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Yes its very car orientated but my main point is that you still have social interaction with others even if you live in a sprawled out suburb.
Yes, there is social interaction, but it's PRE-PLANNED for the most part.
Where what Gargamel is saying is that in Europe it's more constant and spontaneous, since European life is organized in a different manner, even if because of distances and city planning.
In US only few places offer this kind of experience, New York being one of them.
Yes its very car orientated but my main point is that you still have social interaction with others even if you live in a sprawled out suburb.
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Originally Posted by iNviNciBL3
Coming from a small middle America suburb, not one bit correct. We do have places to interact with others and meet up with friends
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Originally Posted by marothisu
I grew up in a small city in Minnesota and lived in other cities even smaller as well as large cities like NYC and Chicago. I know what I'm talking about too and yes, you do bring up a valid point. There are pockets of walkability in some of these places, but it's not very much. Just because you have two blocks of walkability in a city of say 30,000, does not mean that entire city is walkable. People are still very car centric in the US outside of a few major cities even if they do have that. The place I went to college in had a great walkable area right outside of campus, but in reality, even for a small city of 50,000 people, getting somewhere without a car kind of sucked. They had public transit, but it wasn't amazing and not completely extensive. I got by without a car there for four years, but I was usually hitching rides with friends or staying within the area that the bus took me in. Pretty limiting.
But it's not on the scale as a city like NYC, Chicago, etc. There are a few walkable areas, but in reality the culture is not that in the smaller towns/cities outside of that. Most places to function in the town/city you have to own a car unless your whole world revolves around a block or two for a few businesses. Only if you are around there, live around there, etc. Some are much better than others (especially college towns). The reliance on the car though, is a lot higher in the US than Europe easily. Not even close.
I think what Gargamel was referring to was that spontaneous contact in the US happens less often than in Europe. A lot of what you say, happens in my area too, has been pre-arranged already. He/she is not saying that we don't socialize, of course we do. We just don't have as many situations to socialize out on the street like Europeans do.
In a random European city what would people think if you went out to the supermarket in sweatpants or basketball shorts and a t shirt. This is something not uncommon where i live and am guilty of doing so... sometimes i even wear pajama bottoms out in public!
I hear this is unlikely for someone to do in Western Europe.
In a random European city what would people think if you went out to the supermarket in sweatpants or basketball shorts and a t shirt. This is something not uncommon where i live and am guilty of doing so... sometimes i even wear pajama bottoms out in public!
I hear this is unlikely for someone to do in Western Europe.
It depends where you are. Not everyone in western Europe dresses up to go to Tesco for example. Not where I was. They go in the same things I always go in, t-shirt and jeans. Yes it's not like what you see at Walmart, but people don't doll and gussy themselves up to go to the supermarket either
I never do that. I always wear jeans or a nice pair of shorts out in public. I guess that's the Puerto Rican in me, we do the same thing in Puerto Rico as well.
In a random European city what would people think if you went out to the supermarket in sweatpants or basketball shorts and a t shirt. This is something not uncommon where i live and am guilty of doing so... sometimes i even wear pajama bottoms out in public!
Lots of people wear pajama bottoms out in public. What does this have to do with European women?
Again, partially correct. It depends on what city you are in. NYC is not the only city where you go out and you dress no matter what and you have social interaction no matter where you are by just walking. Everything depends on where you are in the US. For some parts, what you say is absolutely true. For other parts, mainly the large/larger cities, it's just flat out not true on average.
It's true on average. Americans living in the few large/larger cities that are walkable or with gentrified downtowns are a scant minority.
The differentiation is fairly recent, before the "car revolution" and the "suburban revolution", American cities were planned for horses and carts, and while different than the medieval layout of most European cities, they were certainly more similar.
In a random European city what would people think if you went out to the supermarket in sweatpants or basketball shorts and a t shirt. This is something not uncommon where i live and am guilty of doing so... sometimes i even wear pajama bottoms out in public!
I hear this is unlikely for someone to do in Western Europe.
I have never seen or heard of anyone going to a supermarket in pajamas - that seems to be uniquely American, but I might be wrong.
People here don't dress up to go to the supermarket - well, most people don't go in sweatpants or basketball shorts, but some people do. Most likely they'll be wearing a shirt, some jeans, a jacket - some people, mostly young people, have to look amazing whenever they leave the house, including myself, and won't even walk the dog while wearing sweatpants.
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