5 ms·
It may be European perspective, but there are dozens of absolutely gorgeous historic cities within an hour or two of flight from where I live, so flying sixteen
by burntoutfire 4y ago
It may be European perspective, but there are dozens of absolutely gorgeous historic cities within an hour or two of flight from where I live, so flying sixteen hours to see Seattle (where I could fly two hours to see Paris or Rome) is just a sorry proposition.
- mypalmike 4y agoParis and Rome are indeed lovely. But they're just like NYC and Seattle... Mini malls and intersections.
- burntoutfire 4y agoHaven't been to Seattle so can't comment in earnest, but from that I've seen on pictures and Street View, the downtown is just your typical American large city downtown (once you've seen Manhattan, you've seen them all, they were mostly built in the same culture, architecture era and following the same urban patterns). It's essentially efficiency-driven and business-driven uglyness (or nondescriptness) that permiated XX century urbanism, at least in capitalist countries [1]. [1] In the Soviets, the cities were built on different premises, so they look very different - although the countries were so poor that, even though urban planning was excellent (ubiquitous parks, public spaces, houses built far away from busy roads etc.), the buildings themselves are drab due to resource constraints.
- mypalmike 4y agoStreet view as cultural analysis. Is this postmodern art?
- martindbp 4y agoEquating Seattle with Rome, this is just an absurd statement.
- mypalmike 4y agoRead the thread. It is intended to be absurd.
- burntoutfire 4y agoThanks for being helpful...
- mypalmike 4y agoIf you can't distinguish the architecture of Las Vegas style strip malls (and the culture therein) from the neighborhood oriented grids of Manhattan (and its vastly different culture), there's no way to be helpful.
- burntoutfire 4y agoI never said that. (What I said is that, after already seeing NYC, SF and Las Vegas, I didn't expect the trip to Seatle to be worth it). Next time, please read more carefully before you start posting pointless comments.
- mypalmike 4y agoYou said: "after seeing NYC, SF and Las Vegas, I passed on an opportunity to go for a week-long business trip to Seattle. Even though I had the time, I imagine Seattle being just *mostly more of the same (an uniform, boring city consisting of XX century architecture built on a grid*" You later changed to "worth it" because you didn't want to admit that these places might not be "more of the same", because they aren't the same at all. I suspect you also realized that if you find yourself "bored" in NYC, the problem is not the city. There are few places in the world with more things you can do 24/7 than New York.
- burntoutfire 4y ago> You later changed to "worth it" I didn't change anything. I think it's clear that I passed on opportunity to go to Seattle because I didn't think it was worth it (why else would I pass on it)? > I suspect you also realized that if you find yourself "bored" in NYC, the problem is not the city. Where did I write that I was bored in NYC? I think it's great, but I also think it exhausts the experience of "large, dense American city built mostly in XX century" to the point where seeing another one doesn't add that much. Aren't Americans travelling to places like New Orleans or Nashville precisely because they're not like most ordinary American cities?