Americans don't understand what cities are supposed to be

[TBideon]

Originally Posted by Ergo Para Bellum

Demographics are destiny.

Agreed. Everything else is just noise.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by Podo944

I read a while back that the drinking and driving laws are so strict, that you'll find patrons of even the nicest of restaurants passed out near the doorway rather than get behind the wheel.

Yes. I assume it's the same as in Sweden: one DWI and you lose your license for LIFE!

[1AngryTaxPayer]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

Yes. I assume it's the same as in Sweden: one DWI and you lose your license for LIFE!

That never stopped anyone in CA. Just sayin

[Racer46]

Originally Posted by 1AngryTaxPayer

That never stopped anyone in CA. Just sayin

Nope multiple tickets for it and they are still driving and ... with Licenses.

[Meowen]

Originally Posted by Tedster24

Okay, let's keep playing: Sydney, Wellington, Victoria B.C.....just a few non-Nordic ones. Who cares where they are. They exist and the people who live there made them clean and orderly because they made it a priority. That didn't take anything away from the culture, the architecture, the vibe, etc...

Let's get a NY'er involved and hear about NYC under various mayors from the 1970's to present day.
Right now it's a complete mess, but it wasn't always that way.

There is no good reason for a city to be a dump, unless you're happy with it being a dump.

Victoria BC has a whole 92,000 ppl.

[NoHyping]

In reading though this thread.... it is all split and basically about POLITICAL HATE. The rhetoric against labeled Blue states is totally so political.... it has become a social divide that to some on the extreems..... it rules every aspect of their viewpoints.

They can visit US city and it look clean and organized and no extreme homeless everywhere or even close to most places actually see or want to go into. Still they will argue the cities and states are hell-holes for political reasons and accentuate faults, crime and cost to skirting around even race.

This thread is so split on Political views and if your are a Far Right Conservative..... California is your state to demonize to the highest.

Originally Posted by Tedster24

Hey Ma! I can copy and paste too!
Read up, Sparky:
https://wowtravel.me/the-12-cleanest...-in-the-world/
But I guess they're not real cities because real cities are messy.

Just some things on Links on the - Cleanest cities....all seem to use aspects of air pollution like particulate count and if there are days of high ozone levels etc.... against cities even if their street and neighborhoods and cores all appear clean to the eye.

Another aspect that taints Industrial cities and especially old-school former high-industrial cities is ..... having sights that have had their grounds polluted from Corporate America low standards of the past and even Federally listed toxic sights. Some may have been cleaned up by taxpayer money... some even cannot be.

So these cities though they may look clean and have great neighborhoods that appear great and downtowns clean. They will forever NEVER make clean cities list.... Just know this and it is not by politics either. Just read criterias and you will see.

I always was amazed how clean Chicago appeared. Always gets complements for its clean downtown and still has street-sweeper service throughout the city. Just being a former highly Industrial city .... it will never make list unless specifically ONLY on appearances and not all the other aspects of unclean by air-quality to ground contamination of some former old Industrial sights. I remember reading on a former Steel Mill sight on its far South Side long gone.... being bought and a European investor having big plans to create a new neighborhood. Trouble is.... it was found to still harbor ground contamination that would have to be addressed yet. If the Feds take the cost? It might have a future yet. Far too costly probably for private investors?


Still this HATE on California that one can clearly see is SPLIT heavily by Political blame games.....is totally how comments are going in this thread and to the degree it may as well be moved to the Politics forum. It would have the EXACT Same post probably in how it is split if of the far Right hate on Liberal regions and cities we have become today especially on C-D. Less so in average America IMO. You get far less people hating a California because of toxic political viewpoints and finger pointing alone. So many of our Problems are a NATIONAL one and some put all blame on which Political Party has more control in a state and city. Then there is not way that city or state can not be far more negatively seen and their legacy of contribution and what they still have..... is meaningless by toxic Politics.

You even hear how Paris is far from the cleanest and surprise some and even London in parts... still they will rank up there with top World cities for other things... despite some seeing them as Socialist etc.

[Tedster24]

You see left and right. I see a city that has absolutely gotten filthy over the past 3 decades on close observation over that period of time.
This isn't a political argument.
I chose Stockholm among my first examples because it sparkles in comparison (even without the comparison).
It's a liberal city and country. Hurray! Who cares?
The point is that it's clean.
SF, according to the OP's premise, has to be dirty because "cities are dirty", which is a ridiculous thing to say, and probably from someone who hasn't been around.

[RMESMH]

Originally Posted by Tedster24

Have a trip to Helsinki, Stockholm, or Singapore and tell us, as a general rule, how they're not clean and orderly.

Yep. I rolled my eyes and thought about Singapore while I was reading the OP.

[RMESMH]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

Helsinki has drunks passed out all over. You sometimes have to step over them to enter stores, and the parks are littered with them. Granted, that's different from homelessness, but still...

And I've heard similar about parts of Stockholm, but haven't been there, myself.

I hear there are a lot of Roma around begging and/or picking pockets in those cities, too.

You conveniently left off Singapore. Singapore disrupts the point the OP is trying to make.

[American_Renaissance]

Originally Posted by Ergo Para Bellum

Demographics are destiny.

+1 Bingo