single-family detached with a yard).

Haha, true. When I was living on the UWS years ago, and had just walked out my door onto the sidewalk on a Saturday morning, a tourist couple passing by stopped to ask me how to get to the USS Intrepid museum. We had a brief conversation, and I remembered the guy just seeming to be in awe of “How big the downtown area is” (meaning he thought the UWS was downtown because there were so many buildings and it was so busy) and asking “Where do all the people actually live? Like, where are the neighborhoods?” (thinking that there must be suburban neighborhoods with lawns, etc. somewhere around here). 😆

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by BnaBreaker

My favorite Chicago pizza place... admittedly heavily influenced by nostalgia... is Marcelo's Father & Son (just called Father & Son's by my friends and I)... sadly it recently closed after 72 years in Logan Square. There is still one out in Northbrook, but fuck that I'm not going all the way out there for it.

My favorite pizza places are Flo and Santos (which fortunately is like a block away and has a big outdoor patio) and Robert's Pizza. The deep dish places are fun sometimes but it's just too much for the most part. Although I sometimes will pick up a slice of thin crust and deep dish at Art of Pizza.

[SFBruin]

Definitely Alki in Seattle, which is basically a spacious, sandy beach in a city that is famous for rain.

[BnaBreaker]

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

My favorite pizza places are Flo and Santos (which fortunately is like a block away and has a big outdoor patio) and Robert's Pizza. The deep dish places are fun sometimes but it's just too much for the most part. Although I sometimes will pick up a slice of thin crust and deep dish at Art of Pizza.

Ya know what, I've walked past Flo and Santos many times because I have friends that live in a building nearby but I've never stopped in... but that trend just might need to change. I've looked at their menu before and kind of unfairly shrugged it off when I saw they had Polish food too... which I also love... but somehow my brain couldn't handle both Polish food and pizza in the same place. haha... i'll try it out though! Thanks for the recommendation!

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by pj3000

asking “Where do all the people actually live? Like, where are the neighborhoods?” (thinking that there must be suburban neighborhoods with lawns, etc. somewhere around here). ������

The answer being, of course, Connecticut (or New Jersey).

But that's why I posted what I did about SF above too. Very little of my city has fully encircling yards around even single family houses. It's much more common to have mainly a back yard with a narrow strip (often paved) in front and one house abutting the next on the sides. In NY, you see that somewhat in Manhattan and probably more in the other boroughs. And, of course, State Island may even have some suburban-like areas but they aren't especially upscale.

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by BnaBreaker

Ya know what, I've walked past Flo and Santos many times because I have friends that live in a building nearby but I've never stopped in... but that trend just might need to change. I've looked at their menu before and kind of unfairly shrugged it off when I saw they had Polish food too... which I also love... but somehow my brain couldn't handle both Polish food and pizza in the same place. haha... i'll try it out though! Thanks for the recommendation!

Yes, start off with the Pierogi sampler and then get a pizza. My wife and I are crazy for the Buffalo Bill's pizza (it's seriously amazing, I don't know what they put in the cheese, but it's amazing) but we haven't gone wrong with any of them. And if you have room for dessert their paczki aren't bad either

[BnaBreaker]

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

Yes, start off with the Pierogi sampler and then get a pizza. My wife and I are crazy for the Buffalo Bill's pizza (it's seriously amazing, I don't know what they put in the cheese, but it's amazing) but we haven't gone wrong with any of them. And if you have room for dessert their paczki aren't bad either

Sounds amazing!! Thanks man!

[muppet]

I think a lot of people expect this from London


https://arthureghiazaryan.files.word...ace-getty1.jpg


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3pr8lK01-E


https://www.redonline.co.uk/travel/i...ny-day-london/

(it actually gets half the rainfall of NYC, and is on par with Melbourne or Tel Aviv)

And that this is the cuisine


http://www.worldhum.com/travel-blog/...food-20090624/


In reality the food is great (high quality and not just from all over the world but the native cooking too), the weather crap (but not rainy), and the architecture much more varied and modern, and the majority of people will be non-native (including many you think are).












National dishes:


https://www.standard.co.uk/go/london...-a4312696.html

[muppet]

Shoreditch, London's former hipster haunt now a bit naff, but probably the most colourful spot in the West. A multi ethnic, mostly Muslim area, with a big amount of East End life.



It's a trash palace -during the 90s it was very cool, and had the highest amount of artists in the world, but commercialisation in the noughties has meant big business moving in, including London's 'Silicon Roundabout', the creatives priced out to Hackney and south London, though the nightlife is just about surviving.

All pics by Dougie Wallace, www.dougiewallace.com







x

[muppet]

www.dougiewallace.com

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x

[MonkeyRonin]

C'mon now, no one in 2020 is surprised that London is stylish or diverse or has good nightlife and food. The only people who might think that are the same strawmen who would expect Paris to be baguettes and berets, or Canada to be igloos and 10 months of snow. The notion of the stereotypes as a commonly held belief are more of a stereotype than the actual stereotypes are themselves at this point.

I think the kind of things that would actually surprise visitors to London are its quaint village centres that have been absorbed into the city, the robust and expansive green spaces, or perhaps the ubiquitous old school street markets - the kind of things that clash with the typical idea of what a 21st century megacity is supposed to be. In London's case, maybe the amount of ultra-modern skyscrapers as well, as those are still a relatively recent phenomenon.

I did enjoy the photos though.

[JManc]

Lies. I've been to London many many times and they all wear bowler hats, smoke pipes and ride around on penny-farthings.