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Well known is so damned subjective... People would be surprised how many people around the world - many of whom are struggling to feed themselves or their families have never heard of or even had access ie the internet, Television or even books to know about countless places that we think are universally 'well known'.
I'll use my country as an example. The U.S. is a huge country. Not anything new there. I live in a unique state known as Arizona, which has its own set of problems. These problems include water policy, immigration, etc. that most of the country doesn't have to deal with because A) they don't live in a desert and B) aren't right next to Mexico. I live an hour away from the border so I can see immigration from our southern border a bit more accurately than someone from New York City or D.C. would.
When it comes to federal laws and policies in my country every single American votes for people who will represent them the best. Generally someone who will uphold their political beliefs in all three branches. It's safe to say areas with different demographics, climates, economies, etc. might have different political beliefs because of those factors. On the federal level, I'm sure many places dont feel well-represented or thought about because they are generally carried by the big cities in their states, which is the biggest influencer of things like the electoral college.
On the state level it's similar... If you don't live in the primate city for your state odds are you feel powerless and neglected.
That's why I find it important to diversify politics so that most of what influences our lives comes from local levels. I would hate having D.C. people and New Yorkers telling me how to live my life when they probably couldn't handle living in Arizona for 0.2 seconds. They have zero idea of how things work here, and what works best for us. What works for a big, dense city in a humid area won't necessarily work in smaller, sprawled cities in a desert with lots of minorities and reservations they cannot tax or even use (In Arizona it's a quarter of our land) and a large portion speaking another language (drives up costs in education).
The founding fathers in the U.S. wanted it that way. Being carried or feeling unrepresented by Great Britain sure did **** them off along with a lot of other colonists.
How did Vancouver come up in your conversations? How did you know what other Californians knew about Vancouver?
Just casually whenever Canada might come up in conversation. I know a few people who have been to Vancouver, usually at some point after saying it's a place they wanted to visit. A few people in California even know about Victoria (my mom has been there), so it's not as unknown as you might think. Vancouver is one of the three cities everyone here knows in Canada. The other two of course are Toronto and Montreal. Some know Calgary and Winnipeg.
I'll use my country as an example. The U.S. is a huge country. Not anything new there. I live in a unique state known as Arizona, which has its own set of problems. These problems include water policy, immigration, etc. that most of the country doesn't have to deal with because A) they don't live in a desert and B) aren't right next to Mexico. I live an hour away from the border so I can see immigration from our southern border a bit more accurately than someone from New York City or D.C. would.
When it comes to federal laws and policies in my country every single American votes for people who will represent them the best. Generally someone who will uphold their political beliefs in all three branches. It's safe to say areas with different demographics, climates, economies, etc. might have different political beliefs because of those factors. On the federal level, I'm sure many places dont feel well-represented or thought about because they are generally carried by the big cities in their states, which is the biggest influencer of things like the electoral college.
On the state level it's similar... If you don't live in the primate city for your state odds are you feel powerless and neglected.
That's why I find it important to diversify politics so that most of what influences our lives comes from local levels. I would hate having D.C. people and New Yorkers telling me how to live my life when they probably couldn't handle living in Arizona for 0.2 seconds. They have zero idea of how things work here, and what works best for us. What works for a big, dense city in a humid area won't necessarily work in smaller, sprawled cities in a desert with lots of minorities and reservations they cannot tax or even use (In Arizona it's a quarter of our land) and a large portion speaking another language (drives up costs in education).
The founding fathers in the U.S. wanted it that way. Being carried or feeling unrepresented by Great Britain sure did **** them off along with a lot of other colonists.
^^^This is a great post and I hope others don't mind the way this is done but in the US, it is easier to break things down on a state or regional level because the country does span a continent.
Things are somewhat similar in California. I live 14 miles from the border. Used to live just 5 miles away so I can understand the unique circumstances that come with that.
Within California, there is a disconnect with the far northern and most inland counties who feel that the state is dominated by Los Angeles and San Francisco and that the state government in Sacramento works for those two cities and neglects the more rural areas. It's strong enough to drive movements to break California up and there have been nearly 30 attempts to do just that since the state joined the union.
I remember travelling to L.A. as a teenager in the 1970's to visit family. Some knew it, most did not.
I got responses like this.
" Vancouver? In Canada? Canada. That's the country just above Minnesota, isn't it? "
TRUE STORY LOL
Some people are just clueless like that.
I've known about many Canadian cities from east to west since I was a pre-teen. Then again, I used to read a lot about them, study maps and things like that.
One thing about Canada though (and that contributes to this) is that Toronto doesn't really serve as the big city for French-speaking Canada. Well, it does to some degree economically, but that's more subtle than the other areas where a metropolis gets its oomph from and exerts its influence.
Where I live, the "big city of the nation" is unquestionably Montreal. It's where our movie premieres happen, it's where our books get published, it's where our artsy types go to "make it", it's where all the magazines in my bathroom are published, where our intellectuals and academics mostly live, where most major associations and civil society organizations that matter to us are headquartered, it's where our celebrities live, it's where we know all of the streets and all of the neighbourhoods through TV, movies, literature and theatre set there, it's where multinational corporations make their big splash if they want to reach us as a market... We just don't have that relationship with Toronto at all.
When you consider that francophone Canada is one quarter to one fifth of the country, that makes a big difference.
interesting post. Also, I chose specifically Toronto when I moved because I wanted to be in anglophone city, in Canada, and I prefer Toronto's weather over Vancouver's
Improb, I feel the same way. I've been to Napoli several times, it's a fascinating place but I don't think I'd survive there, the position of the city is similar to that of Marseille in France, in the way that it polarizes a lot of southern negativity while at the same time being pretty different from the rest of the south. There's a lot of tension and aggressivity there, but also a lot of unique beauty.
Milan is often considered the place to move to, but not much more, and seems hardly known, or people have a misconception of it, it seems. I have never visited the city actually, and my girlfriend always says it's not really interesting.
Rome is a different matter. I have to say that it's probably the one I have the most ties with of all three cities, due to historical reasons (Lyon has a lot of Roman stuff in it and was a regional capital once !), and I like its size, the fact that the neighbourhoods are super different from each other (like Lyon). Also the climate is very similar to that of southern France, which I know quite a bit, the winter skies are familiar. I'd probably want to live there but it's already messy and unorganized enough (Bologna is kind of the limit for me already !)
interesting post. Also, I chose specifically Toronto when I moved because I wanted to be in anglophone city, in Canada, and I prefer Toronto's weather over Vancouver's
It is, as I mentioned earlier in the thread, similar to the situation with Geneva in Suisse romande. When you are there (in Suisse romande) you really get the feeling that Geneva is the biggest city in the "nation" you are in, and this extends to other parts of the world.
If I was to go out on the street here right now and ask random people to name a city in Switzerland, 95% or more would answer Geneva.
Though I am sure that in other parts of the world, it's Zurich that would come up.
Similarly, I find I hear very little about Antwerpen even though it's the second-biggest city in Belgium. Of course, it's mostly Brussels we hear about but other cities like Liège and even Charleroi you hear about more, and Flemish cities like Ghent and Brugge seem more well-known than Antwerpen as they are more touristy and also fairly close to Brussels.
I suppose that in some circles in Europe and elsewhere in the world, people are more familiar with Antwerpen. Maybe in South Africa for example, due to connections with the diamond industry?
I occasionally watch the "national" news on RTBF (French Belgian) and TSR (French Swiss) on TV5, and they only sporadically mention Antwerpen and Zurich on there...
I live an hour away from the border so I can see immigration from our southern border a bit more accurately than someone from New York City or D.C. would.
Highly unlikely. Proximity to a border doesn't automatically make you an expert on immigration or border policies.
And that's not how countries work. You don't allow people extra influence based on where they choose to live. It isn't like people on the ocean have greater say in marine policy.
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