Let me tell you, though, when the sun sets in New York and the breeze off the Hudson drops the temperature 10 degrees but you can still be outside in a tank top and tiny shorts, there is nowhere I'd rather be.
I'll see your New York and raise you a Philadelphia. We've got better street food!
@ElectricMink Oh, honey. You can't see and raise with less than was already in.
You don't get to count the brake dust you get coated in any time you set foot on a NYC street as an asset, you know.... -_^
@ElectricMink You don't get to count a subway system that doesn't go anywhere as an asset, then.
But I do get to claim the title of "most public art of any American city", though, and we have street trolleys!
@ElectricMink Ok, but I said there's nowhere *I'd* rather be. I wasn't inciting a fight, and none of the things you have named are major selling points for me, specifically. For street food, Istanbul destroys anywhere in the US; how do you count public art, unless you mean state funded public art; and Venice has gondolas, which defeat all outdated kitschy modes of transport. New York is home because of its New Yorkness, and not because of any list of things.
More seriously though, I wasn't aiming to spoil your mood, and sorry if I did.
@ElectricMink Oh, no, that's ok. Sorry, I'm just used to the birdcage, still, where people are like, "NO ONE CARES ABOUT NEW YORK!!! YOU'RE NOT BETTER BECAUSE YOU LIVE THERE!!!"
The fact is living in the city *does* tend to broaden your horizons, leave you open to new experiences, get you comfortable with tremendous diversity because you are navigating a world chock full of different cultures daily. That may or may not make you a better person....but it definitely opens certain opportunities to *become* a better person in some ways.
@ElectricMink Oh, yeah, absolutely-- but it's the city that does that, not necessarily the individual person. For instance, my former boss was the kind of person who hated anything new, hated "ethnic" food, ordered off menu at the same restaurant every day for lunch, and never wanted to go out of the 20 blocks north to south/4 blocks east to west where his life was. So he's a New Yorker, too, but he's CERTAINLY not a better just because he lives here.
@SuzanEraslan @ElectricMink [city envy intensifies]
Yup, there's plenty of room for you - you'll be citified in no time!
@ElectricMink @SuzanEraslan Mostly I wish for public transportation and a major airport. Lincoln's pretty cosmopolitan (relatively speaking), otherwise.
Better street food maybe would be nice, though the restaurant scene is 👌
Balancing the scale though: when Kansas isn't on fire the air is clean, and I live in a walkable neighborhood with a yard the cats can run around in.
@emdeesee @ElectricMink I'm pretty sure that ALL national passenger rail is garbage. Amtrak is $$$$$$ and a nightmare, runs at totally weird times, and I feel like there's a derailment every other day.
@SuzanEraslan @ElectricMink The myth out here in the hinterlands is that the east coast routes are awesome and perfect.
@SuzanEraslan @ElectricMink I would happily trade a major airport for a functional national passenger rail network.
Ask me about the time my train to San Francisco was delayed 24 hours (!).