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Sounds like central Prague. Its a strange place (lived there 5 years, moved to better places), what tourists see / are lured at is big pretty medieval centre wi

Sounds like central Prague. Its a strange place (lived there 5 years, moved to better places), what tourists see / are lured at is big pretty medieval centre with rich history. Almost nobody actually lives there, too expensive and impractical. The rest of the city is properly fugly and depressing, communism made its mark that won't go away for next few centuries. Most colleagues bought rather houses quite far from the city in the middle of nowhere, dooming themselves to another 30+ years of daily miserable commutes by car. These days, even this is unattainable for most due to price boom. Its a strange place, folks are smart, work is often good but I wouldn't want to live there or raise kids no matter what.

dvdkon 5y ago
It's partly personal preference and partly which areas you frequent, I guess. I like the 19th/early 20th century apartment buildings, family houses that weren't built in recent homogenous developments are usually nice as well. Places like Jižní město (less artsy than the article's examples, but still brutalist) are irredeemably ugly though, so if that's your experience of Prague...
m4rtink 5y ago
Brno > Prague IMHO, as Brno actually has a city center where people live & which is rather nice. :)
- dralley 5y ago
  Brno was a really nice place to visit, as an uncultured American :) It was the first city I've been to that felt truly oriented around walking and public transportation instead of being swarmed by cars. And I really enjoyed the overall aesthetic of the city.
  - m4rtink 5y ago
    Interesting! You might also enjoy Vienna, as that's where a lot of inspiration of the old (<1914) buildings comes from & its also very pedestrian and public transport oriented. :)
noduerme 5y ago
Yeah, central Prague - borderline Vinohrady. I loved the people. Old Town is beautiful but a bit depressing because of the tourists; but I grew up in Las Vegas, and I found it similar to that and to New Orleans, where I also lived. Once you live there you never really spend time in the tourist district. Outside the tourist areas it's really cool, punk, underground all night places. (This is true for Vegas, NOLA and Prague, in my opinion. I put them in the same category because people in all three deal with floods of tourists and have great underground local culture).
vvm 5y ago
I am a little surprised by what you say. I've been living in Prague for 9 years (moved here, not Czech) and 8 of them I lived in Prague 5 bordering the Old Town, in 2 buildings build in Art Nouveau style, from around 1900. They were renovated, with modern elevators and looked pretty good both inside and outside.The area was very beautiful. Now I live in a communist tower block in Prague 4 and to be honest it's really not so bad. The apartment is OK, kind of small, especially American standards, but what i really like is the way the area was build. For example, in the middle of the area there is a school, a kindergarten and a nursery. And there are plenty of green spaces. This is definitely communist urban planning, but in this case, at it's best.
- scyzoryk_xyz 5y ago
  That’s because it was socialist modernism - a utopian vision that drove support. A sort of more sustainable socialist version of the American dream. I live in such a neighborhood myself - it’s not very glamorous but it’s what living should be like in the age of environmental collapse.
  - jollybean 5y ago
    Yes, nations with less wealth, more poverty and lower productivity consume fewer resources. So if the argument is Totalitarian Socialism of the late 20th Century kept us poor, and now we're green, well that would be an argument. I don't believe there is any evidence to suggest that there is anything other than that going on, as those formulations for living are otherwise identical to those in more capitalist W. Europe. The architecture itself I don't think lends to any argument one way or the other, other than most people who have to live with it don't like it. The 'prison' analogy used by some commentors here is apt, the fist time I visited the areas in E. Berlin with those types of buildings I literally thought they were reformatted prisons.
dkdbejwi383 5y ago
I got Disneyland vibes from central Prague, probably for that reason that nobody really lives there. A lot of people say it’s their favourite place in Central Europe, but the short visit I had to the central areas just didn’t click for me. I’d be interested in seeing more of the normal areas where people actually live
ocschwar 5y ago
> The rest of the city is properly fugly and depressing, communism made its mark that won't go away for next few centuries. I have some good news. Naked concrete crumbles. Especially in a place like Prague, with acidic coal smoke, lots of rain, and a freeze thaw cycle.

dvdkon 5y ago

It's partly personal preference and partly which areas you frequent, I guess. I like the 19th/early 20th century apartment buildings, family houses that weren't built in recent homogenous developments are usually nice as well. Places like Jižní město (less artsy than the article's examples, but still brutalist) are irredeemably ugly though, so if that's your experience of Prague...

m4rtink 5y ago

Brno > Prague IMHO, as Brno actually has a city center where people live & which is rather nice. :)

dralley 5y ago
Brno was a really nice place to visit, as an uncultured American :) It was the first city I've been to that felt truly oriented around walking and public transportation instead of being swarmed by cars. And I really enjoyed the overall aesthetic of the city.
- m4rtink 5y ago
  Interesting! You might also enjoy Vienna, as that's where a lot of inspiration of the old (<1914) buildings comes from & its also very pedestrian and public transport oriented. :)

noduerme 5y ago

Yeah, central Prague - borderline Vinohrady. I loved the people. Old Town is beautiful but a bit depressing because of the tourists; but I grew up in Las Vegas, and I found it similar to that and to New Orleans, where I also lived. Once you live there you never really spend time in the tourist district. Outside the tourist areas it's really cool, punk, underground all night places. (This is true for Vegas, NOLA and Prague, in my opinion. I put them in the same category because people in all three deal with floods of tourists and have great underground local culture).

vvm 5y ago

I am a little surprised by what you say. I've been living in Prague for 9 years (moved here, not Czech) and 8 of them I lived in Prague 5 bordering the Old Town, in 2 buildings build in Art Nouveau style, from around 1900. They were renovated, with modern elevators and looked pretty good both inside and outside.The area was very beautiful. Now I live in a communist tower block in Prague 4 and to be honest it's really not so bad. The apartment is OK, kind of small, especially American standards, but what i really like is the way the area was build. For example, in the middle of the area there is a school, a kindergarten and a nursery. And there are plenty of green spaces. This is definitely communist urban planning, but in this case, at it's best.

scyzoryk_xyz 5y ago
That’s because it was socialist modernism - a utopian vision that drove support. A sort of more sustainable socialist version of the American dream. I live in such a neighborhood myself - it’s not very glamorous but it’s what living should be like in the age of environmental collapse.
- jollybean 5y ago
  Yes, nations with less wealth, more poverty and lower productivity consume fewer resources. So if the argument is Totalitarian Socialism of the late 20th Century kept us poor, and now we're green, well that would be an argument. I don't believe there is any evidence to suggest that there is anything other than that going on, as those formulations for living are otherwise identical to those in more capitalist W. Europe. The architecture itself I don't think lends to any argument one way or the other, other than most people who have to live with it don't like it. The 'prison' analogy used by some commentors here is apt, the fist time I visited the areas in E. Berlin with those types of buildings I literally thought they were reformatted prisons.

dkdbejwi383 5y ago

I got Disneyland vibes from central Prague, probably for that reason that nobody really lives there. A lot of people say it’s their favourite place in Central Europe, but the short visit I had to the central areas just didn’t click for me. I’d be interested in seeing more of the normal areas where people actually live

ocschwar 5y ago

> The rest of the city is properly fugly and depressing, communism made its mark that won't go away for next few centuries. I have some good news. Naked concrete crumbles. Especially in a place like Prague, with acidic coal smoke, lots of rain, and a freeze thaw cycle.