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To answer the question, I think Raleigh, NC and much of its close surrounding areas have lost their identity to a large extent, especially compared to 20 or 30+ years ago.
I agree. It had an identity in the '60s and maybe the '70s. It's not what it used to be.
I've heard from older New Yorkers that they miss the character the city had in the 60s-90s. I'm talking about the atmosphere or aesthetic of movies like "The Warriors" or "Taxi Driver."
While I see what they mean, I think the dramatically lower crime rate of post 90's NY justifies any loss of "identity," especially when that identity seems to be so wrapped up in crime.
I'm not gonna lie but I miss the old Times Square back in the day when I was young. It was full of strip clubs and adult stores. It wasn't pretty by any means, but I loved the gritty look that NYC once had. Once the 90's-00's came around, Giuliani and Bloomberg turned that area into one big consumeristic tourist trap.
I'm nearly 36 and I've noticed (as well as family and friends of mine, ages 30 and up) that regional dialects (accents) are disappearing. It's really a Sad thing to be a witness to, as everyone is starting to sound the same (you know, Valley Girl mixed with Vocal Fry and upspeak, uptalk, leaves the speaker sounding so unsure of themselves or what they're saying)..., I know some 20 somethings (in my family) that grew up in Queens, Brooklyn or Long Island thier entire lives and they sure don't sound like it. I poke fun at them and they poke right back telling me I sound like Popeye. But, seriously ..., really, really sad.
Some cities gain an identity that they didn't have in the past and some folks long for the old identity while others are embracing the new. Some places have become a Disney caricature of themselves. If you scratch the surface you can sometimes find the old bones and muscles underneath.
I think the 'identities' referenced in here are pretty flat, nostalgic and idealized recollections of Cities. Most urban areas have multiple identities within different groups. Even a city like Minneapolis (small city by most standards) there's the Uptown bro party identity, the refugee Somalian and Asian identities, the upper middle class white yuppie identity around the Lakes, artsy hipster Northeast identity etc...
Chicago is a city of very distinct neighborhoods. Then the downtown/Loop tourist area is very different.
Atlanta. Before when you stepped foot in Atlanta, you felt like you were in the south. now with so many transplants, it doesn't feel that way anymore. At least with New york, you still feel like you're in New york.
Atlanta was never really like other Southern cities. It's character has always been more like a frontier town, open to newcomers and the innovations that they brought. Whereas cities like New Orleans, Savannah and Charleston always had insular and firmly entrenched aristocracies, it was relatively easy for a moneyed arriviste to buy his way into Atlanta society. Even when I was attending HS in the early 70's most of the kids' families were from somewhere else.
I can't really think of any. Most of the things that people think of as unique for any given city are the ethnic neighborhoods that popped up as people from various ethnic groups coalesced in certain cities. So you had Eastern European Jewish as well as Italian neighborhoods in NYC, Irish neighborhoods in Boston, Polish neighborhoods in Chicago, German neighborhoods in Milwaukee, and Japanese and Mexican neighborhoods in LA.
Most of the older ethnic neighborhoods in cities stopped being real ethnic neighborhoods when immigration fell off during the Great Depression, and didn't pick up again until immigration reform in the late 1960's. Once it picked back up, it was different groups coming in, and places like Greektown in Detroit, or Over the Rhine in Cincinnati, became tourist attraction more than a real ethnic neighborhood. So I don't think it's the new immigrants coming in that are changing cities now so much as it is a lack of the old immigrants from the old countries. By the 3rd generation, the kid's are probably of mixed ethnicity and much stronger cultural ties to America than anywhere else.
Boston is 30% immigrants. Its just the downtown and college area that have that vide. You could essentially say the 'North Side of Boston' most of the cities/towns/neighborhoods surrounding the core of downtown boston are very Bostony in their feel. Blue collar diverse and many localism youd only find in New England. Seattle and San Fran are definitely different.
Even then, Harvard or MIT are not your typical College. Going to a Football game at Harvard Stadium is a very different experience than at Ohio State, Nebraska or Alabama which are all pretty similar.
The College Hockey Culture of BC, BU, NEU, and Harvard is pretty unique to America with maybe Detroit with the GLI being somewhat similar, but those teams are not from the actual city. Even other "hockey towns" like Philly, Pitt, NYC, Chicago don't really have an equivalent. Buffalo does of the Battle of the Bridge between Niagara and Canisus but the scale is a lot smaller than the Beanpot or Green Line Rivalry. Although as those schools become more and more national/international I think the Hockey culture is fading a bit.
I'm nearly 36 and I've noticed (as well as family and friends of mine, ages 30 and up) that regional dialects (accents) are disappearing. It's really a Sad thing to be a witness to, as everyone is starting to sound the same (you know, Valley Girl mixed with Vocal Fry and upspeak, uptalk, leaves the speaker sounding so unsure of themselves or what they're saying)..., I know some 20 somethings (in my family) that grew up in Queens, Brooklyn or Long Island thier entire lives and they sure don't sound like it. I poke fun at them and they poke right back telling me I sound like Popeye. But, seriously ..., really, really sad.
The exintction of American regional accents is remarkable. Those born in the 50s virtually all had some kind of regional accent, then by the late 60s that number is cut down by maybe 50%, then 25% in the late 70s and so on. Only real holdouts are rural areas and some working class parts of some cities. TV really was the killer here and of course people moving about a lot. I'm not sure if a bad thing or not though as accents come and go all the time, although I do think a loss of local accent is often(not always) a symptom of loss local culture in itself as is being discussed in this thread. Lots of cities are becoming cultural clones. You see this on one thread where people often don't feel their major city fits in with the rest of the state. As said in CIV 5 the cultural victory here goes to California
Last edited by A.J240; 08-14-2017 at 11:42 AM..
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