5 ms·

I've spent time in many cities in North America and I would have to say the vast majority, but definitely not all, feel almost the same. Toronto doesn't feel v

I've spent time in many cities in North America and I would have to say the vast majority, but definitely not all, feel almost the same. Toronto doesn't feel vastly different than Calgary, Houston, Manhattan, Washington DC, London, Brussels and a large portion of Paris. Seattle felt different, perhaps because of the ocean, but saying that it felt quite distinct from Vancouver which very definitely has its own vibe that I adore. Bar Harbor as a city felt kinda like a quainter version of Boston, it reminded me very much of Cabot Cove from Murder She Wrote which I loved, but both Bar Harbor and Boston definitely felt like their own cities distinct from one another and from any other. The last city I spent time in was Nijmegen, NL and I felt a lot of similarities to Colchester and Canterbury where I grew up in the UK and York and to some extent even though it looked a lot different, it had the feeling of old Carcasonne which I adored. I've yet to visit San Francisco, but from everything I've seen and heard about it, I would be surprised if it feels vastly different than Toronto.

flerchin 6y ago
No matter where you go, you'll still be you.
- throwaway0a5e 6y ago
  "You can leave the trailer park but the trailer park will never leave you" Pretty much every culture has some form of this proverb.
ghaff 6y ago
>Bar Harbor and Boston definitely felt like their own cities distinct from one another and from any other Well, one is a little summer tourist town and the other--while also having a summer tourist component--is a large metropolis. (Which is also fairly distinct--at least in the core--from other cities.) Bar Harbor isn't really that distinct from other New England coastal towns like Camden though.
- throwaway0a5e 6y ago
  The thing that makes Bar Harbor distinct from Boston is that it's just far enough away from Boston that your average Masshole can't convince the wife and kids to pile into the Land Rover/4Runner and drive there on a Friday night or Saturday morning. Look at Portland for contrast.
  - ghaff 6y ago
    I would actually have said that Bar Harbor and the Old Port area of Portland were more alike than different other than the surrounding small city in Portland's case where tourists don't generally go. And Bar Harbor has cruise ships although they've continued to fight off actually building a pier for them.
    - throwaway0a5e 6y ago
      I'd agree. Both have more in common with each other than either has with e.g. Ellsworth or Lewiston but the businesses overtly catering toward yuppies from points south drops off a cliff once you get past Portland.
- MrFoof 6y ago
  Boston is rather distinct from most other cities, even those in the northeast megalopolis, as a function of its age. Boston's been officially around for 380 years, and it shows. Boston's Back Bay is very distinctly French influenced, down to its Academic-style townhouses. Beacon Hill is an eclectic mix of multiple old American styles (Colonial Revival, Greek Revival and Federal). Charlestown is very distinctly Colonial. Downtown's largest influence was Art Deco of the early to mid-20th century, though there are still distinct remnants of Georgian architecture and Colonial architecture about the fringes, and the obvious example of Classical Revival that is South Station. You have places like Jamaica Plains with its fens and string of parks referred to as, "the Emerald Necklace." It has a seaport district, and neighborhoods which were distinctly built around fishing. The Leather District is Romanesque. Dorchester has its Italianate mansards, as does the South End with its additional Greek Revival and Late Victorian buildings. Mission Hill is both Colonial Revival and Late Victorian. ... and on, and on. Then throughout you have the triple-decker tenement, which is a staple of New England and the northeast in general. It's why Boston and the immediate surrounding area is as dense as it is, with cities like Cambridge at nearly 17,000 people per square mile, and Somerville at 19,300 people per square mile. Then you have things like the tree under which George Washington founded the U.S. Army (Brattle Park in Cambridge, just outside Harvard Square), with surrounding cemeteries with 400+ year old gravestones. Or windmills built in the early 18th century converted into powder houses prior to the Revolutionary War. Old 18th century mill buildings (including the one where the American flag was sewn). Random gravestones dotting sidewalks of busy and popular neighborhoods noting where people died, with gritty epitaphs like: X, a minuteman, was slain by the British. "I am too old to run." Boston's nickname is, "The Athens of America". Everyone who goes there agrees that it lives up to its nickname.
ska 6y ago
I've lived for at least a few years in several of your initial list of cities, and I just don't see it. Houston is more about its boundareis than core (which is weirdly anemic). Toronto has a hugely diverse population and loads of interesting neighborhoods because of it - Calgary doesn't, on all counts. SF and Boston bear the stamp of very different histories, and feel like it. London and Houston are both is some ways defined by a sense of scale, one small the other sprawling. I've not lived in Manhattan but the fair bit of time I've spent there never made me think - this is a lot like city X. Were you spending times in exurbs of these cities? Those can feel samish everywhere.

flerchin 6y ago

No matter where you go, you'll still be you.

throwaway0a5e 6y ago
"You can leave the trailer park but the trailer park will never leave you" Pretty much every culture has some form of this proverb.

ghaff 6y ago

>Bar Harbor and Boston definitely felt like their own cities distinct from one another and from any other Well, one is a little summer tourist town and the other--while also having a summer tourist component--is a large metropolis. (Which is also fairly distinct--at least in the core--from other cities.) Bar Harbor isn't really that distinct from other New England coastal towns like Camden though.

throwaway0a5e 6y ago
The thing that makes Bar Harbor distinct from Boston is that it's just far enough away from Boston that your average Masshole can't convince the wife and kids to pile into the Land Rover/4Runner and drive there on a Friday night or Saturday morning. Look at Portland for contrast.
- ghaff 6y ago
  I would actually have said that Bar Harbor and the Old Port area of Portland were more alike than different other than the surrounding small city in Portland's case where tourists don't generally go. And Bar Harbor has cruise ships although they've continued to fight off actually building a pier for them.
  - throwaway0a5e 6y ago
    I'd agree. Both have more in common with each other than either has with e.g. Ellsworth or Lewiston but the businesses overtly catering toward yuppies from points south drops off a cliff once you get past Portland.
MrFoof 6y ago
Boston is rather distinct from most other cities, even those in the northeast megalopolis, as a function of its age. Boston's been officially around for 380 years, and it shows. Boston's Back Bay is very distinctly French influenced, down to its Academic-style townhouses. Beacon Hill is an eclectic mix of multiple old American styles (Colonial Revival, Greek Revival and Federal). Charlestown is very distinctly Colonial. Downtown's largest influence was Art Deco of the early to mid-20th century, though there are still distinct remnants of Georgian architecture and Colonial architecture about the fringes, and the obvious example of Classical Revival that is South Station. You have places like Jamaica Plains with its fens and string of parks referred to as, "the Emerald Necklace." It has a seaport district, and neighborhoods which were distinctly built around fishing. The Leather District is Romanesque. Dorchester has its Italianate mansards, as does the South End with its additional Greek Revival and Late Victorian buildings. Mission Hill is both Colonial Revival and Late Victorian. ... and on, and on. Then throughout you have the triple-decker tenement, which is a staple of New England and the northeast in general. It's why Boston and the immediate surrounding area is as dense as it is, with cities like Cambridge at nearly 17,000 people per square mile, and Somerville at 19,300 people per square mile. Then you have things like the tree under which George Washington founded the U.S. Army (Brattle Park in Cambridge, just outside Harvard Square), with surrounding cemeteries with 400+ year old gravestones. Or windmills built in the early 18th century converted into powder houses prior to the Revolutionary War. Old 18th century mill buildings (including the one where the American flag was sewn). Random gravestones dotting sidewalks of busy and popular neighborhoods noting where people died, with gritty epitaphs like: X, a minuteman, was slain by the British. "I am too old to run." Boston's nickname is, "The Athens of America". Everyone who goes there agrees that it lives up to its nickname.

ska 6y ago

I've lived for at least a few years in several of your initial list of cities, and I just don't see it. Houston is more about its boundareis than core (which is weirdly anemic). Toronto has a hugely diverse population and loads of interesting neighborhoods because of it - Calgary doesn't, on all counts. SF and Boston bear the stamp of very different histories, and feel like it. London and Houston are both is some ways defined by a sense of scale, one small the other sprawling. I've not lived in Manhattan but the fair bit of time I've spent there never made me think - this is a lot like city X. Were you spending times in exurbs of these cities? Those can feel samish everywhere.