Time Out lists the 'world's best' cities for 2021

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by sentinel

"Jack Donaghy : We're going to find the perfect person for the show down here

[in Georgia]

Jack Donaghy : . Someone who represents the *Real America*.

Liz Lemon : Jack, for the 80th time, no part of America is more American than any other part.

Jack Donaghy : You are wrong. Small towns are where you see the kindness and goodness and courage of everyday Americans. The folks who are teaching our kids, running our prisons, growing our cigarettes. People who are still living by core American values.

Liz Lemon : There are plenty of core American values in New York. But there are not restaurants called "Fatty Fat Sandwich Ranch." Turn here! Turn here!"

The message from the quote above is still very true - there is really, legitimately no difference between me "and a random guy from Missouri." As Steely echoed, the internet makes information available to anyone, anytime, and yes, that includes making it easier to get around NYC, regardless of whether or not you're from Chicago, Missouri, or "Sexcriminalboat" whatever state that's in.

None of this has anything to do with the point that was being made lol. The comment was literally about a person navigating an unknown city. Not about whether Chicagoans know how to get around big cities better than yokels from Missouri.

[sentinel]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

None of this has anything to do with the point that was being made lol. The comment was literally about a person navigating an unknown city. Not about whether Chicagoans know how to get around big cities better than yokels from Missouri.

I never conflated the two, other forum members did.

[Martin Mtl]

Delete

[Martin Mtl]

Originally Posted by kool maudit

Montreal was undervalued 1988-2005, correctly valued 2003-07, and is now overvalued

That does not reflect my own experience. I have been living in Montreal all my adult life since the 80´s, and I feel like the city has never been more beautiful, more exciting, more vibrant, more creative and more progressive than it is now. Maybe it’s just me. I’m moving downtown and I’m euphoric.

[Omaharocks]

^ Uh, yeah. Montreal overvalued, relative to what??

The only other city in North America that can compete on an urban-quality level vs cost of living is Chicago. And Chicago doesn't come anywhere close on other livability factors like crime, traffic, etc.

Montreal is waaaay undervalued.

[nito]

Originally Posted by badrunner

False. Except Osaka-Kyoto-Kobe are actually, you know, connected.

Liverpool and Manchester (like London and other British cities) have Green Belts to prevent sprawl, but they do connect due to historical development via St Helens > Wigan > Bolton. Sprawl however is merely a physical representation of lax planning controls; sprawl doesn’t signify network connectivity or interaction with the core city. This to me looks like “connections” otherwise it wouldn’t be viable to maintain, let alone would there be a proposal for a new high-speed high-frequency line to improve connections further.

[Segun]

What's with this bizarre connotation with "tourists from the Midwest" and what separates them from tourists from other regions? Furthermore, how does one even discern that said tourists are from the Midwest. Accents?

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Segun

What's with this bizarre connotation with "tourists from the Midwest" and what separates them from tourists from other regions? Furthermore, how does one even discern that said tourists are from the Midwest. Accents?

It wasn't a statement about tourists from the Midwest. Not sure why people keep reading it that way, lol. That's what is bizarre.

[badrunner]

Originally Posted by nito

Liverpool and Manchester (like London and other British cities) have Green Belts to prevent sprawl, but they do connect due to historical development via St Helens > Wigan > Bolton. Sprawl however is merely a physical representation of lax planning controls; sprawl doesn’t signify network connectivity or interaction with the core city. This to me looks like “connections” otherwise it wouldn’t be viable to maintain, let alone would there be a proposal for a new high-speed high-frequency line to improve connections further.

I obviously meant that Osaka-Kyoto-Kobe are physically connected - with contiguous high density development, by definition making it a single contiguous urban area - not that they merely had transit connections.

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by Segun

What's with this bizarre connotation with "tourists from the Midwest" and what separates them from tourists from other regions? Furthermore, how does one even discern that said tourists are from the Midwest. Accents?

I guess he meant tourists from suburbs/small towns visiting a big, very busy city like New York, and used the Midwest as an example of it. He could have said South or Mountains as well. I guess the Midwest is more associated with the "Middle America" than the others.

In any case, the post was more about people from Newark being lost in New York than about the Midwest itself.

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by aaronevill

I work in a large, famous hotel in NYC. I can assure you, most midwestern tourists are quite bewildered and frightened about navigating NYC. It is because it is unlike anything they have ever seen or had to deal with. I grew up in suburban St. Louis which is a very anti-urban region. My parents think a strip mall is glory and Applebee's = food. This is true of almost everyone there. I have lived here for 20 years and my suburban parents still can't figure out how to get to my apartment. I deal with thousands of people every year because of my job. My parents are not unique. You are.

my guy here obliterating st louisans and midwesterners. this is my favorite architype of st. louis expat just absolute red hot disgust that lasts decades

[Centropolis]

it is funny about nyc though. my parents who are now retired to a large cattle ranch outside st louis have been to london and other places without issue (and encouraged/utilized train travel to chicago dozens of times when i was a kid) but my dad refuses to go to nyc, so i typically take my mother.

[Centropolis]

*frumpy boomers wearing fanny packs and st louis cardinals gear fallen on the subway tracks*

expat midwesterner gen x or older millennial thats been in NYC their entire adult life:

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by Segun

What's with this bizarre connotation with "tourists from the Midwest" and what separates them from tourists from other regions? Furthermore, how does one even discern that said tourists are from the Midwest. Accents?

this reminds me of a funny thing that happened to me at a wellington, nz hotel, myself and the bellhop thought we were each from canada upon speaking, but both midwesterners…perhaps it was two americans trying not to seem overtly stereotypically american.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by Centropolis

it is funny about nyc though. my parents who are now retired to a large cattle ranch outside st louis have been to london and other places without issue (and encouraged/utilized train travel to chicago dozens of times when i was a kid) but my dad refuses to go to nyc, so i typically take my mother.

Not a specifically Missouri thing, but there's definitely a conservative boomer typology that refuses to step foot in "shithole" American cities allegedly ruined by blacks/liberals/immigrants, etc. and yet has no problem visiting European equivalents. My parents know lots of suburban boomers who won't step foot in NYC, SF, LA, DC, Boston, Chicago, etc. but happily visit London, Paris, Rome, Vienna, etc.

Which is weird, bc the epic chaos/dysfunction in a Rome makes any American city appear like Singapore.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Not a specifically Missouri thing, but there's definitely a conservative boomer typology that refuses to step foot in "shithole" American cities allegedly ruined by blacks/liberals/immigrants, etc. and yet has no problem visiting European equivalents. My parents know lots of suburban boomers who won't step foot in NYC, SF, LA, DC, Boston, Chicago, etc. but happily visit London, Paris, Rome, Vienna, etc.

Which is weird, bc the epic chaos/dysfunction in a Rome makes any American city appear like Singapore.

I think this is just a general American boomer perception of NYC. I know a lot of boomers who aren't particularly conservative but still think NYC is a crime ridden hellhole. It might be more pronounced in Midwest states with cities that never recovered from postwar decline, unlike NYC.

[The North One]

Originally Posted by Centropolis

my guy here obliterating st louisans and midwesterners. this is my favorite architype of st. louis expat just absolute red hot disgust that lasts decades

Lol those type of people are the absolute worst, so miserable and irrelevant but they think their hot takes matter. I sympathize.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

I think this is just a general American boomer perception of NYC. I know a lot of boomers who aren't particularly conservative but still think NYC is a crime ridden hellhole. It might be more pronounced in Midwest states with cities that never recovered from postwar decline, unlike NYC.

We have an eccentric investor client, a Jewish guy in his 80's who grew up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in the 1940's, and now lives in the Sunbelt, and hasn't stepped foot in NYC except for airports in like 40 years.

He refuses to believe anyone would pay even a dollar to live in Williamsburg. He's a racist SOB and has flat-out said that the Puerto Ricans burned the neighborhood down and raped all the women, and it's finished. It's like opening a time capsule of some bizarre postwar white flight worldview.

And, yeah, growing up in MI, boomer friends of my parents still give them the "how can you have a grandchild in NYC, isn't it DANGEROUS"? It's like Taxi Driver and Midnight Cowboy are their guides to urban America, or at least NYC.

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Not a specifically Missouri thing, but there's definitely a conservative boomer typology that refuses to step foot in "shithole" American cities allegedly ruined by blacks/liberals/immigrants, etc. and yet has no problem visiting European equivalents. My parents know lots of suburban boomers who won't step foot in NYC, SF, LA, DC, Boston, Chicago, etc. but happily visit London, Paris, Rome, Vienna, etc.

Which is weird, bc the epic chaos/dysfunction in a Rome makes any American city appear like Singapore.

lol tis a thing. my parents have been to Glasgow but not sure my dad has ever been to Brooklyn. not that it was 1980 Glasgow but still amusing.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Crawford

We have an eccentric investor client, a Jewish guy in his 80's who grew up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in the 1940's, and now lives in the Sunbelt, and hasn't stepped foot in NYC except for airports in like 40 years.

He refuses to believe anyone would pay even a dollar to live in Williamsburg. He's a racist SOB and has flat-out said that the Puerto Ricans burned the neighborhood down and raped all the women, and it's finished. It's like opening a time capsule of some bizarre postwar white flight worldview.

Yeah, I've heard similar. My former boss is an affluent Irish-American Boomer that spent his early childhood in the Bronx before his family went to the burbs. He also blamed the decline of the Bronx on Puerto Ricans...