What's Wrong with "Cool" Cities Compared to Cleveland

[ohio_peasant]

Originally Posted by Minervah

But you are not in the tribe you are not in the city. It's been my observation having lived in one of those so-called "cool cities" you have to be in it to be a part of it. There is quite a bit of snobbery about this. The general locale may not count if you want to fit in socially. This is why people double and triple up with roommates in these places.

Lots of, ahem, interesting critiques and barbs in recent postings. I'll first reply to this one, since it's the most gentle and genial.

There is stark difference between caring for the superficial affections of one's neighbors, and believing how those neighbors ought to feel. Sounds inane? Let me give an example. Suppose that I'm a billionaire, but I dress like a bum. I walk like a bum, talk like a bum, and occupy my days picking up aluminum cans at the roadside, to turn them in, for a $0.05 refund. Everyone thinks that I'm a bum. And what of it? If only they knew! But to feel that I'm partaking of a locale where the kids are smart enough to represent the country at math olympiads, where lots of chess grandmasters live (even if I never get to play them), where there's a dynamism and success - even if I never partake of it, even if society discards me - well, that's the tribal feeling that's so appealing. It's abstract and entirely subjective. Tribe doesn't mean fellow warriors who draw swords to protect the camp. It's liminal and abstract.

If one has children, the school quality matters. If one has asthma, the air quality matters. If one has illness, the healthcare options matter. If one has pets, or enjoys playing frisbee, the local parks matter. And so forth. Lack any of that, lack any connections or responsibilities, and then, only psychology matters. What is the quality of a place, a nation, a people? What matters isn't the thing in itself, but self-perception, or rather, how one thinks that others ought to perceive oneself. I have no agrarian history in my family, but style myself a "peasant", because my local is bucolic and rural, a sea of corn and soybean.

Every nation has its London and its provinces, its Paris and its provinces, its Moscow and its provinces. Even if I live in the outskirts of Moscow, in a dilapidated apartment, in a crumbling Khruschev-era building where the elevators don't work and the hallways smell of vodka, retching and urine, even if I know no one there, and everyone else in my building shuns me - well, at least it's still notionally Moscow, still nominally Moscow, and not the provinces. Well, that - and the appreciation in property values also helps!

[Minervah]

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There is nothing cool.about these cities that give huge tax breaks and concessions in order to lure these giant corporations to settle in them. Just read up on some of the cities where this has happened and see what it cost them..

Much better to try and attract more modest size companies making more sensible deals with the guarantee they will be bringing jobs.