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this is the most diverse country in the world. There is no generic American culture.
Sooo...you can't picture anything?
I picture a middle class town with a water tower, trees, and houses sided in wood. Peoples of all races inhabit, and like that middle class town, be intergrated into the community. Think "American animated sitcom".
And that's just it. What most know of our far-off brethren are what the media has presented us with.
I picture a middle class town with a water tower, trees, and houses sided in wood. Peoples of all races inhabit, and like that middle class town, be intergrated into the community.
1) Nearly all Americans identify as middle class, yet my life experience has shown me that middle class signifies something different for all of us. I grew up in Arizona, without air conditioning because my family couldn't afford it. I only wore theft-store clothes, and we lived off of canned vegetable as processed meat. Yet we thought of ourselves as middle class. A friend of mine was raised in the Gold Coast neighborhood of Chicago. She's ive-league educated. Her parents paid for her to live in Israel for a year before starting grad school. She thinks she's had a middle-class upbringing too.
2) While the US is diverse, it's horribly segregated.
When I think of the typical American city, I think of a city built on a grid with mediocre mass transit and a good freeway system. It has a segregated urban core with pockets of wealth and poverty, ethnic enclaves, gentrification, decay, new condos, and preserved architecture from the late 1800's or early 1900's. There is a tourist district, a business district that's a ghost town after 6 pm, a yuppie district that was the "hipster" neighborhood ten or fifteen years ago, and a more grungy, druggy district. The urban core is surrounded by first-ring suburbs that are generally pretty boring at first glance, but really neat and diverse once you look below the surface. From there, it's bland, yucky, crap, crap, barf, Olive Garden, barf, barf, strip mall.
I think that pretty well describes Denver and Minneapolis. And, to a lesser extent, Kansas City, Columbus, Philly, and Atlanta meet most of the criteria.
Last edited by Dawn.Davenport; 10-21-2015 at 06:06 PM..
Reason: Edit: Actually most cities meet most of the criteria. So, there you have it--Denver and Minneapolis.
What cities would you say have the least distinct regional culture and seem just "plain American"? My votes would be for Northern Virginia, parts of Florida, and parts of California.
What the hell type of culture does Minneapolis have anyways? Juicy Lucy's? LOL, don't throw stones in glass houses
1) Nearly all Americans identify as middle class, yet my life experience has shown me that middle class signifies something different for all of us. I grew up in Arizona, without air conditioning because my family couldn't afford it. I only wore theft-store clothes, and we lived off of canned vegetable as processed meat. Yet we thought of ourselves as middle class. A friend of mine was raised in the Gold Coast neighborhood of Chicago. She's ive-league educated. Her parents paid for her to live in Israel for a year before starting grad school. She thinks she's had a middle-class upbringing too.
2) While the US is diverse, it's horribly segregated.
When I think of the typical American city, I think of a city built on a grid with mediocre mass transit and a good freeway system. It has a segregated urban core with pockets of wealth and poverty, ethnic enclaves, gentrification, decay, new condos, and preserved architecture from the late 1800's or early 1900's. There is a tourist district, a business district that's a ghost town after 6 pm, a yuppie district that was the "hipster" neighborhood ten or fifteen years ago, and a more grungy, druggy district. The urban core is surrounded by first-ring suburbs that are generally pretty boring at first glance, but really neat and diverse once you look below the surface. From there, it's bland, yucky, crap, crap, barf, Olive Garden, barf, barf, strip mall.
I think that pretty well describes Denver and Minneapolis. And, to a lesser extent, Kansas City, Columbus, Philly, and Atlanta meet most of the criteria.
This is probably the best description of generic America I have read thus far. Of all the cities I've been to, this plugs into every one of them.
1) Nearly all Americans identify as middle class, yet my life experience has shown me that middle class signifies something different for all of us. I grew up in Arizona, without air conditioning because my family couldn't afford it. I only wore theft-store clothes, and we lived off of canned vegetable as processed meat. Yet we thought of ourselves as middle class. A friend of mine was raised in the Gold Coast neighborhood of Chicago. She's ive-league educated. Her parents paid for her to live in Israel for a year before starting grad school. She thinks she's had a middle-class upbringing too.
2) While the US is diverse, it's horribly segregated.
When I think of the typical American city, I think of a city built on a grid with mediocre mass transit and a good freeway system. It has a segregated urban core with pockets of wealth and poverty, ethnic enclaves, gentrification, decay, new condos, and preserved architecture from the late 1800's or early 1900's. There is a tourist district, a business district that's a ghost town after 6 pm, a yuppie district that was the "hipster" neighborhood ten or fifteen years ago, and a more grungy, druggy district. The urban core is surrounded by first-ring suburbs that are generally pretty boring at first glance, but really neat and diverse once you look below the surface. From there, it's bland, yucky, crap, crap, barf, Olive Garden, barf, barf, strip mall.
I think that pretty well describes Denver and Minneapolis. And, to a lesser extent, Kansas City, Columbus, Philly, and Atlanta meet most of the criteria.
This is more generic in aesthetic where as the question seems to pertain to "culture".
The Dallas area is known for its Anywhere, USA suburban sprawl, but the core of the city is most certainly not generic. Anyone who thinks otherwise never experienced West End, Fair Park, the Bishop Arts District, etc. Just because you prefer Fort Worth doesn't mean it's any more culturally relevant or unique for that matter.
There isn't any city I've been to that I would call generic, honestly.
The Dallas area is known for its Anywhere, USA suburban sprawl, but the core of the city is most certainly not generic. Anyone who thinks otherwise never experienced West End, Fair Park, the Bishop Arts District, etc. Just because you prefer Fort Worth doesn't mean it's any more culturally relevant or unique for that matter.
There isn't any city I've been to that I would call generic, honestly.
I spent a lot of my free time in downtown Dallas. Good memories. lots to do, however, fitting neatly into the urban core cultural genera. FW was a different vibe altogether, one that I have not seen emulated elsewhere.
The Dallas area is known for its Anywhere, USA suburban sprawl, but the core of the city is most certainly not generic. Anyone who thinks otherwise never experienced West End, Fair Park, the Bishop Arts District, etc. Just because you prefer Fort Worth doesn't mean it's any more culturally relevant or unique for that matter.
There isn't any city I've been to that I would call generic, honestly.
Sure Dallas has it's unique places - EVERY city does. That alone doesn't make Dallas unique.
Look, I like Dallas just fine. I go there pretty often in fact. I'm talking about the urban sprawl of Dallas that makes it seem so generic. The same old stuff just goes on and on and on and on. Very nondescript terrain too. And yes, I've experienced the West End, Fair Park and the Arts District, as well as Deep Ellum, the M streets, etc etc etc. Nice, but surrounded by miles and endless miles of same o same o same o.
And that's fine. Like I said, Dallas has some positives. But yes, I do prefer the character and atmosphere of Fort Worth in general. Square mile for square mile, I think Fort Worth has a lot more unique character than Dallas.
But as far as big, sprawling cities go, Dallas is a pretty nice place to have nearby. Sort of. Beats a stick in the eye anyway.
Sure Dallas has it's unique places - EVERY city does. That alone doesn't make Dallas unique.
Look, I like Dallas just fine. I go there pretty often in fact. I'm talking about the urban sprawl of Dallas that makes it seem so generic. The same old stuff just goes on and on and on and on. Very nondescript terrain too. And yes, I've experienced the West End, Fair Park and the Arts District, as well as Deep Ellum, the M streets, etc etc etc. Nice, but surrounded by miles and endless miles of same o same o same o.
And that's fine. Like I said, Dallas has some positives. But yes, I do prefer the character and atmosphere of Fort Worth in general. Square mile for square mile, I think Fort Worth has a lot more unique character than Dallas.
But as far as big, sprawling cities go, Dallas is a pretty nice place to have nearby. Sort of. Beats a stick in the eye anyway.
Tarrant County has plenty of its own bland sprawling developments. The reason why it seems like Dallas has more is because its side of the Metroplex is far larger. But I completely disagree that Fort Worth has more character pound for pound.
Sure, it's commonly agreed upon that FW has better arts and many believe it has the best downtown, but I think a common misconception is that it is the more Texan city, which is just baseless. It's simply a different brand of Texan. Dallas is still the older town and has just as much history.
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