Are There Any Benefits in Living in "Super Star" Cities?

[adavi215]

Originally Posted by knowledgeiskey

Is there? These cities are the ones that are praised on CD(SF, NYC, Boston, and DC). Do they have amenities that are not offered in other cities? If so, do these amenities offer a better standard of living?

Of course there is a benefit. You get to brag on CD how more urban, cosmopolitan, and important your city is than others.

[davidals]

Originally Posted by adavi215

Of course there is a benefit. You get to brag on CD how more urban, cosmopolitan, and important your city is than others.

Naah. In the superstar cities, you can actually go out and do exciting things, should you choose to do so.

Bragging on CD about how urban, cosmopolitan, and important your city is: those are the world-class cities. WORLD-CLASS - not synonymous with superstar.

[gladt]

For some people, it seems (especially on C-D), their self-worth, identity and even self-esteem is tied to the city they live in. For them to be able to say "I live in x,y,z city", seems to give them a sense of self-importance--even a feeling of superiority, over those not living in such "esteemed" places. How sad. It's fine to love one's city and be proud of where you came from, but glamorous or not, not geographic location should ever be a determining factor in your self-worth. I might add that even if I could afford to live in the best areas of the most highly esteemed cities, I would still choose to live where I could get the most for my money AND enjoy myself. I learned a thing or two from Warren Buffet.

[adavi215]

Originally Posted by davidals

Naah. In the superstar cities, you can actually go out and do exciting things, should you choose to do so.

Bragging on CD about how urban, cosmopolitan, and important your city is: those are the world-class cities. WORLD-CLASS - not synonymous with superstar.

You know, I stand corrected. How could I mix up the two.

[skydivers-in-reverse]

I personally believe that the happiest and most interesting people can be happy and draw inspiration from anywhere. After all, you coud live in a penthouse in mid-town Manhattan and be the loneliest person in the world. If you're uninteresting, if you don't have friends, roots, some sort of outlet - who cares if you have 400 bars within an arms reach?

Good food, good company, and interesting times will be had anywhere, and I think that many people assume that moving to a big city will insure that their lives will never be boring, will always be exciting, cultured, glamorous(or at worst, "bohemian" if they're poor) - and I think I thought the same way, it took moving to a large city for me to realize that where you live determines very little of who you are or what your life is like. I think it's positively silly that people in big cities frown upon suburbia or rural areas - I just don't understand how that is any less "cultured". I enjoy the constant stimulus of the city - I simply enjoy lots of action and noise(meaning..sirens, my street is comparably wide to others in Philly, so every ambulance and police car and fire truck goes by my house at all hours of the night..not something I particularly mind, though), but I find myself more appreciative of what I had in the suburbs before I move - and I can understand exactly why one would prefer suburbia or rural areas to the city. I am very glad I grew up there instead of in the city now, I complained about it when I was 16 years old and wanted to live in Manhattan - but I was really blind to all the opportunities I had(like horseback riding.) that I would not have had otherwise.

Now I find myself wondering if I'll remain a city person - there are days where a house and a family in a smaller town sound like a great future - but who knows!

[Dub King]

In theory. We could also be the only planet in the universe with life on it. In all likelihood it's not the case at all. World's loneliest person? Almost certainly this guy...

The most isolated man on the planet. - Slate Magazine

Originally Posted by skydivers-in-reverse

I personally believe that the happiest and most interesting people can be happy and draw inspiration from anywhere. After all, you coud live in a penthouse in mid-town Manhattan and be the loneliest person in the world. If you're uninteresting, if you don't have friends, roots, some sort of outlet - who cares if you have 400 bars within an arms reach?

Good food, good company, and interesting times will be had anywhere, and I think that many people assume that moving to a big city will insure that their lives will never be boring, will always be exciting, cultured, glamorous(or at worst, "bohemian" if they're poor) - and I think I thought the same way, it took moving to a large city for me to realize that where you live determines very little of who you are or what your life is like. I think it's positively silly that people in big cities frown upon suburbia or rural areas - I just don't understand how that is any less "cultured". I enjoy the constant stimulus of the city - I simply enjoy lots of action and noise(meaning..sirens, my street is comparably wide to others in Philly, so every ambulance and police car and fire truck goes by my house at all hours of the night..not something I particularly mind, though), but I find myself more appreciative of what I had in the suburbs before I move - and I can understand exactly why one would prefer suburbia or rural areas to the city. I am very glad I grew up there instead of in the city now, I complained about it when I was 16 years old and wanted to live in Manhattan - but I was really blind to all the opportunities I had(like horseback riding.) that I would not have had otherwise.

Now I find myself wondering if I'll remain a city person - there are days where a house and a family in a smaller town sound like a great future - but who knows!

[john_starks]

^^ nice login

[DoctorRain]

Originally Posted by annie_himself

Right on.

Although sometimes the people with money who come in from the outskirts can think they are the shat too. See Detroit or DC.