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As much as I appreciate the sentiment, Boston is probably the most European city in America stemming from the fact that it was originally built as one.
by DrAwdeOccarim 8y ago
As much as I appreciate the sentiment, Boston is probably the most European city in America stemming from the fact that it was originally built as one.
- baby 8y agoI’m european and have been to both cities. I agree with this statement.
- pcthrowaway 8y agoHaving just returned from a trip to 5 European cities in different countries, what does the most European city mean? I also haven't been to Boston, but there were many ethnic enclaves in other American cities that I was reminded of during my time in Europe. But as a whole, the cities were each so distinct, I found many American cities comparable to them than they were to each other.
- baby 8y agoFor one: no grid, walkable streets and bars and restaurants with terasses
- loggedinmyphone 8y agoThe idea of SF as "culturally European" was largely a piece of self-mythologizing, rather than a legitimate comparison. SF saw the rest of the US as the homeland of mindless consumerism (with the exception of their leftist intellectual conception of New York City, ironically; this being before the 2008 financial crisis and Occupy Wall Street), and the residents liked to identify with the Europe they imagined as an Epicurean socialist Utopia. It's similar to the mindset that Austin has in distinguishing themselves from the rest of Texas. Of course many of SF's culturally distinctive qualities, like the noted California-style phony overenthusiasm, are actually very anti-European.